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Now back from the race weekend I have to say this has been the best race weekend I have had in 3 years.
Qualifying
This was the first time the beetle was run in anger on track. The car was quick in a straight line but struggled a little round the corners. I was holding my own around 4th to 8th which was a good first showing for the car. I ended up 7th and the car was starting to show the promise of what we hoped for when we upgraded from the Vento.
I realised quite quickly that I needed more time in the driving seat to get used to driving a left hand drive car. Other drivers were commenting that my lines were a little off to start with but they were improving every lap. I am hoping in time the car will be a real front running car.
Race 1,
I made a very tardy start having not made a race start with the car before. I slipped down to 9th but with some over taking I made my way up to 6th. It was bit of a lonely race as I sat behind Aaron Mason in a Mk5 Golf GTI as I was aiming for pole position in race 2. In the dying laps of the race I did attempt an overtaking manoeuvre on Aaron as Mike Kurton was rapidly catching us. I needed to overtake to make sure I had a front row start for race 2. I missed a gear so didn’t get by but it did give Aaron the hurry up signal to make sure Mike didn’t catch us in his rapid Scirocco.
In the break between races a review of the suspension found the settings were wrong so these were adjusted for race 2 in the hope it would help with cornering.
Race 2,
I made another tardy start but with practice this will be fine. I slipped to 5th but on lap 2 I overtook Aaron Mason for 4th. I held on to the leaders until I made a mistake under brakes trying to overtake for 3rd. I dropped back and was unable to recover the gap. The remainder of the race was lonely as I maintained the gap to 5th placed car behind me.
There is still some development work to be done on the suspension setup of the beetle but in the break to the next meeting this will be checked and refined.
In all this was a very successful weekend and it makes a change to finish all 3 sessions. Thanks to Storm Developments for helping get the car on the grid this weekend and I look forward to the next race weekend at Brands Hatch in September. If you find yourself in the paddock area at Brands, please come and pay us a visit. We will always try and make time to talk to people.
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