Mendip Winter Series RD8 – 26/02/2023

Brass Effing Monkeys in Weston-super-Mare today. But cocooned in my Team 80 Fleece, it was worth it for the points. I suspected that there would be a frost or very heavy dew again in the morning, and given how cold it was, that the layback box and general wet or damp setup was the way to go. I was only half right, the first heat was damp, but not as bad as I thought.

Mezzo Silvers on the back and Silver Cut Staggers on the front, were ok once I dialled a bit of Rake onto the rear shocks, but still a bit slidy here and there.

When I took the Mezzos off, they had got surprisingly rounded in the first heat. And I struggled to keep up with Chris Law. So it seemed the time was right to try out some Proline Pyramids for Quali 2.

Wow! All of a sudden, from Oversteer to Grip Roll and a lap ahead of Chris! With that revelation under my belt, The confidence was there to start dialling out rear grip and start lowering Roll Center and Ride height, and go looking for mid corner speed and rotation.

Pos	Car	Driver	Result	Best10	Best
1	1	Alistair Munro	13 / 308.90	23.46	22.62
2	2	Chris Law	12 / 311.44	24.69	22.89
3	3	Stephen Carpenter	11 / 335.03	29.88	26.14
4	4	Zephyr House	6 / 348.27	0.00	49.82

Quali 3 went a bit pear shaped because I lost the battery cover from my Transmitter, which cost me places and on reflection, probably left me struggling to get into the A Final. But given how well the actual car was going, I wasn’t about to complain.

Qualifying – Round 3

Race 1 – 2wd Buggy

Pos	Car	Driver	Result	Best10	Best
1	1	Alistair Munro	13 / 323.57	22.84	22.16
2	2	Chris Law	13 / 325.82	23.96	22.61
3	3	Stephen Carpenter	10 / 301.44	30.14	26.60
4	4	Zephyr House	6 / 334.04	0.00	50.72

Into the finals, and I was looking forward to a really good scrap with Sophie Calder, who is a really impressive young peddler. Sadly, she’s not got the winter blubber I have, and the cold got into her fingers , and sadly, Round 1 went my way at a canter.

Finals – Round 1

Race 1 – 2wd Buggy – B Final

Pos	Car	Driver	Result	Best10	Best
1	2	Alistair Munro	13 / 318.90	23.59	22.69
2	3	Adam Mozes	12 / 302.64	23.97	22.81
3	4	Chris Law	12 / 302.75	23.89	22.63
4	1	Sophie Calder	12 / 321.24	25.72	21.26
5	5	Stephen Carpenter	10 / 302.40	30.24	25.95
6	6	Zephyr House	7 / 329.61	0.00	42.81

I don’t really know what happened in Round 2, except to say I lost focus and got all mashed up in a string of accidents and mistakes. Gah!

Finals – Round 2

Race 1 – 2wd Buggy – B Final

Pos	Car	Driver	Result	Best10	Best
1	4	Chris Law	13 / 315.54	23.47	22.59
2	3	Adam Mozes	13 / 317.68	23.35	22.10
3	2	Alistair Munro	12 / 309.38	24.41	22.29
4	5	Stephen Carpenter	10 / 309.65	30.96	26.21
5	6	Zephyr House	6 / 313.75	0.00	45.17
6	1	Sophie Calder	0 / 0.00	0.00	0.00

OK, reset, refocus and go again for round 3. Boom! Consistant, only 1 little mistake I can recall. Spot on!

Finals – Round 3

Race 1 – 2wd Buggy – B Final

Pos	Car	Driver	Result	Best10	Best
1	2	Alistair Munro	13 / 318.60	23.87	23.18
2	3	Adam Mozes	12 / 311.86	25.26	22.35
3	4	Chris Law	12 / 319.83	25.83	23.47
4	5	Stephen Carpenter	11 / 309.24	27.21	25.57
5	6	Zephyr House	6 / 316.88	0.00	43.40
6	1	Sophie Calder	0 / 0.00	0.00	0.00

Chuffed to bits with the new tyres, that’s going to be so handy in the summer season.

2wd Buggy – B Final

Pos	Car	Name	Tie Break	Points	R1	R2	R3
1	2	Alistair Munro		2	1	3	1
2	4	Chris Law	13 / 315.54	4	3	1	3
3	3	Adam Mozes	13 / 317.68	4	2	2	2
4	5	Stephen Carpenter		8	5	4	4
5	1	Sophie Calder	12 / 321.24	10	4	6	6
6	6	Zephyr House	6 / 313.75	10	6	5	5

So Back to Carpet next week at Cardiff. I’ve already fixed the freying Servo plug that was worrying me. And the new carpet shell is ready…