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Curborough Sprint, September 26th 2004
With the Fiesta XR2 sidelined by the chronic vibration that started at Loton the previous weekend, rather than forefeit the entry fee for the Curborough Sprint, I thought I may as well have one last crack at the Midlands circuit by entering the tow car. I've lost my chance of beating my counterpart in Sports Libre, by scoring a duck at Loton, so with the pressure off, I was quite looking forwards to the day. At signing on though, the organisers deemed the car wasn't Sports Libre and moved me in to 1C (Roadgoing > 2000cc). I argued that the car was eligible (you may as well throw the rule book away for Sports Libre as almost anything goes) but they decided otherwise. So I was up against an EVO5, Lancia Delta Integrale, Ferrari F355, a TVR3000M, and a really pretty Renault Alpine Turbo. I was going to have my work cut out. As I had four wheel drive, 2.8 litres, and 30 valves, I was hoping to wrestle my Audi A6 in sub-40 seconds. The weather forecast was ideal, sunny, dry and quite warm. Very lucky considering the event was at the end of September.
First practice I recorded my quickest 60 foot time. I'd not practised launching a four wheel drive car before, so I gave it 3000rpm and dumped the clutch, and the Quattro just took off. The problem with my non-turbo charged engine is that the power then falls off, and so you just have to keep the throttle pedal stuck to the floor, and wait for the engine to accelerate round to 6000rpm. The Mitsubishi EVO5 though was very spectacular to watch. It just lit up all four wheels, and dissappeared down the track, with the Turbo pushing the engine up through the revs. Even so, I managed to do a 2.61 60ft time, which is only 0.05 slower than my quickest ever launch in the Fiesta (2.54s) so it was a promising start. Common sense prevailed though, and I decided against maintining the brutal start technique, to preserve my drivetrain.
I steadily improved my times. There were four runs in total, though the organisers were allowing competitors a chance for a fifth run, I didn't bother, as I was just there for my fourth and final signature on my competition license, which I duly obtained. This means I can now upgrade my license from Non-Race National B to Speed A Open for next season, which means I'll be allowed to run an engine > 2.0 in the Fiesta.
The Audi A6 is very neutral to drive at the limit in the dry (not so in the wet, its a real handful!). I could use every last inch of all of the kerbs, allowing the car to drift from one corner to the next. There was a little understeer round the final right hander, but as it has four wheel drive, the nack is to push the throttle pedal to the floor, and allow the car to pull itself round the corner under power. It could really do with losing some weight, or maybe a gain of about 100 BHP of more, to make it more competitive. The disadvantage of having four wheel drive is that the car is not allowed to run in the SC class for Standard Cars over 2.0L. It is deemed to be an unfair advantage, so 4WD is banned from Standard Classes. It was nice to queue up with a car with air conditioning, though I did switch it off before commencing each run. You miss these creature comforts in the Fiesta!
My times were as follows:
42.50s 1st practice
41.57s 2nd practice
41.32s 1st timed
41.12s 2nd timed
Result: 6th in class 1C
Weather: Dry and sunny, approx 21° C
Tyre pressures were 34.5psi [F] 34 [R]
Tyres: Pirelli P6000 all round
Fuel: Shell Optimax Super Unleaded
Pictures from the event
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