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Croft - Roadsports & ClubEnduro - 750MC - 25th-27th April 2025

Croft - Roadsports & ClubEnduro - 750MC - 25th-27th April 2025

The 2025 season meant little change for us in terms of cars, with just some minor tweaks, with Ryan and Dylan using the KOTOUČ Sequential Gearbox and also sorting a 2nd set of Öhlins Suspension from Mick Gardner Racing. We would be racing in the 750MC RoadSports, which for this season is a Championship, and the Club Enduro Championship races as well.
Videos of the winter rebuild on the TTs is below:


All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.


For the first weekend of the year, we were at Croft for Friday testing, 45 Minutes of RoadSports on Saturday and 2.5hrs of ClubEnduro on Sunday. I was racing solo as always, with Ryan sharing the drive with Dylan on Sunday.


A layout of the Croft Circuit is below. This track has a combination of some fast flowing corners, as well as some tight, technical areas.


Our TT TDIs have a declared weight of 1210kg without the driver, Class A petrol cars can have 300hp/tonne if NA and 295hp/tonne if they have a turbo. We can only have 281bhp/ton due to Diesels having a 1.05 power multiplier. This works out to 339.95bhp on the Championship Dyno at our minimum weight.
So we are ~15bhp/tonne down on Forced Induction and 20bhp/ton on NA cars, which we think is unfair but those are the rules!
The 750MC now uses TSL for timing.

Full Race Day Vlog

We have a full Vlog from the weekend, with snippets of the races:

Testing

We didn't get as much running on the Friday as we hoped, with Red flags delaying most sessions, as well as a crazy amount of traffic meaning both cars only did a handful of flying laps all day, all of which were miles off where we expected the pace to be. Last year the times were in the low 27s or high 26s, and I struggled to get into the 27s at all. Ryan was the same. We were hoping that the track was just slow after some heavy rain, but a few drivers in the paddock said they had done decent times, so I guess we needed to wait for qualifying!

Roadsports Qualifying

With 41 cars on track, including the much slower Class D cars, it was incredibly difficult to find any space. Croft is a good track for overtaking, but there are some pinch points that mean coming up against a slower car can ruin a lap pretty easily.
Traffic did hinder us all at the start, with Bailey in the EP3 Civic setting an early benchmark, before swapping with Ryan a few times. Eventually I got into the 1:27s, but not by a lot. I expected to be beaten, but I think with everyone struggling for space, it was as good as we were going to get. A 1:27.826 was the final time, putting me on Pole, just over two tenths separating me, Bailey and Ryan.


You can see how we were all struggling to string a lap together. I'd actually done a lap 0.008s slower earlier in the session.


The Pole time was swapping between us in the TTs and the Civic, luckily we were on top at the end.

Qualifying Laps

Our fastest Quali laps are shown below:

Roadsports Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:


Pole put me on the inside into Turn 1, with Ryan directly behind. I was hoping for a good start but knew I would be struggling against the sequential Civic and Ryan for straight line speed.


Exactly as expected, Bailey, Ryan and Jones all got much better starts, so by turn one I was in third position. I'd been squeezed by the Civic and inadvertently put Ryan onto the grass. Not ideal!
After some wheel bashing between Jones in the Compact and the Civic, Bailey started to pull a small gap while I was all over the bumper of the BMW. 6 laps in, Ryan got round me after a back marker slowed me up, and he started to bully Jones.
Just as we were about to complete lap 7, there was a massive crash at Turn 1. This brought out the safety car. Ryan passed the lights, flags and boards at the hairpin and did the right thing, backing off. The guys in front did not, and a delayed radio message to the safety car meant it came out between him and Jones, allowing the #236 and #117 to carry on at full pace, while we sat behind the safety car.
We decided to split the strategy, so Ryan stayed out waiting for a wave around, I dove into the pits. We'd lost a lap to the leaders, and a decent position was going to be impossible from here, so we just needed to salvage some points for the championship.
Ryan waited for the wave around, but it did not seem to be happening, so he came into the pits and was back out in 25th position, I was in 19th when I came out, but was up to 15th after a few others did their stop. None of it made sense, and I knew we would not get it sorted after the race either.


So after the pit stops, it was a case of keep pushing and see how it all worked out.

We had to settle for 4th and 5th in Class.


While I was fighting for 2nd place, Ryan punched in the lastest lap of the race and his quickest of the weekend so far, a 1:27.393


Most drivers did thair fastest laps at the start, but I was too busy fighting to do mine, so they were in the middle if I got a clear lap.


It is a case of spot the #6 and #89 on here, we were all over the place!


The statistics show how it all went down, the safety car screwing us over big time.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:


Ryan's lap was quicker than the lap record I broke last year, so at least we salvaged something from this race!


With the 1 point for fastest lap, this meant we were tied in 4th for the championship. Disappointing considering the cars were quick enough to be pushing for the top step.

