Last weekend was the final round of the Scottish Road Car series up at Kames sprint circuit and this one was a bit of a special one as they had some pro drivers there for a pro-am element of the competition. One of the drivers was BTCC racing legend John Clelland. With a load of pro drivers, Kames usual mix of courses and some very fast machinery I wasn’t expecting much of a result.
So my one target was to stay within touching distance of my main championship rival for 3rd in the series. The Rain was pelting down as well so it was going to be interesting.
The morning started well with a course that was very “traditional Autotest”. It had a load of 180degree turns and my handbrake skills are one of the least practiced of my repotoir. Turns out the Puma is very predictable on the handbrake when you just need a little extra turn in and doesn’t seem to want to throw you in a circle. I ended up about 3rd in the morning with my competitor 2.1secs behind me.
The afternoon course was a LOT more open and more resembled a sprint. The other guy was in a Quattro TT, so although heavier he had the benefit of excellent drive out of the corners and over 100bhp more. I just couldn’t get the power down with the slippery surface but kept my foot flat through some twisty sections to make up some time and the puma handled it beautifully.
At the end of the 2nd course I ended up 0.5 secs ahead and in 2nd place, but there was another course to go and it was the 2 courses together in one big long course. I hustled the puma as fast as I could, but in the end I ended up 0.5 secs behind and got a 3rd place. Because of dropped scores throughout the year, I ended up joint 3rd place in the series and won down to having more wins. :grin:
The only people to beat me had 4wheel drive and a lot more power so I'm pretty happy with that considering I beat a couple of prepped rally cars and some really powerful machinery.
All of this celebration was cut short on the way home by realising that my brake lights were stuck on and only deactivated when I put my foot under the pedal and lifted. Not too big a deal, but when I stopped to get fuel there was masses of steam coming out of the bonnet and the car had dropped all of it’s coolant. I filled it up about 4 times on the way home but managed to get there.
The rear brake lights have now been fixed with some super-glue and a few 1ps. The coolant issue was due to a tiny hole in one of the heater pipes. I put some rubber cement on it from a bicicle repair kit, superglued it and then put a patch on top…… we’ll see how long that lasts.
So my one target was to stay within touching distance of my main championship rival for 3rd in the series. The Rain was pelting down as well so it was going to be interesting.
The morning started well with a course that was very “traditional Autotest”. It had a load of 180degree turns and my handbrake skills are one of the least practiced of my repotoir. Turns out the Puma is very predictable on the handbrake when you just need a little extra turn in and doesn’t seem to want to throw you in a circle. I ended up about 3rd in the morning with my competitor 2.1secs behind me.
The afternoon course was a LOT more open and more resembled a sprint. The other guy was in a Quattro TT, so although heavier he had the benefit of excellent drive out of the corners and over 100bhp more. I just couldn’t get the power down with the slippery surface but kept my foot flat through some twisty sections to make up some time and the puma handled it beautifully.
At the end of the 2nd course I ended up 0.5 secs ahead and in 2nd place, but there was another course to go and it was the 2 courses together in one big long course. I hustled the puma as fast as I could, but in the end I ended up 0.5 secs behind and got a 3rd place. Because of dropped scores throughout the year, I ended up joint 3rd place in the series and won down to having more wins. :grin:
The only people to beat me had 4wheel drive and a lot more power so I'm pretty happy with that considering I beat a couple of prepped rally cars and some really powerful machinery.
All of this celebration was cut short on the way home by realising that my brake lights were stuck on and only deactivated when I put my foot under the pedal and lifted. Not too big a deal, but when I stopped to get fuel there was masses of steam coming out of the bonnet and the car had dropped all of it’s coolant. I filled it up about 4 times on the way home but managed to get there.
The rear brake lights have now been fixed with some super-glue and a few 1ps. The coolant issue was due to a tiny hole in one of the heater pipes. I put some rubber cement on it from a bicicle repair kit, superglued it and then put a patch on top…… we’ll see how long that lasts.
