On the same weekend as Round 3 of the MSV Trackday Championship (which you can read about here) a special event was scheduled for the Sunday Afternoon. It was a race, combining all entrants from the MSV Trackday Championship that we are in, with all classes mixed together, as well as Class B, C and D from the MSV Trackday Trophy - http://www.trackdaytrophy.co.uk/

More info about the TDC can be found on their website - http://www.trackdaychampionship.com/about-tdc/

Our Ibiza is in Class B. The regulations for the series are reasonably relaxed, so that most cars that have already been used for track days will be eligible.

Throughout the report, we will be describing the track by corner names. This image should help

The grid for this race was determined by the qualifying times set in the previous race, so for us our time from Saturday was used. For the guys from the Trackday Trophy, their times from Sunday were used. This put us 7th on the grid with 2 Class S cars at the front, and the rest Class Bs around us

This race had no warm up / Green Flag lap, so it was cold tyres and maximum attack. Driving towards my grid position I noticed the car lacked a little punch, too late to fix anything now, just don't stall it I thought. (When removing the turbo back at the workshop, we noticed that the VNT had been damaged, most likely due to excessive heat)

The start was not as good as Scott’s, with the Orange Porsche and Blue Mini getting away slightly, but the rest of the field was fairly even, a Mk6 Golf Cup car behind had a little charge past when I went wide on the first corner but then braked very early into Maggots, allowing me back through.

A decent exit out of Becketts kept everyone behind and into Brooklands I was sniffing the blue Mini's rear bumper, I made a pass within the next lap without too much trouble. First full lap being a 1:09:07 on cold tyres showed the car was doing well.

I did notice the white Clio following did seem to come close during braking, so I needed to be a little braver on the hard braking zones.

The Orange 944 had a lockup after the Wellington straight that gave me and the Clio chance to pass. The subtle changes we made to the suspension the night before had helped in the tighter complex but in the faster right handers, a little more understeer was present meaning I went wide out of the first corner most laps.

Checking my mirrors a little too much put me off the correct line allowing the Clio past with the 944 looking for a way in too! The Clio was holding me up slightly at times, especially towards the end of the straights and early phases of the braking zones, totally in contrast to what I saw in my mirrors when he was behind!

While behind the Clio, the Porsche was on my bumper throughout and I knew if I didn't get around the Clio I would end up behind the Porsche. Hopefully he would battle with the Clio and let me get them both, rather than being stuck in the middle. Despite the battling, the lap times were all faster than our qualifying times, in the low 1:08s.

8:50 into the above video (lap 8), I had a strange off into the 2nd and 3rd corners, putting me on the grass and loosing a place to the orange 944 and costing myself ~2 seconds.

The next lap was my fastest yet, so I was trying. Before pulling onto the pit straight I adjusted the brake bias a little further forward.

After another decent lap I was closer to the cars in front, with the Clio and Porsche swapping places at the end of the pit straight into turn 1. I managed to turn in perfectly with the rear end, hardly having to move the wheel to put the car on the apex and exit kerbs.

Another good exit from Becketts put me right on their tails for the braking zone at the end of the Wellington straight. The move I made there looks a lot bolder than it actually was in my head, I just wanted to dive down the inside and hopefully push the other cars wide or just make them wonder what I would do.

Unluckily for me the brake pedal did nothing on the initial stamp with the pedal going straight to the floor. Looking at the data the car slowed down as strong as it ever had done previously into that corner but it took twice as long (almost 1 second) for the maximum deceleration to occur, being a little later and further over to the left I needed more brakes, not less!

Hats off to the Clio driver, as from where I was sitting, I would have just smashed into the side of him if he didn't slow down.

We had to retire due to the radiator being burst, pouring coolant all over the tyres. I knew something was not right when the car massively under steered through the right hander at Luffield.

V3 of the bumper will be fitted before the next outing and the radiator will have some protection too! It is looking like we will rejoin the championship for Round 5 at Brands Hatch, where we will be racing the full GP Circuit 

If you just came here for crashes, take a look at this video here for the race ending off: