Tyro - Rnd 5 Frankley
CML/Microtech Racing driver Keith Robertson reports back from the fifth round of the TYRO Nationals.
With the appalling weather we've seen recently the original venue was unable to host the meeting so Frankley took over ? standing in at very short notice. Again there was heavy overnight rain but there was blue sky amongst the cloud on Sunday morning and no more rain fell until I was on my way home.
It was my first visit to the all astro-turf track at Frankley and I was looking forward to the challenge. Not having run my Hyper 8.5 Pro since the last meeting at Swindon I decided to start with the set-up I finished up with there (due to Swindon being mostly astro). With the surface being wet to start with, pretty much all the drivers went out in practice on Ho Bao angle spikes to get the hang of re-vamped layout ? especially the jumps in the back section.
With my car feeling good in practice and the track taking its time to dry out, I left the set-up exactly the same for the first round. Times were extremely close and after a clean run I managed to sneak first in round ahead of Lee Bunker and Matthew Lewis ? but the top five were only split by 5 seconds! For the second round the track was still damp so angle spikes stayed on the car, the only change I made was a reduction of front droop to hopefully dial out a bit of corner exit understeer. Again it was very close on times with a queue of people going quick and clean ? I just squeaked in ahead of Lee and Greg Hill this time, much to my relief!
For the final round with pole position already in the bag, apart from replacing a ripped exhaust gasket I left the car the same, as the sun was now out by the time the finals came round the track would change considerably. An incident with a back marker meant I was third in round this time behind Matthew and Jess Saunders. This left the front of the grid as follows: I was on pole from Lee, Matthew, Greg and Jess Saunders.
The racing in the finals as usual was hard and fast with tyre choice being the big decision as the track finally dried out. The A finalists were looking to see what people were running - it didn't help any as it seemed everyone was on a different type of tyre ? so it was going to need some hard thinking and a brave decision to get it right. I chose the same 'M3' Proline Crimefighters that had served me well at Swindon ? and they were exactly the same tyres too as the wear rate had been so good! I got a clean start as second and third collected each other leaving Greg chasing. He had made a braver tyre choice than me and it was paying off as pulled a fine passing move around the three minute mark and although I hung with him for a while I lost touch after a couple of brain-fade moments.
After the 30 minutes Greg ran out a deserved winner with me in second. There was a real ding-dong battle for third with Marc Knight just beating Jim Davis for the last podium spot. Special mention for Carl Richards who took a fine eighth place having bumped up from the 'D' final!
This certainly makes it interesting for the championship with 6 potential winners ? and with drop scores coming into play now it's all down the final meeting in a few weeks?
With my car feeling good in practice and the track taking its time to dry out, I left the set-up exactly the same for the first round. Times were extremely close and after a clean run I managed to sneak first in round ahead of Lee Bunker and Matthew Lewis ? but the top five were only split by 5 seconds! For the second round the track was still damp so angle spikes stayed on the car, the only change I made was a reduction of front droop to hopefully dial out a bit of corner exit understeer. Again it was very close on times with a queue of people going quick and clean ? I just squeaked in ahead of Lee and Greg Hill this time, much to my relief!
For the final round with pole position already in the bag, apart from replacing a ripped exhaust gasket I left the car the same, as the sun was now out by the time the finals came round the track would change considerably. An incident with a back marker meant I was third in round this time behind Matthew and Jess Saunders. This left the front of the grid as follows: I was on pole from Lee, Matthew, Greg and Jess Saunders.
The racing in the finals as usual was hard and fast with tyre choice being the big decision as the track finally dried out. The A finalists were looking to see what people were running - it didn't help any as it seemed everyone was on a different type of tyre ? so it was going to need some hard thinking and a brave decision to get it right. I chose the same 'M3' Proline Crimefighters that had served me well at Swindon ? and they were exactly the same tyres too as the wear rate had been so good! I got a clean start as second and third collected each other leaving Greg chasing. He had made a braver tyre choice than me and it was paying off as pulled a fine passing move around the three minute mark and although I hung with him for a while I lost touch after a couple of brain-fade moments.
After the 30 minutes Greg ran out a deserved winner with me in second. There was a real ding-dong battle for third with Marc Knight just beating Jim Davis for the last podium spot. Special mention for Carl Richards who took a fine eighth place having bumped up from the 'D' final!
This certainly makes it interesting for the championship with 6 potential winners ? and with drop scores coming into play now it's all down the final meeting in a few weeks?
