Following our success in Saturday's Ford Dunton heat, we had decided to trial a new and more aerodynamic 'tail' on Darkside to see if the very lightweight team and the added aerodynamic advantage would allow us to push a little harder and go a little faster!
In addition to the tail a slightly higher gear ratio was also selected, just to see if we could get away with it?!
Following a short practise session the 4 hour race began with Natasha Layley at the wheel. "Tash the crash" fortunately did not live up to her nickname and had a smooth run although Mr Giddings experienced some software issues and spent most of Natasha's drive not receiving any data from the car via our telemetry system....
40 minutes in and the first driver change saw Kirt Cowell (Mr Cool) settle into a steady 10th position and put in some very consistent lap times. Following Kirt, the pit crew of Billy "whiz" Nightingale and Charlotte "full throttle Charlie" Finding, managed a nicely rapid battery and driver change to Ellie Pennick.
Ellie made her debut in Darkside driving very well despite her nerves and putting in the fastest lap so far at 27.5mph!!
Our 4th driver of the day was Liam "Hazzard" Lynch who is shaping up to be a bit of a stig, promptly beating Ellie's previous fastest lap and putting in a very consistent set of laps before unfortunately triggering the new speed trap on returning to the pit lane at the end of his stint. Having been delayed by 2 minutes as a punishment for speeding, our final battery and driver change was a speedy one as Carlos de costa took control and quickly began making his way through the field, reaching a promising 7th place before DISASTER!!
The little grub screw securing the motor sprocket had worked its way loose and poor Carlos ground to a halt and had to return to the paddock on a recovery truck. The problem was quickly rectified and Carlos returned to the track, fortunately having not lost position, and managed to finish the race in 7th position out of 45 cars and completing 94.1 miles, Darkside's highest ever mileage! (perhaps if we had no speeding penalties and no recovery, we might have hit the 100 mile mark.......who knows!)
Our next race is in September (after the summer hols) and is at Bedford Autodrome.
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