After Friday must come the weekend

On the weekend that Sidcup races, there's also a race meet at Sevenoaks. This is done on polished wooden floor using mini pin tyres, so is much more like drifting.

The idea for this type of racing is to set the car up as softly as possible and keep on the throttle to help you get around the corners.

Changes to the car from friday night:

• Laid the shock towers all the way over from the positions of 1 in at the back and 2 in at the front.


• Set the quick roll centres to their lowest setting (1) from their original setting (3)
  
• Remove rear bulkhead screws in the chassis for a little more flex.
  
  

I was placed in heat 2 (of 4) and the first run went very well indeed with me getting 18 laps. There was lots of bashing and bouncing off the barriers though, which didn't really help. Note: This was me bashing and bouncing, no fault of anyone else.

2nd Run: Steve, Charlie and Vince were having a word with me before the heat and said that I could do a lot better in the race, and I DID :) Squeezed out 20 laps by using charlie's advice and blipping the throttle to throw the back end of the car around coming into the corners rather than my usual brake, accelerate technique.

3rd Run: Went out with the intention of trying to do a little better, but noticed that the car slowed a lot compared to the other runs. I thought it may have been the motors that had gone off (needed a cut/brushes etc) but it turned out that I had flipped the front drive belt over. I got 19 laps on 300.something (that meant I almost had 20 laps as 300 is the cut off) so I was happy enough other than the belt flipping over.

Final: my 20 laps qualifying had put me into the B final with Vince, Charlie etc so I knew that i had my work cut out for me. Steve had noticed that the change i made had the camber on the front at a very weird angle... it was positive 4 or 5 degrees. He brought Terry over to laugh at me :) We fixed this and I set it roughly to 2 degrees negative before going out. I had the same "belt flipping over" problem in the final, which meant I only had 2 wheel drive, so I ended up dead last :( I was happy for Charlie though as he had damaged his hand playing Lacrosse the day before and didn't think he'd be able to race. He had also broken his car during qualifying and had to use a club car for the finals. He beat me :) Well done mate, good run !

I must find a way to shim the spool up at the front as I think that's what's causing the belt to flip over...watch this space

Note: Steve's serpent is still for sale, if anyone is interested, contact me and I'll give you details on how to get in touch with him. It's in good condition and nearly new.

Pic of the 3rd Heat about to start (note the interested looks)

Pic from the A Final grid: