British Sprint Championship: Lydden Hill July 13th
The British Sprint Championship was competing in the Ray Heal memorial sprint organised by Borough 19 Motor Club at Lydden Hill on Saturday. The usually torturous trip around the M25 into deepest Kent went better than usual on this occasion and we arrived early to get a good paddock position and allow a track walk, which despite being short, is quite strenuous due to the gradients.
A few patters of rain overnight had us wondering what might be in store for the day ahead, but it was just toying with us, and the weather was fine all day. With scrutineering done and dusted by a very friendly scrutineer who was in admiration of the car, the event started on time and ran like clockwork.
Practice was quite lively with seemingly no start line grip and what felt like it was wheel spinning for ages. Other competitors reported the same. An adjustment of the launch control settings soon had things back under control for the first qualifying run which gave a healthy improvement over my practice time. The subsequent first run off saw another large improvement in time and gained me a time of 67.66 seconds, just outside my personal best for the venue of 67.55, and a 4th place finish, tantalisingly close to 3rd.
The second qualifying run had me inexplicably go slower along with several other competitors. Nothing seemed different about the track conditions. I can only put it down to bravery levels diminishing. Lydden is a daunting track which rewards the brave in certain parts, especially the steep downhill high speed Hairy Hill straight into the tight right hand Paddock Bend at the bottom. Having given myself a talking to, the second run off didn’t go much better but I still manged to finish 5th overall. Perhaps the favoured currently unavailable ultrasoft Pirelli slicks now need replacing, but with what, that is the big question? Investigations underway in that regard.
I still maintain 4th position overall in the championship. The next rounds are at Kirkistown in Northern Ireland on 3rd and 4th August.
A huge thank you to Laser Tools Racing for their continued support and to Daytuner Performance for their fabulous Suzuki GSX-R 1000 L7 engine and electronics package (along with my wife Jane for her understanding)!
