Anglesey, 14/15 July 2007
What the other drivers had to say.
Stephen Oliver
What a fantastic weekend, very rewarding considering the pain and agony of actually getting there!!
I did not have the time to practise at Anglesey so I arrived a total “virgin”, although I had been out at Snetterton during the week to shake the car down and experiment with the different wing settings (making it something less of a parachute after the experience of Cadwell). Free practice went quite well, although the circuit is a lot tighter than I was expecting and suffered a lot of understeer both then and in the first race. I dialled out most of the understeer for the second race but at the expense of some rear end grip on the faster sections – I desperately need to find a better aero solution for the front of the car.
Race 1 went well for me – a slightly better start than I have had so far this season, so I pulled well away from the bulk of the Bs and Cs, but found myself behind Simon Taylor in the widest Civic in Wales! Most of the race was an exhilarating, wheel to wheel tussle with Simon that tested both of us, provided lots of spectator action and was above all CLEAN. The Elise’s superior handling was almost exactly cancelled by the Honda’s superior torque, so when I finally did work my way past it took almost 3 bends to achieve it, with me only securing the position on the narrow entry to the start straight. The time gap at the end of the race does not reflect the true closeness of the action.
Race 2 almost got off to a bad start – I was blocked by Tony Soper’s Harrier and had to lift just enough for Simon to dart through and take position ahead, so I was expecting a replay of Saturday’s race. Fortunately for me, I had a much better restart after the red flag, getting past the Harrier, which left Simon and me side by side through the first 2 bends, and I was just able to make a fairly aggressive move on the inside of the hairpin stick. Simon battled bravely all way through and the gap was only 3 or 4 seconds until the closing laps when he decided to let me go. Great fun!
I go away from Anglesey feeling very satisfied with the racing, but still frustrated at the gap with the front runners in the class – I am probably getting almost as much out of the car as is humanly possible and the remaining difference comes down to power – I only have 200bhp and definitely a road engine’s power band. I also have a seriously aging gearbox that is starting to leak ominously, so I need to fix that before I embarrass myself. It’s time to get that race engine finished and in the car!
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