Cadwell Park - 5/6 Jun 2010

[s3swiss]

cheers - got my entry info this morning and Charlie confirms we will be sharing the races although starting about 20 secs behind the English XR2s. Longer qualy session to cope with the larger number of cars.

[Charlie]

For info:
Here is a copy of an email I've received from Kevin about Cadwell Park.

My coments are in Yellow


To: [e-mail]
Subject: Cadwell Park June 5/6
Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 17:56:59 -0400
From: [e-mail]
CC: [e-mail]

Hi Charlie,
BRSCC have 9 entries listed below plus one other car, is that you? We really don't have enough for our own race on a 2.1 mile circuit, the costs mean the club would loose a fair amount of money, and we would have difficulty convincing them to do away rounds again. So I have done a deal with BRSCC to save the club loosing lots of money, and keep our guys racing..

It's a pity so few drivers have entered as I know how hard it is for the club to get away rounds. We would not be in this position if everyone who initially said they'd go had actually done so. It makes things more difficult for those of us who do enter.

The Scottish XR2s will race with the BRSCC XR2s. Our cars will start a minimum of 20 seconds behind the BRSCC cars to avoid clashes, and cars missing competing with their own championship contenders.

Lap times are around 1min 50sec from memory, the English guys will in all probability be faster as they are allowed more mods than we are. We will still be racing to our spec. Assuming that the front running English cars are 5 sec a lap faster than we are then in 15 laps the leaders will be only 95 sec ahead or more importantly 20 sec behind.

All XR2s will now qualify together, so the practise time is extended from 12 mins to 20 mins at no extra cost to our competitors. I await a revised timetable and will put it on the web site asap.. The guys get to race on a great track, and late entries will still be accepted.

20 min qualifying is great news for me as I will not be able to get any pre-race testing or track time

This is a good compromise and we have had to do this in the past to keep our races. Please contact these competitors with the news. If you can drum up any more XR2s it would be a bonus.

You heard Kevin, If you can persuade anyone else to come along please feel free and remember late entries will still be accepted

Regards
Kevin
SMRC


Charlie
XR2Rep

[Catriona]

Well, barring lastminute disasters this weekend will be my first time seeing an away round, and my first visit to Cadwell - very much looking forward to it! Looks like a really good lineup of racing, any latest info on how many XR2s/STs are going down? And any word on the Classics? It'll be the first time I've dragged my boyfriend to a race meeting (he lives a bit far from Knockhill for logistics to work out there so far!) so hoping for a good show to convert him

Best of luck to everyone travelling, I like all that I've heard about Cadwell, so hoping it'll be a great weekend for everyone!

[TheRealDC]

So .. whats the goss from Cadwell??



DC

[s3swiss]

just got home - great track to race at although the BRSCC didn't exactly make us feel welcome - big thanks to Charlie for keeping our race separate from the others. More news to follow I'm sure.....

[Catriona]

Very much enjoyed watching all the races there, looks a fantastic track; that bit where the start/finish straight is right alongside another bit of track going the other way is great in the larger fields - you just don't know what way to look after a few laps! hope it was good for the racers as it was for us spectators, really enjoyable weekend for me

[ianbru]

Would be good to hear some news and stories from the weekend.

Greg

[Catriona]

I'd like to hear more too - I only saw the outside view really, though it looked good! Classics saturday race, the Morgan and TR5 (that pale blue one that came up a couple of times a year or two ago) had a great fight at the front till something went wrong with the TR5 and it retired, John Marshall's Escort tried to give the Morgan a run for its money but couldn't quite catch up, don't remember much else from that race tbh, and I missed the Sunday race.

XR2s, on Saturday ran separate to the National field, had a pretty good race, the two Sleighs and Wayne Macaulay running together most the way, spread out a little by the end (can't remember the exact finishing order - this is why I did not take over writing reports for the site after Mike had to give up!), were a few good battles further down too, so for only 10 cars it was pretty good. What happened to Peter Cruickshank? His car was sitting outside the ICR awning the whole weekend, and I'm sure I saw him standing near it once, but never raced... looked like a little damage on the front end but didn't look terminal so mechanical issues or something?

Race 2 was mixed in with the national XR field and wow, that was pretty mental - I never knew where to look! For all the nationals have more flexible regulations than the Scottish runners, the Scots still caught a fair amount of the national field, probably worked up to about halfway through it (despite starting 20-25 sec behind), and there was a massive 4-car battle between the Sleighs, Macaulay and Russell Milloy for a few laps, really great racing. Not sure what happened in the end but both Sleighs had troubles of some kind, one of them parked up in the pitlane I think (sorry, identical cars, I knew which was which at the time but have totally forgotten now ) and the other dropped back too, think Macaulay won in the end. Charlie had some mechanical problem I think; he was running pretty well but went into the pits for a lap or so.

