TYRO National Round 3 ? Dartford
CML/Microtech Racing driver Keith Robertson reports back from the third round of the TYRO Nationals hosted by Dartford Race Track.
As with the previous meeting a fortnight ago, the weather hadn?t been good in the lead up to the event but despite driving through the spray on the M4 the venue was dry, the sun was out and the wind was blowing ? and boy was the wind blowing!
The track was pretty similar to Grantham last time out with a dirt surface, the top layer this time though being very loose in places and the dust that was kicked up during the day was a real problem for drivers and pit crew alike ? many people were to be found wearing ski-goggles to try and keep the dust out! The layout had plenty of jumps and bumps with a tricky double after the main straight which could be taken as one but the drivers soon learned that it was too difficult to do consistently ? so two singles it was. Overall with both fast and slow sections, a well set-up car would certainly be needed.
After showing good car speed at the previous event I started practice with my usual base set-up on my Hyper 8.5 Pro. It felt good with Pro-line M2 Crime Fighters fitted but with a little too much bouncing around ? which a change back to the beige kit springs quickly helped sort. After a fitting a new air filter to get rid of the muck, the first round of qualifying saw the grip level change slightly leaving my car feeling a little loose but sixth overall was a good start. A minor adjustment to my RB WS 7 III was made, leaning it off a bit to help on pick up and it worked a treat.
The second round saw a change of tyres to Pro-line Bowties in M3 to better suit the conditions. A consistent run with the increase in grip a noticeable improvement saw me take the fastest time in the round. With the car responding well but still feeling a little hard a subtle change to a softer 2.6mm rear roll bar helped out and I took second in the final round after losing some time following an incident with another car. This was enough to make second overall, only missing out on pole position on fastest time.
The final saw Marc Knight, myself and Jess Saunders get away from the pack and set a pretty quick pace. I settled into a nice rhythm and took the lead on the ninth lap which I held until the end of the thirty minutes to take the win. Jess finished second to make it a Ho Bao Hyper 1-2.
Final positions:
1 Keith Robertson 44 laps - 30m 33.11
2 Jess Saunders 43 laps - 30m 12.78
3 Scott Michael 43 laps - 30m 31.79
4 Marc Knight 43 laps - 30m 45.33
5 Richard Palmer 42 laps - 30m 20.41
6 Bryan Burrows 41 laps - 30m 4.54
7 Jim Davis 41 laps - 30m 13.07
8 Simon Tooley 41 laps - 30m 32.60
9 Robert Cork 40 laps - 30m 9.57
10 Pete Stevens 39 laps - 30m 5.16
11 Neil Saunders 37 laps - 29m 28.30
12 Steve Webb 34 laps - 28m 9.02
13 Andrew Webb 33 laps - 24m 58.17
14 Reece Asby 13 laps - 9m 30.64
Thanks to the Dartford club for a fine days racing ? next time out is Swindon in four weeks time.
After showing good car speed at the previous event I started practice with my usual base set-up on my Hyper 8.5 Pro. It felt good with Pro-line M2 Crime Fighters fitted but with a little too much bouncing around ? which a change back to the beige kit springs quickly helped sort. After a fitting a new air filter to get rid of the muck, the first round of qualifying saw the grip level change slightly leaving my car feeling a little loose but sixth overall was a good start. A minor adjustment to my RB WS 7 III was made, leaning it off a bit to help on pick up and it worked a treat.
The second round saw a change of tyres to Pro-line Bowties in M3 to better suit the conditions. A consistent run with the increase in grip a noticeable improvement saw me take the fastest time in the round. With the car responding well but still feeling a little hard a subtle change to a softer 2.6mm rear roll bar helped out and I took second in the final round after losing some time following an incident with another car. This was enough to make second overall, only missing out on pole position on fastest time.
The final saw Marc Knight, myself and Jess Saunders get away from the pack and set a pretty quick pace. I settled into a nice rhythm and took the lead on the ninth lap which I held until the end of the thirty minutes to take the win. Jess finished second to make it a Ho Bao Hyper 1-2.
Final positions:
1 Keith Robertson 44 laps - 30m 33.11
2 Jess Saunders 43 laps - 30m 12.78
3 Scott Michael 43 laps - 30m 31.79
4 Marc Knight 43 laps - 30m 45.33
5 Richard Palmer 42 laps - 30m 20.41
6 Bryan Burrows 41 laps - 30m 4.54
7 Jim Davis 41 laps - 30m 13.07
8 Simon Tooley 41 laps - 30m 32.60
9 Robert Cork 40 laps - 30m 9.57
10 Pete Stevens 39 laps - 30m 5.16
11 Neil Saunders 37 laps - 29m 28.30
12 Steve Webb 34 laps - 28m 9.02
13 Andrew Webb 33 laps - 24m 58.17
14 Reece Asby 13 laps - 9m 30.64
Thanks to the Dartford club for a fine days racing ? next time out is Swindon in four weeks time.