ClubEnduro Qualifying

Sunday was a new day, we had some good data from the previous sessions so could make a few changes and hopefully find a bit more pace.
Instead of trying to be first out on track like we had done for Roadsports Quali, we went pretty much at the back of the pack. This seemed to work better and I found some good pace, setting a time of 1:27.402 on my first real push lap, which put me on provisional pole.
Dylan went out first in the #6 as he had only done a handful of laps in Friday testing, so Ryan wanted him to get a good feel for the car before the race. This worked pretty well, with Dylan getting into the low 1:28s before pitting to give Ryan chance to do a few more laps as well.
Surprisingly my lap stayed at the top for quite a while, but I knew there was a bit more time, so kept trying to get a clean lap in and would get held up by a bit here or there. The Jones BMW cut the inside of turn 1 just in front of me, pulling a load of debris onto the track. As I hit it, the car slide sideways and I ended up dipping a wheel in the gravel. It knocked the steering a little and I knew it was going to be hard to beat my time with that, so I headed to Parc Ferme with about 10 minutes left on the clock. I then had to wait to see if anyone beat my time.
Ryan struggled for space so didn't improve on Dylan's time, but they remained in P3 behind the Lawton / Blackie E92. Josh was in the car at the end of the session, and went all out on his last lap to pip me by just over 0.3s. A great effort. This meant we were P2 and P3 for the race.


You can see that I only really had 1 decent lap in the whole session, as I backed off to find space if I lost time due to traffic or mistakes.
Dylan was on it pretty quickly and also consistent.


It took 11 laps for Josh to beat my time, almost 20 minutes of the session.

Qualifying Laps

Our fastest Quali laps are shown below:

ClubEnduro Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:


So I was on the front row again, but at the opposite side this time. Dylan was behind the BMW with a TCR at the side of him. Hopefully we could get into the lead early on!
The first round of the season differs from the rest as it is 150 minutes instead of 120, so we would need to do 2 pit stops within the normal time window (30 minutes from the start and 15 minutes before the end). They also cannot be done during a safety car period, unlike in Roadsports.


Josh made a good start and was well in front, but hit the kerb going into Turn 1 which upset the car, allowing me through. As he hit the power, his cold rear tyres caused the car to get another wobble, which allowed Dylan through. P1 and 2 by Turn 2, a great start for us!
I pulled a reasonable gap while Dylan defended from Josh, until we got to traffic and I lost out to Dylan. I was also struggling with the tyres, so I had been on the radio to say I would let Dylan through when we got a chance.
I didn't need to wait long as on Lap 15 I was held up massively in the chicance as I was lapping a Class C car, so Dylan sailed by and I was immediately on the defensive against Josh. I had more or less the same issue on lap 21 which let Josh get ahead.
On lap 26 I noticed a bit of smoke coming from Dylan's car, then he had some limp mode issues which allowed Josh through into 1st position. He pitted the next lap and as the guys did his stop, the clutch pressure plate decided to break, meaning he could not get any gears. That was the end for the #6.
On lap 31 Josh pitted to hand over to Dave, promoting me to 1st again. I stayed out a while then was in the pits by lap 35.


At this stage I was in no man's land, so Reuben and Tye were on the radio giving me the laptimes of the #111 BMW and #23 TCR to make sure I was keeping pace with my rivals. I then pitted on lap 67 for my final stop. The lads did a great job despite being elbows deep trying to get the #6 TT back out.
The #111 had been struggling with DCT issues in the middle of the stint. That seemed to be resolved when Josh got back in, but as we had a battle, he dropped a wheel off the track on the exit of Tower, bending an arm on the rear suspension. He said the car was still drivable, but it was causing the wheel to rub the body, so he was given the Black and Orange Meatball flag, to signal mechanical issues. A shame as we were having some good battles!


The #23 Cupra had taken the lead while I was in the pits, but then came in a lap later so I just needed to maintain the gap in case of any issues. My 5th gear had gotten pretty noisy by this point, so I was losing a fair bit of time by skipping it where possible.
Everything held together and I managed to bring it home in 1st place. A great start to the season for me and a much needed boost for the guys considering how the rest of the weekend had gone.

In the end I had a 27s gap on P2. Had I not been nursing the gearbox I think it could have been more, but there was no point trying to push too hard and breaking something that would end my race early.


All the laps are below. It did not take long to start lapping some of the lower classes, which meant there was not much consistency!


The lapchart tells the story. We had some great battles at the start for sure.


I'd held the fastest lap a few times, but in the end Josh got it!

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:


No one got anywhere close to the 2024 record, and I don't think they will for a long time!


Josh had beaten me to the fastest lap of the race by 0.052s, so I didn't get the full 16 points available.


The next round is at Silverstone GP Circuit on the 31st May for RoadSports and ClubEnduro, hopefully we have more luck on the Saturday and Ryan and Dylan make the finish on Sunday!


Photos courtesy of Jonathan Elsey Motorsport Photography and 750MC


All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.

24 04 2025

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