mervhill
02-06-2008, 16:23
What a great weekend!! Was great to see Windy, Cossie Matt, and GavinR all out in the escorts at a very hot and sunny Pembrey on the Saturday (not so sunny sunday, but stayed dry). We all got sunburnt, and watched/competed in some very close competition.
Saturday saw the first outing for Cossie Matt in his MK2 since the new rebuild, and brand new installation of his Duratec. First runs showed that it wasnt going to be a walk in the park for either Windy, or Matt, as they had a rather tasty MK1 breathing down their necks with a very capable local driver behind the wheel. After the first runs they were all within half a second of eachother, with the MK1 of Mike Griffiths taking the honours that time out, with Windy coming in Second, and Matt just behind, having gone out with a completely new car to him, and new tyres. What it did show was that it was going to be close all weekend.
Second Practice, and they all improved, Matt coming out on top this time round with a stonking 2 second improvement on the first practice, Graham also improving by 0.2, and the MK1 improving by about half a second.
First competitive timed runs saw Matt just on top by a tiny 0.05s margin from the MK1, with Graham not far behind at all, it was all going to come down to the last timed run of the day. They all set off one after the other, everyone listening out for the split times of the first lap, Graham 54.56s, Matt 54.22s, Mike 54.54s, holy crap they're close!! Graham comes flying by and puts in a great finish lap 123.4s, Matt comes by, then wait a minute he's coasting! What's wrong?! In the meantime Mike finishes and puts in a lap of 123.03s, 0.14 faster than Matt's first timed run, arse!!!
Get back to the paddock to find Matt pushing his car back, with fuel absolutely everywhere!! Turns out the regulator at the end of the fuel rail had snapped off, pumping Shell V-Power into his engine bay at high pressure!! Matt said it was the first time he'd been scared in that car, handheld extinguisher in hand pin pulled and ready for action!! Fortunately it didn't need to be used. Car repaired, and running fine again, and everyone/thing in tact, with a slightly heavy heart at losing out to a broken component when he was on for a winning run, we packed up and headed back to the B&B until the next morning.
Sunday morning, and back to the circuit, with good weather again, despite being cloudier than Saturday (thankfully, we were all nursing sunburn by now). Go to get the car off the trailer, start her up, WONT IDLE!! Ah crap, we have a bit of a problem. Instantly we look at the throttle position sensor, being right in the firing line of yesterdays fuel incident, it's prime suspect! Thankfully Steve Broughton and the SBD clan were all there, so we get the car over to Steve and he plugs in the laptop; sure enough, no signal from the throttle pot, not to worry Steve has spares!! New throttle pot on, and a smooth running car again, we get back to Matt's pit and get ready for the days event.
First runs, and again it's very close, MK1 Mike topping them after the first run, with Matt very close behind again, knowing he can go much quicker, just a little nervous after the day before's mishap! Second practice, closer still, Matt only 0.1s behind, with Graham 0.4 behind him. First competitive run, and Matt drops a little, 0.23 back from Mike Griffiths, and Graham still posting very consistent times in 3rd. So again, it's all down to the last run, and Matt pulls out a stormer, clocking the first sub 54 second time all weekend, coming in at 53.88s, with Mike Griffiths best time of 54.17 from the first run being the closest, and Graham coming in 3rd with a great performance all weekend giving away a fair bit of horsepower to both the other cars.
With smiles all round in our camp, after a great weekend, topped with the ultimate cherry being a win, we pack up, and head home with a new 1st place pot in tow.
Well done to Graham for showboating his way around with some magnificent displays of sideways Escort driving, and to Mike Griffiths, who certainly knows how to pedal that MK1 around, he had us all with hearts in throats all weekend!
Congrats must also go to GavinR who had a great consistent weekend himself, coming in 2nd place behind a very useful Lotus Elise.
