TrackScotland

www.timeattack.co.uk

Round 2: Knockhill - 15th May 2011

The second round of Time Attack 2011 took place at Knockhill Racing Circuit on 15th May. Despite being my ‘home’ circuit, there was still last minute panic sorting out the issues from round 1 (loose earth causing car to cut out on power!) and fitting the new K-Sport brakes that arrived on Friday afternoon (front & rear calipers, discs & pads and brakes bled in the evening) before heading down to the circuit late at night for Saturday’s practice. Luckily the weather held up all day Saturday and the car seemed to be running well. An hour tuition with Hamish Smart also made sure I knew how to avoid, or use, the new kerbs around the track. I was ready for race day!

With Adam competing as well, I was determined to do well...I couldn’t let the husband beat me! It also meant that I was driver and pit crew for the day! After getting Adam’s session out the way I was ready for my warm up session. Since I already know the track well I didn’t feel the need to put in lap after lap, I just needed to check everything was running fine with the car and put in an initial time. I was happy with a 59.528 lap and retired until the next session.

We were ‘blessed’ on the day by Knockhill’s ever changing weather and the rain came on in time to get the track wet for practice. I had the same plan for the session – go out and set a good lap. I couldn’t seem to get the times down though and it wasn’t until my 14th lap that I got my time down to a 57.783.

I had decided to get the map changed to the E85R mix so that I could run a little more power in the last two sessions of the day. Unfortunately with the track being wet for qualifying I had to keep the boost turned down (I have learned this the hard way from Oulton Park in 2009!). I came first in qualifying, with a 57.658 lap and top points.

Luckily by the time the final came round the track had mostly dried out, so I knew the times would be quicker. My first two hot laps came in at 58.3 and 57.2, not as fast as I wanted. Before being able to set another hot lap the session was red flagged. I was hoping to use this as an opportunity to cool the tyres slightly and then go out for another hot lap. First lap out and I got a time of 56.900. I kept pushing to see if I could get faster, but it wasn’t to be. I retired to the pits on the chequered flag to be told that my time was still good enough for first place!

Another win at Knockhill....Woooo!