Sep
13
Round 7 report – Blyton
number 22 subaru impreza
Round 7 was held at the very fast Blyton circuit in Lincolnshire, the team was well placed for a good result on paper with Simon was armed with the rebuild impreza after the fire at Mallory Park and with a new race engine.
First practice was a bit of a handful with the track still slightly wet and slipper from heavy rain the day before. Simon worked his way round the laps with caution as he gathered data for the setup and also slightly hampered by a misfire to begin with. After a trip to the pit and some setup changes taking place, it was time for the second run, but this was again cut short with last minute drama as the clutch slave cylinder failed as he backed into the pit lane. Simon was forced to miss the timed practise whilst the team changed the slave cylinder and therefore had to start at the back for the first heat. The repairs where successful and the car was ready for heat 1.
Heat 1 was a good fast run and set a solid 36 second lap of the blyton circuit and only hampered by a slight moment at the end of the pit straight when Steve Hill was braking earlier than expected and disracted Simon on the down shift into the braking zone. Simon recovered well and although he finished last in the race, he was 6th fastest in the first heat.
Heat 2 got underway just before the lunch brake and with further setup changes, the car was responding well. Unfortunately on lap 2, Simon clipped a water barrier and part of the broken plastic barrier lodged in the sidewall of the front tyre, causing massive vibration and Simon fearing he had a puncture. Using his racing head, Simon continued as a reasonable pace to set a time for the heat, but didn’t push too hard as he didn’t want to pull the tyre off the rim and retire from the heat.
With the 1 hour lunch beak available, the hortonracing team set to at finalising the setup to the suspension and fixing the issues from the earlier heats. It was found that 2 of the spark plugs had worked slightly loose and was leaking boost pressure past them which was causing the misfires.
With the car in it’s optimal setup for the day attention now turned to heat 3, as Simon formed up aside of Steve Hill and Andy Grant on the front row of the grid. As the lights change, Simon made his best start of the day and followed in 3rd place just behind Andy Grant as they entered the loose section for the first time. Grant slid wide onto the loose gravel allowing Simon to slip up the inside, but the Focus regained grip and was heading into the side of the Subaru going onto the back straight. Simon decided to take to the infield rather than colliding with the recovering Grant and lost time as the Subaru spun on the grass. However Simon recovered well and set his fastest lap times , only 0.2 sec’s slower than Steve Hill and faster than Andy grants focus, but it was all worthless in the end as the input shaft on the gearbox broke on the final corner. The total loss of drive ment the team had to retire the stricken supercar and couldn’t take there place in the finals or superfinal.
After a disappointing end to a good days performance, Simon would like to thank all his amazing team and everyone that has helped over the last few weeks and is pleased we are showing that the pace of both the driver and car are now up there with the best… but we just seem to have run out of luck! As a side note, the team hope that Steve Hill is recovering from the shock and bruises after a massive accident in the superfinal.
