- A busy start as viewed from a car starting just behind Mike. This driver Andrew Tsang, overtook Mike into the first bend, you see him to the right and they both got through the crash together. Mike then tailed him for the rest of the race, his shorter Peogoet 106 Rallye gearbox being better off the line, and generally more suited to this circuit, as he could use all five gears. Mike never got into 5th as the Saxo box pulls to 110 mph in 4th, which was fast enough, but could have done with the closer matched gear set of the Rallye that most ran.
Following a successful test at Mallory on Wednesday, Mike drove to Rowrah Thursday evening with Milan his Rotax driver and gained good practice on Friday and Saturday and a few races Sunday in readiness for next month's Super 1.
Sunday evening was spent driving down from the almost the Scotish border, to Bath in the south, ready for signing on at 7.30am for the first outing in Stock Hatch for 2009. It was the first time Mike had seen the circuit and the first time the car had been in competition. The lap record was just under 1 minute 25 seconds, and within 8 laps of qualifying on a foggy track at 9am with 60 drivers entered, Mike managed a best lap of 1.26 dead, gridding him 18th in the first heat.
Some four hours later and with 42 cars gathered round him, trailing back round Camp corner, Mike fluffed his start!. Bogging the car down he managed to get passed by most of the field, six of which then decided to take each other out at the first bend right in front of him. The Safety car slowed the field, but on the restart, the front of the field sped away, leaving Mike to catch up over 15 places and getting back to 19th before the six laps expired.
Placed towards the back of the final grid, another four hours later, the race made a couple of attempts to start but yet again accidents called out the safety car, so from whwre he started, placed back in 36th on the grid, Mike only managed to pass 10 cars in the limited time available.
Conclusions to be drawn were that initially the standard rev limit of 6500 was hampering him, so it was raised withing the ECU to cut out at 7200 giving him the exra urge at the end of the straights without changing up. The engine ran well considering it had a standard exhaust still fitted. Having purchased a Custom Chrome system that will now be fitted and tested before the next round at Cadwell Park in May. The car also needs to be lowered at the front to assist the turn in. as it sits 30mm higher than the allowed ride height limit. Finally Mike and the car were 40kg over the minimum weight. Such a burden is too much to give away, so a smaller and repositioned alloy tank is one option for next time.
As always, Mike was disappointed not to have made more of an impact, but compared to last years champion, who was also running 40kg more lead as a winning penalty, Mike was not far short of his pace in the final, so plenty of positives to take from the meeting, the main one being to get the car back in one piece, unlike Carl Swan from Rugby - check this out, with Mike just avoiding the action!
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