British Sprint Championship: John Loudon's Summer Report

Let’s catch up with John Loudon and his British Sprint Championship summer events:

Kirkistown Sprint Weekend – August 3rd and 4th

The annual road and ferry trip to Kirkistown Circuit for the Northern Irish round of the Woodford Trailers British Sprint Championship is always an event that I look forward to.

This was my first time there with this year’s new Daytuner Tuning Suzuki GSX-R 1000 L7 engine package fitted. Previous visits with the previous engine and management package had always had me struggle with oil temperature and gear shift issues. This time everything ran perfectly, and we only had to adjust tyre pressures and add fuel all weekend.

Saturday’s practice had me immediately on the pace and close to the current championship leader’s time. Rain set in just as Saturday’s event was finishing and continued until Sunday morning but was now accompanied by a gusty wind. With Sunday’s event not starting until midday, the track just about dried up in time. Practice and the first run off of the day was just achieved in the dry with yet another 2nd place overall but now down to a mere 0.13 of a second! The second qualifying and run off were in the anticipated rain. A wet track is always an attention seeking experience, but to my delight I managed to claim my first run off win of the season, and missing out on fastest time of the day by 0.13 of second. Three second places and a first place made me the highest points scorer of the weekend and elevated me to third overall in the championship.

Llandow Sprint – Saturday August 17th

The Woodford Trailers British Sprint championship re-visited Llandow circuit near Cardiff for the first time in over 10 years. The last time I personally completed there was in my roadgoing Westfield kit car back in 2016. Just to be able to make the event was a blessing due to my trailer needing substantial emergency repairs since returning from Northern Ireland two weeks ago due to a stress fractured A frame. Thank you to title sponsors Woodford Trailers for coming to the rescue with the supply of parts and advice. What a fantastic helpful company.

Practice brought back memories of the lines, but the corners seemed not unsurprisingly to come up lot faster in a single seater than they used to in my road going Westfield from back in the day. The back straight chicane kerbs also seemed more severe than I remembered. I was however, pleased to not embarrass myself and beat my previous personal best time straight from the off in practice.

Qualifying went well and another huge chunk came off my time. My time in the subsequent runoff came down yet again and I ended up 4th overall, but I was still off the pace and disappointed as I was not where I wanted to be timewise.

Some contemplation and I realised where I was losing time and needed to be braver in a few awkward parts of the track. In the second run off I attempted to put this into practice but unfortunately, I took a little too much kerb on the back straight chicane which launched my car airborne more than was comfortable, and it landed on its front wing with a clatter. Unsure of any damage I backed off for the remainder of the run, and that as they say was game over but still finishing 9th which will by the end of the season hopefully be a score to drop. I still lay 3rd overall in the championship.

Snetterton Sprint Weekend – August 24th and 25th

Scrutineering was prompt and efficient and we took advantage of the sunshine to change tyres to wets for the guaranteed rain that was incoming for Saturday event. We awoke on Saturday to the forecast rain. Snetterton’s track is well renowned for being slippery in the wet. Practice was with trepidation but all was good for myself, but others were having spins and slides galore. Qualifying was much the same. The two run offs had me pushing as hard as I felt was safe in the conditions and I managed two third places, one of which was just 0.06 seconds away from second, and elevated me to second overall in the championship overnight. The car ran perfectly all day.

Sunday was a different game and the rain was replaced by some sun. Slick tyres back on, I had hopes of bettering my PB from last year. Practice resulted in a time which was inexplicably off the pace. I assumed a timing error as I was pushing reasonably hard. Qualifying was much better but still not where I wanted to be, but it is the runoff placings which score the points, not qualifying. Run off one had me inexplicably still off the pace and I managed 5th, and although some might be happy with that I wasn’t. I pushed harder in run off two and left braking later into the hairpin only for the fronts to lock up and I overshot the turn in point by a country mile and had to take two wheels to the grass to get round the corner losing time. I still managed 6th but I was not a happy bunny. My wife Jane reported that pushing the car around the paddock seemed more difficult than usual and investigation revealed that the front brakes were dragging. That might explain something! A remedy is already underway for the next event where we hope to resume normal service.

Knockhill Sprint  – September 7th and 8th

Following on from Snetterton two weeks ago where we identified a sticking front brake caliper as a potential source of lack of speed, as it turns out, there was an even bigger cause going on which wasn’t found until Sunday.

Saturday was the anti-clockwise layout, and started on time despite heavy fog which eventually cleared late morning. Although my times were reasonable, the car didn’t quite feel like it had its usual tenacity. Despite this I still managed two 4th places which I was disappointed with if I’m honest, and head scratching as to what was going on.

On the way home, we travelled via Daytuner Performance in Harrogate who identified two faulty injectors. This has caused the engine to run lean and overheat a spark plug causing the misfire. All four injectors will be replaced by next weekend’s visit to Pembrey for the next rounds of the championship. I still maintain 2nd overall despite the setback, but others are now catching me fast.

My usual huge thanks to Laser Tools Racing for their continued support and for Damian at Daytuner for accommodating an impromptu visit at sort notice and to my wife Jane for her help in the adventure plus a special thank you to those who helped push the car up the steep incline from the pitlane garages back to the trailer park.