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[Race 3] Snetterton 300 (July 2021)

My first solo race!
Full race review

Qualifying lap

Summary

It was a beautiful bright sunny day with temperatures in excess of 30 Celsius! An extra few minutes in the assembly area were excruciatingly hot in the car. Snetterton is a complex 11 turn circuit with a complicated in-field section. However I did manage to get a testing session the previous day. 2×25 min sessions at an eye watering cost of £250 (thanks to MSV) so at £5 per minute I had to make the most of it. Learning a track in just over 20 laps was going to be tricky.

I qualified in 35th out of 47 (8th of 12 in Class C) in a time of 2m21.73s. This put me on row 17 of the grid. The leading Class C car was on row 11.

By comparison the leading ClassC car, Jonathan Packer’s Type R qualified in 21st overall in 2m15.27s.

I finished 31st overall of 39 finishers (9th of 11 in Class C)

Highest position held during the race was 6th. 8th to 9th position was due to racing incident (see video, final corner, final lap)

Briefing

Snetterton First Time Briefing

Qualifying

Snetterton Grid

Snetterton Qualifying Lap Times

Snetterton Qualifying Times

Race

Snetterton Race Lap Chart

Snetterton Race Lap Times

Snetterton Race Results

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The Unicorn! Diff crown spacer.

 

In my ‘Final Drives Matter‘ discussion I investigated the massive difference that a higher final drive ratio would make to the acceleration at the expense of Vmax (down to 140mph!). In that I concluded that the original diff (an Automatic Torque Bias one) would have to be replaced and at almost £1000 with an almost identical one but with a different offset to cater for the different sized crown wheel. It just wasn’t financially viable. Disappointing as it was, I’d enjoy the benefits of the existing diff albeit with a slower accelerating car.

Enter the Unicorn. A crown wheel offset spacer and extended bolts to mate the existing lower ratio diff to a higher ratio final drive. Continue reading “The Unicorn! Diff crown spacer.”

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Weigh in.

Weighed in at 1290Kg; roughly what I expected. The standard car curb weight is 1430Kg but that includes a 75Kg driver and a full tank of fuel (45Kg) so only 20Kg was actually shaved off. Remember that we’ve added strengthening to the rear chassis, added a heavy roll cage and updated the suspension. Now for two separate dyno runs to certify bhp/ton for the different racing classes.

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Roadsports Lap Records

Blue book rule 4.5.3 states that a driver may be disqualified at the discretion of the Clerk of the course if a driver’s lap time exceeds 10% of the 3rd fastest car. Now I know that it’s not rigidly enforced, in fact some racers have never heard of the rule, but I’d like to know what the general pace is for each circuit. Although trying to reach within 10% of the lap records might be asking too much at this stage! Continue reading “Roadsports Lap Records”