Time Attack 2023 Round 1 & 2 – Cadwell Park
Season Preview
Round 1 Warm Up
The first session of the year was a wet one, not ideal but it’s the same for everyone. The plan in this session was simply to shake the car down as it hadn’t been driven in anger since the rebuild, with just a day’s running at Donington park.
Practice
I had set myself a lap time goal of around 1:40 which meant I wasn’t pushing too hard but enough to put the car through its paces, again to ensure I hadn’t missed anything in the rebuild and gather more logs to allow me to crank the power up on the engine. I finished the session with a 1:40.060 which was pretty much bang on my target lap time.
Qualifying
Qualifying is the first session of the year where points can be scored. This meant it was time to start finding the limits of the car. I got a banker lap in straight away. Experience has shown me that it is important not to be caught out. The first flying lap back out of the pits ended up being my best of the session, a 1:38.592. I was struggling with understeer early on while I got to grips with the new setup. Fortunately, the lap was enough to earn P3 in class, a nice chunk of points scored straight out of the traps.
Final
After qualifying we noticed that both outer cv joint clips had broken. After a clean-up, re grease and with new clips installed, the car was ready to go again. The plan was the same, banker lap then push on to see if the lap time would come to me. My fastest time came on lap 3, clocking a 1:38.771. However, while on a much better lap later in the session the turbo clamp failed resulting in a big loss of power. Despite the issues, the early lap was once again good enough for 3rd place.
Round 2 Warm Up
Following the issues in the final on the previous day much of my spare time in between rounds was spent repairing the turbo issue. Luckily, I had a spare clamp with me. I also threw a new pair of drive shafts on the car knowing they had run for a significant period while low on grease. The other problem I had from the previous day was damaged fans, caused by the heat from the manifold when the turbo came loose. I would now have to run the entire day without fans, controlling temps with additional cool down laps during sessions.
Practice
Onto practice, which meant it was time to pick up where I left off in the final on Sunday, to see what sort of lap time the car was truly capable of. I ended the session with 1:37.625 the quickest time I had set all weekend.
Qualifying
After practice, the car was starting to feel close to where I wanted it, just a few little tweaks to be done to get it into the right operating window. Back on track, the plan was just to maximize the time I had available. After the customary banker lap I pushed on with a hot lap followed by a cool down lap to manage the water temps. By the end of the session, I had managed to clock a 1:37.556. My best time of the weekend but still felt there was more to give. This lap was only good enough for 5th in class as everyone had appeared to have upped their game.
Final
My first hot lap was a 1:37.931, followed up by a 1:36.659 which was very close to my personal best at Cadwell Park. After two cool down laps I started struggling with traffic, unable to get a clean lap in. For my final attempt I crossed the line with 5 seconds to spare. Through the first sector I was 0.7 seconds up on my previous best, a few corners later I was over 1.5 seconds up, but sadly on the exit of the goose neck I ran wide, dropping off the circuit and breaking something on drive train, bringing my session to an end and finishing Round 2 in 4th place.
I would sum up my 1st Time Attack weekend of 2023 as a success with many positives to carry forward for the rest of the season and high expectations for future rounds. Next up is another double header at Brands Hatch over the 10th and 11th of June.
