April 30th & May 1st saw the first two rounds of Time Attack UK at Cadwell Park, and my debut to the series driving my MK Indy RR, bringing home 2nd and 1st on the respective days! Here's some of the action from the weekend....
Day 1: We were up bright and early to get ahead of the game as rain overnight ment the track would be damp at the very least for the first session, and with the added pressure of having never driven at Cadwell before we had a lot to learn.
By the time our warm up session came around the track was still fairly wet in most places, so I knew right away we weren't going to be setting any lap records. My focus for this session is learning the track and all it's quirks, and oh boy there's a lot of them.
Session two: Practice.
By now the sun was out and the track had dried out however it was still greasy. The control tyre we're using is the Nankang AR-1 which we had never run before on the Indy so we didn't have much data to go off, we lowered pressures to 18 psi all around for a good baseline, checked over the car and went out.
The Indy handled amazing! It went 1:48.950, which for the first dry session was fantastic. One thing that stuck out to me was the top end power from the F20c was a big advantage on the straits.
Session three: Qualifying.
Now was the time to get serious, time to get my head down and drive. The Indy performed so well that we left the set up alone at 7 clicks of rebound and 18 psi all around. The more comfortable I became the more I could chip away at the time, getting it down to 1:46.271. Not bad but still over 4 seconds adrift of first place.
Session four: Finals.
At this point we had the car dialed in well. It would be down to me getting the experience on track, but with a combination cooling down in the evening and my own mistakes I only managed 1:46.290. Which was enough for second place but still 3.9 seconds away from the win. I hadn't worked out both my and the car's abilities yet, so I was losing a lot of time through turns 1-3 and gooseneck. Time to reset and try again the next day.
Day 2:
This was public day, with thousands of people visiting the track for Modified Live.
The response to the Indy was overwhelming! So many people were in love with the car and I can't blame them!!
Session one.
Having had the chance to take in what I'd leaned overnight I wanted to come out swinging and chase down that win. And that was exactly what we did, posting a 1:44.440.
Finally everything felt like it was coming together, made the decision to run the lightest fuel load possible and it made all the difference but I knew there was a lot more time to be had.
Session two: Practice.
Nothing changed with the car coming into practice, just rinse and repeat. However I quickly realised on the out lap that the track gained a lot grip since the early morning, so now was the time to push. And it paid off, going 1:41.756, just .238 behind my main competitor.
This is what I knew the Indy was capable of! So now the race is on coming into qualifying.
Session three: Qualifying.
Things weren't as smooth coming into qualifying after developing a misfire at the end of practice due to an idle air control valve failure we weren't at 100% but as long as I kept the RPM's up the car could run. And run it did, going 1:41.757 and taking 1st in class by 0.450 of a second, not a lot but it was enough. So from here on the pressure is on to get the car patched up and checked over for the final.
Session four: Final.
I can't lie, I was nervous coming into the final, I knew I had to try and find more time. But with the track getting colder and more slippery by the minute this would be difficult. In the end 1:42.516 would be enough to take home the win, with our main competitor going out to mechanical failure. Not how I wanted it to play out but a win is a win and I'm over the moon!!
All in all I am amazed with how well my Indy handled one of the toughest tracks in the UK with ease, such an impressive combo paired with the F20c, and with more seat time it'll only get faster. I can't wait for the rest of the season!!
Massive thanks to all my sponsors and team, this simply wouldn't be possible without you all!