Below is a video of Matt and Graham competing. I do have footage of Gavin as well, but due to the 10min limit on youtube will have to do another video with Gavin on soon. But for the time being, here's Matt and Graham...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BxSec111VCcYouTube - Pembrey Sprint 2008.
Saturday saw the first outing for Cossie Matt in his MK2 since the new rebuild, and brand new installation of his Duratec. First runs showed that it wasnt going to be a walk in the park for either Windy, or Matt, as they had a rather tasty MK1 breathing down their necks with a very capable local driver behind the wheel. After the first runs they were all within half a second of eachother, with the MK1 of Mike Griffiths taking the honours that time out, with Windy coming in Second, and Matt just behind, having gone out with a completely new car to him, and new tyres. What it did show was that it was going to be close all weekend.
Second Practice, and they all improved, Matt coming out on top this time round with a stonking 2 second improvement on the first practice, Graham also improving by 0.2, and the MK1 improving by about half a second.
First competitive timed runs saw Matt just on top by a tiny 0.05s margin from the MK1, with Graham not far behind at all, it was all going to come down to the last timed run of the day. They all set off one after the other, everyone listening out for the split times of the first lap, Graham 54.56s, Matt 54.22s, Mike 54.54s, holy crap they're close!! Graham comes flying by and puts in a great finish lap 123.4s, Matt comes by, then wait a minute he's coasting! What's wrong?! In the meantime Mike finishes and puts in a lap of 123.03s, 0.14 faster than Matt's first timed run, arse!!!
Get back to the paddock to find Matt pushing his car back, with fuel absolutely everywhere!! Turns out the regulator at the end of the fuel rail had snapped off, pumping Shell V-Power into his engine bay at high pressure!! Matt said it was the first time he'd been scared in that car, handheld extinguisher in hand pin pulled and ready for action!! Fortunately it didn't need to be used. Car repaired, and running fine again, and everyone/thing in tact, with a slightly heavy heart at losing out to a broken component when he was on for a winning run, we packed up and headed back to the B&B until the next morning.
Sunday morning, and back to the circuit, with good weather again, despite being cloudier than Saturday (thankfully, we were all nursing sunburn by now). Go to get the car off the trailer, start her up, WONT IDLE!! Ah crap, we have a bit of a problem. Instantly we look at the throttle position sensor, being right in the firing line of yesterdays fuel incident, it's prime suspect! Thankfully Steve Broughton and the SBD clan were all there, so we get the car over to Steve and he plugs in the laptop; sure enough, no signal from the throttle pot, not to worry Steve has spares!! New throttle pot on, and a smooth running car again, we get back to Matt's pit and get ready for the days event.
First runs, and again it's very close, MK1 Mike topping them after the first run, with Matt very close behind again, knowing he can go much quicker, just a little nervous after the day before's mishap! Second practice, closer still, Matt only 0.1s behind, with Graham 0.4 behind him. First competitive run, and Matt drops a little, 0.23 back from Mike Griffiths, and Graham still posting very consistent times in 3rd. So again, it's all down to the last run, and Matt pulls out a stormer, clocking the first sub 54 second time all weekend, coming in at 53.88s, with Mike Griffiths best time of 54.17 from the first run being the closest, and Graham coming in 3rd with a great performance all weekend giving away a fair bit of horsepower to both the other cars.
With smiles all round in our camp, after a great weekend, topped with the ultimate cherry being a win, we pack up, and head home with a new 1st place pot in tow.
Well done to Graham for showboating his way around with some magnificent displays of sideways Escort driving, and to Mike Griffiths, who certainly knows how to pedal that MK1 around, he had us all with hearts in throats all weekend!
Congrats must also go to GavinR who had a great consistent weekend himself, coming in 2nd place behind a very useful Lotus Elise.
Below is a video of Matt and Graham competing. I do have footage of Gavin as well, but due to the 10min limit on youtube will have to do another video with Gavin on soon. But for the time being, here's Matt and Graham...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BxSec111VCcYouTube - Pembrey Sprint 2008.