yozef

iTrader: (4)

Hi Chaps,

Back from the European Time Attack Challenge in Cyprus.

An epic week, which has put my team, the Subaru and myself through a though test. Considering 7 days of continuous track time, it’s like doing a full Time Attack championship in one week. The weather did not help either, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius at one point, surprise rain showers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Temperatures sky rocketed on Saturday and Sunday, just when the going got though.
I must confess I was not trying hard enough during the first 3 days. It took me time to adapt to the Achna Speedway track. It’s extremely technical and demanding, I can only compare it to a rally stage. It quickly became evident that my usual clean/smooth track driving was not going to work in Achna. You need to be aggressive whilst keeping the perfect driving line. I had to keep momentum in corners where others were slower to make up for my “lack” of power/speed. This meant hard braking and *****-out cornering, riding all possible banks. In reality I was not prepared to risk that much during testing, as I wanted the car to last till Sunday so my best time till Friday evening was 1:11.7. In hindsight this was probably a mistake because I went into the main event not knowing where the limit of the car really is.
Determined to go all out on Saturday to lock a good time early I did the mistake to set-up the car a bit differently from where I left it on Friday. On the first practice session the car started under steering so much so that I ended up doing a rally stunt on the straight exactly in front of the ex Redbrick Evo, Managed to keep it in one piece but that was a dent in my confidence so early in the day. Anyhow changed some settings again and on the first timed session I was gaining confidence again when on my hot lap the session was red flagged because of debris on the track. Water and oil temperatures were too hot at that point so I abandoned the session into the pits with a demoralising time of 1:12.2. Got ready for the afternoon session and took my time to go out to avoid traffic. Out on the track and again half way through my hot lap another red flag as one of the cars broke down just before the straight. Determined to do better I went straight to the pit lane waiting for the green flag again. I was the first one out and went for it, first hot lap and I managed a 1:11.9. With tyres in temperatures and no alarms from the car I went for the second hot lap. It was looking good, but then again red flag as there was oil on the track. Furious at this point I had to settle for Sunday.
Sunday morning on “new” set of used tyres. I went out for practice just to heat up the tyres and get back in. Not pushing at this point I clocked 1:12.1. Surprised with the new found grip I actually started believing in the 1:10. First timed session of the day, first hot lap 1:11.2 and guess what another red flag on my second hot lap. Temperatures in the car at that point were 102 degrees coolant and 105 oil, with all the alarms playing jingle bells! Not good for another hot lap so had to pit in.
Last and final afternoon session soon came around at 4:00pm. The sun decided to hide for a while and actually temperatures dropped 3 degrees. Some cars in my group at this point had broken down and others were still being fixed so after a walk through the pits I decided to be the first car in pit lane for an early out to avoid other red flags. After talking to the Scooby a little while and getting her permission to go all out I was determined to at least beat the track record for standard body Imprezas in Achna which stood a 1:11.1. Out of the pits and wow only me and two other cars on the track. It was now or never. Warm up lap and go, go, go … with colder temperatures the power seems to be all there so I went for it. Braking later than ever, riding banks and lifting the car on two wheels in some corners it was a crazy lap, I believe beyond the limits of the car. But hey she kept it together and so did I and we clocked 1:10.685. Determined I could do better slowed down for a couple of laps and went for it again on lap 8. Same crazy driving and I was ahead of my best, but on the last corner I went wide, still kept my foot down with the two left tyres on the gravel but lost valuable time and clocked 1:10.761.

Overall I am very satisfied with this experience and I learned a whole lot about the car set-up and my driving skills. I took this challenge knowing the car was underpowered and heavy compared to the competition. Placing 19th out of 26 cars is a good placing for me. The Subaru performed brilliantly. I only opened the bonnet to check oil and coolant levels. Not even one hiccup all week, goes to prove a good build and attention to detail is what you need. Two areas of improvements were evident however. The limit of my suspension set-up and the driver . Physically and mentally in need to be more prepared for such an event, I was exhausted on Sunday evening. At this level I need more settings and configurations to play around with. Guess what the next modifications will be!!

here's some youtube links for you to enjoy.

The Pink Ninja

iTrader: (23)

I thought this got cancelled or was that Turkey?

Nice but of driving by the way

yozef

iTrader: (4)

It was going to get cancelled 3 weeks before but the Cypriots managed to pull it off. Was a great week. Would have liked to see more UK and European participants. We did have Piers Maserati and Phill Glew present!! Plus Hiroki FURUSE the track designer was the race director.