Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

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Crunchie Gears
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Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:52 am

What a fun weekend :D

Lee Gavins and I entered a new series run by BRSCC, the Club Sport Trophy. It is an all comers series with four classes based on bhp/ton so there were a wide variation in cars on the grid. For example Sierra Cosworth, Porsche 911, various fwd hatches, BMW compact, MX5 and so on.

There was a full grid of 34 cars. The race is a semi endurance race of 45 minutes with a mandatory 2 minute pit stop (driver change optional).

Some firsts for the team:

1. New Morgan’s first race.
2. Lee’s first race.
3. My first standing start.

What can go wrong :? :?

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Wingco
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Wingco » Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:12 pm

All sounds very interesting Graham, so how did you two get on ?
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby leegav » Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:54 pm

Wish I could write a long reply (which I did) but the website crashed and it disappeared... :?: :?: :roll:
We had a ball and had a couple of offs... set up and driver error to blame..
Me and Paul have a new area at brands called car 61 wall! :lol:
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Nash » Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:40 pm

Having spent a few hours with the chaps at Brands during Friday testing I cam confirm it was not the best day to test (learn) all the new things, car, track, set up, running in a crowd. Real baptism of fire!

I look forward to Paul's report
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Matth93 » Mon Jul 29, 2019 6:44 am

It sounds like you enjoyed it and hopefully learnt a bit for the next one

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Crunchie Gears
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:20 am

I have written a post but lost it too so I will copy this one before I post it.

Friday practice started well with Lee taking the first session. Well at least in the garage as he fitted in the car and so forth. Pulling out of the garage coincided with the opening of the heavens and a major thunderstorm. :lol: :lol: It made me laugh as Lee did his first drive in the car and round Brands without being able to see, the Brooklands screen was covered in water, cold tyres and the car setup on a knife edge :evil: :evil:

Fortunately they red flagged the session, not before Lee was drenched, and rescheduled the the day; they did the same three times during the day due to the rain.

Lee did the next two sessions and then clearly wanting to get me wet said I should go out. I did a couple of laps and came in to have the Brooklands screen removed. Out again and it was much better, I could see.

I thought I was beginning to get to the limit of the grip with the car sliding but OK. I then started to push and on the exit to Druids got on the power too soon and could not catch it. It did a very slow 90 degree spin and then into the barrier on the infield. I could have sworn :roll: :roll:

Fortunately, it was very gentle and just bent the front wing on to the tyre and raised it six inches.

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Crunchie Gears
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:02 am

Great work from Dave, one of the PT team, got the front end looking like a Morgan again for the final session of the day. Lee and I shared the session and for me it was damage limitation :? :lol: :lol:

So Lee did really well. He did most of the driving and in the worst weather and kept it on the track :oops: :oops: I on the other hand was really annoyed with myself.

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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:25 am

Race day and the weather had not improved much!

We changed a few things as Lee was going out first for practice and do his three laps and hand it over to me to do three laps and then get a time. In only 20 minutes it was going to be tight.

After the driver’s briefing we realised we might get weighed at the end of qualifying so we swopped over. I did my three laps and came it for Lee. Lee was out and then did not come round on the third of his laps :? He came in after a visit to the barrier for the rear of the car. :(

He had to go out again with the damage to get his laps in and make sure we were in the race.

Dave then got to work on the repair and Ian and I went to Brands Hatch Morgan (BHM) for parts. BHM were brilliant and found us enough to have a car on the grid. When we arrived back Dave had already fixed the car. He had welded the exhaust and replaced the lights with some salvaged from the trailer :D :D Good work.

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Crunchie Gears
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Mon Jul 29, 2019 11:03 am

Due to the lack of understanding and limited laps we qualified 32 out of 34. :oops:

That said,I was happy to have no pressure on the start as it was my second ever start and first static start. I got advice from Ian Payne, "Start like Miss Daisey and short shift to second and third. Waiting for the lights to change pull off slow and into second. There was no rush as it took forever for the field to get moving in the wet. I went wide but no gaps at Paddock Hill just a queue. Managed to take a few round the ourside at Druids and another at Graham Hill Bend THIS IS FUN :D :D :D got one or two most laps many into Surtees.

It was 11 minutes before the safety car came out and I was racing a Porsche 911 cornering faster but having trouble with passng as it was quick down the straight. I was up to P17 and well into the top ten for lap time.

A couple of laps behind the SC and the pitstop window opened. One lap more and in for the pit stop in P7 (OK 10 cars had stopped for their pit stop) which was pretty awesome.

Now over to Lee :D

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Crunchie Gears
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Re: Wet W/E at Brands. Hi and Lo lights

Postby Crunchie Gears » Mon Jul 29, 2019 12:46 pm

here is my stint in the race:

https://youtu.be/2KNpkZDqI8g


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