Don't really remember much else, hopefully others can fill in the blanks - I'm the worlds most useless reporter

[Catriona]

A few videos up at www.youtube.com/user/scottishclubracing - nothing too exciting but gives an idea of the place

[Blair]

Peter unfortunately had an accident in Friday testing that ruled the car out for the weekend. The front end was bent back a bit so even a temporary repair would probably still have left the car a bit dodgy to drive.

[emicen]

Think it was David that ended up parked up. Doogz said he'd had a wheel bearing collapse in race 2 so probably wouldnt have been able/sensible to continue as the brakes would have been binding.

[Catriona]

Aha thanks guys, explains a bit. And Blair I thought I saw you at ICR but figured it couldn't be you since I knew you weren't racing - would've said hello if I'd realised, doh! (I'm absolutely terrible with faces and don't trust myself to correctly identify people so don't like to go and say hello to someone unless I'm totally sure it's them )

Oh yeah forgot to mention the STs, fantastic racing there, Stewart Scott seemed to do best of the Scottish guys but all seemed to run pretty well, plenty good racing all down the field Shame the 2nd race was ended early, was a bit of a hit that orange car took bouncing off the barrier though, can well see why it was going no further, and being parked in the middle of the track there wasn't really any other option. Really wish that series would visit Knockhill sometime, they've got more than enough Scottish drivers involved these days for there to be plenty interest!

[XR2 Baz]

I'd like to hear more of waht happened too....hang on, I was driving! Fabulous circuit. Really challenging and it took me till race two to start getting the hang of the Gooseneck and Mansfield. If only I did a full day's testing on Friday (if only I had a fatter wallet!).

PC was indeed out due to damage done on Friday arvo. He went off at Charlie's and I'm told the car was not repairable in time as the front end was stoved in too much.

We got lumped in with the English XR's for qually, and in short David Sleigh bagged Scottish XR pole, followed by MacCauley, Cope, T Sleigh, Philip, me, Milloy, Leese, Thornton, Emslie.

After much arguement and a bit thanks to Charlie T for his work, we got a separate first race. Long story short... as there were 29 cars in the combined grid Stephen Emslie was told he was first reserve...i.e. he might not get a race, none of us were happy at that and we got it change. Race 1a allowed us to fight amongst ourselves. I lost a place into the first turn off the start to Russell Milloy, and basically had a grandstand seat to watch him and Philip battle it out. Had the occassional shot at passing but very difficult there. Charlie Cope had an oops at Hall Bends, dropping him down for a while but he was nearly on me by the time the flag fell. 6th on the road, David Sleigh won, followed by Wayne and Tim. Wayne was later dq'd for a technical infringement so a Sleigh 1-2 and me 5th.

Race two on Sunday saw us lumped back in with the English XR's since a few of them had broken their cars. We started off the back of the grid with a 30s delay and I couldn't see the starter waving the flag, so I went when everyone else did...or rather a moment after everyone else did! Managed to come on the first corner in 6th and hung on well having a good race with Charlie C and Chris. Wayne soon made his way onto my tail and passed fairly easily as he was carrying a massive amount of pace. After a few laps we caught the tail end English cars and soon found ourselves sliding around on the oil one left at Barn (the last right hander before the start finish line). This caught out Charlie and Chris who nearly took each other out, but they recovered well if a little bent and Cadwell being such a narrow track found it easy to leave me no way past. The rain which had all but gone started getting heavier and as I was now a few seconds behind the two in front with a big lead over Leese, I eased off to save binning the car on the changing track. Tim went off ahead having been taken out by an English car and with a damaged radiator limped round to the finish. David Sleigh then retired with some mechanical issues, putting me back into 5th.

Overall, good weekend but as Tony said we felt like an after-thought to the English cars. Shame really, race two would have been much better if we were on our own again, and I suppose, also if we didn't have rain! Favourite corners...Hall Bends, very challenging and satisfying, Charlies, very fast and long right hander. Most tricky corners, having the balls to carry the speed through the Goosneck and getting Mansfield right wasn't easy either.

Baz

[gallonsperminute]

The most common question asked at Cadwell Park was............. " why does Santa drive an XR2 ? "

Seriously it was a good weekend . I was there with the Sports 2000 brigade and had a great time. We go to Silverstone next followed by Oulton then back to Cadwell. If any of you fancy a change for next season can I suggest having a look at the S2000 championship. Great circuits, costs are low and the cars are quick. We cobbled together a car in 2008, built a new car last year and hope to do all the rounds this season. If we get the chance I would love to do it next year with a 2 car team. Anyone interested?

[Racemania]

Now that a good number of SMRC drivers from different classes have been at Cadwell can you all tell me what makes it so different from Ingliston?
Narrow track with armco barriers close to track, no run off areas in the tight part of track and trees 2ft away from the armco.

I'm told there was a sprint at Ingliston recently so it would seem logical that MSA would sanction racing its just the Royal Highland Show committee that needs to be convinced to move their grandstand and allow us back there.

All we want is a couple of race meetings a year to add variety and keep traveling costs down as opposed to the higher costs of away rounds together with the time needed to get there.

Ali