Jul
15
Round 4 Report – maasmechelen (belgium)
horton in belgium
Round 4 of the BRDA championship so the hortonracing team travel to maasmechelen in Belgium for what was a hot and tricky event. The team travelled through friday and saturday to arrive at the track at 6pm saturday evening, but arrived too late to use the free practise session and set up the car. Thanks to David Binks team for you use of facilities at the track and also providing shelter from the blistering heat (42 degrees trackside) and cover from a huge thunderstorm.
Sunday was slow starting with only free practise and timed practise taking place before 2pm, and putting pressure on the event schedule and the teams getting back to the uk. The team knew we had to leave the circuit by 6.30pm to make it back to the port to get the ferry back to the UK. Heat 1 wasn’t the best run with a slow start away from the line and a small incident with david binks fiesta a the first corner (sorry again) which left both drivers way down the time sheets after the first run. Heat2 didn’t go much better for Simon as he ran wide on the first loose section and sliding sideways into the tyre bail and then hitting the barriers. This badly damaged the drivers side and all the front end of the subaru, but he completed the run to post a time. By the time Simon got to heat3, the car was battered and bruised, so he went for bust and pushed the subaru to the limit and used a few new lines. Heat 3 was certainly the best start of the day with simon setting off with the pack and holding 3rd position into the first corner, but after a scruffy joker lap and also missing a gear on the first lap, simon had to settle for 5th position.
As the event was run to belgium reg, the cars ran using 6 car finals rather than the usual british 8 car finals so unfortunatelly simon didn’t qualify for the A or B final.
“Today was a massive learning curve for me, both in the terms of a new track and competitors and also the fact that the racing style over here is totally different” commented Simon. ” We have gained the experiance now and we will be back next year and be more awaire of what we need to do in terms of setup and racing style”
The car will now be stripped and repaired ready for round 5 at mallory park in august.