We had a mixed bag at Croft last time out, you can read all about it in the previous blog, but Ryan and Dylan didn't finish due to the KOTOUČ Sequential Gearbox causing some serious issues (more on that at a later date).
Round 2 took us to Silverstone on the GP layout. With very little time to get the car sorted, Ryan decided to sit this one out. This left Dylan without a drive, and after much persuasion, I let him share the seat with me for the Club Enduro Championship Race on Sunday, on the basis that he start and pit early like I normally do. I would still be racing in the 750MC RoadSports Championship on my own.

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

A layout of the Silverstone GP Circuit is below. We would also have the sector timing so the splits are shown as well.

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

Only 3 x 35 minute sessions on the Friday meant we needed to get sorted quickly. A few red flags stopped us getting the data we needed, and we were struggling with understeer all day. We made it better but it still felt like we were destroying the tyres. We ended the day with a laptime of 1:19.55, which was quicker than we have gone before, but still nowhere near where I expected pole to be. I figured it would be in the 18s at least.

Roadsports Qualifying

We were out early for Quali, and with 55 cars out at the same time, we needed to find a good gap. The guys sent me out of less than ideal tyres, which was a bit frustrating but I didn't get a clean lap so decided to pit for some fresh rubber and find a gap from there.
As soon as I got the fresh rubber, I punched in a 2:19.182 which was quicker that testing, proof the changes the lads made overnight worked, but it was a country mile off the 2:17.935 that Mauger had done early on in his Cupra TCR.
I thought I had settled for P2 until the Ginetta of Livesley and Bessell pipped me on the last lap but just over 0.2s!
The Civic of Morgan Bailey, the winner at Croft had an issue during Friday testing which put him out of the weekend. A shame as we were doing similar lap times so would have had a good battle!

I didn't get many clear laps, especially at the start where Mauger set the benchmark.

My ideal lap was close to the actual lap, but still only 3rd quickest!

The speed traps were the most interesting bit to look at. We don't normally see this with the 750MC. With differing power to weights, some cars will be quicker on the straights, but we were between 6.5 and 9.5mph down compared to the Cupra, which is of similar weight to us.

The statistics show that Mauger got the lap and held it for the rest of the session.

Qualifying Laps

My fastest Quali lap is shown below:

Roadsports Race

The was no AlphaLive stream this weekend unfortunately!

Row 2 for me. On the inside for Turn 1 at least so I just needed to keep it clean!

We all got off the line pretty evenly, with the Ginetta going way wide at Turn 1. Through Maggots and Becketts they were battling with the Cupra so I sat back and got a run into Stowe. As Alex went wide I was up the inside, but he hung on and had the line into the chicane. I switched back and had the inside for Vale.
I took a tight line as I could not see the Ginetta in my mirrors, which compromised my exit massively. I did not get on the power as I was understeering towards the gravel on the exit. I had a big hit on the rear as Alec mis-judged my drag off the corner. This unfortunately damaged his front clamshell, putting him out of the race. I will hear more on that later.
After that I had to watch as Mauger's Cupra pulled away on the straights. Traffic and Yellow Flag zones made the gap ebb and flow in both our favours. A few times Simon lapped a car before reaching the green flag. He would receive 4 points and a 5 place grid penalty in the next race for that.
We waited as long as possible for a safety car, but despite three yellow flag zones at one point, it never came so I pitted a lap later than Mauger. On my in lap I went through a wall of oil smoke as a Mazda2 decided to expire at Vale. I slammed on as I could not see where the car had stopped. This cost me at least 6s.

The lads did a great job, and with a 10s penalty for his Sequential box, I came out in front of Simon, but we had lost a few seconds in the pitlane. I could see him in my mirrors on the pit exit, but he was much closer than expected. The time lost on the in lap meant I was back in danger.
Pushing too hard into the left hander of the loop, I understeered off the track and this allowed Mauger to pass on the Wellington Straight. The straight line advantage meant it was inevitable, but I hoped to hang on more than half a lap!
I still kept in touch, but in the final few laps, a long yellow flag zone from the new pit straight to the Loop put me miles behind, so I just needed to stroke it home from there.
My full race is below:

2nd was an improvement on Croft at least! The gap at the end was 6.763s but this was mainly due to the yellow flag traffic.

I did managed to get the fastest lap of the race which is an extra point for the championship!
There were so many DNFs in this race, only 36 cars finished!

My laps were not very consistent this time which was pretty disappointing.

Mauger did not string his best sectors together, otherwise his ideal would have been much faster than mine.

There was still a significant difference in speed. We were 10th or 9th in the traps!

The Position chart shows not much changed other than during the pit stops!

The statistics show the fastest lap changed hands a few times. It does not show yellow flags, but there much have been 20!

So I said I was going to mention the contact on lap 1. Alec had watched our live stream and was convinced that I had lifted on purpose. I had not looked at my footage when I talked to him after, but I was convinced I never even applied the throttle.
A visit to the Clerk's office showed this, and the correct decision was made.

Fastest Laps

My fastest race lap is below:

My lap was significantly quicker than the 2019 record of a familiar name, Hugh Gurney, a competitor from the MSV SuperCup Days!

At least I was now in the lead of the championship!

ClubEnduro Qualifying

As I have already said, with Ryan being out, I was bullied into sharing with Dylan. As he'd not been in the car all weekend, the plan was for me to go out for a few laps at the start of Quali, aim to set a banker, then Dylan do the rest of the session with a new set of tyres to get used to the car and track.
A red flag in an earlier session delayed us by around 25 minutes. While we were waiting in the assembly area, the sky was getting darker and darker. I told the guys to go back to the garage and prepare for any changes if it rained hard.
When we finally got out, my VBOX decided to play up, so I had no idea what my lap was, but the first proper flier felt good and the guys said it was a 2:19.410 which I knew would put us somewhere towards the front. It hard started to sprinkle around Stowe so I pushed on to get Dylan into the car as soon as possible.
Dylan was into the low 2:20s right away, but traffic and the slightly greasy track meant he did not find any time. Others around us did, so we dropped down to 5th by the end of the session. It was a long race, so we could make it work from there. Although the gap of 1.7s to the MX5 up front was pretty significant!

Normally you see everyone doing their quickest laps either at the start or end, this time it was random. It was good to see Josh and Dave in the E92 close to us, hopefully we could have some more battles like at Croft!

We were down on the sector times but had stitched them together for a lap.

If we thought our speeds were bad in Roadsports, we were even further behind in ClubEnduro. Between 17th and 15th, over 11mph in sector 1!

With the weather closing in I did a reasonably quick first lap, then the next was decent enough to have pole for all of 4s before the Bialan / Mason Cupra snatched it, then they lost it to the MX5.

Qualifying Laps

My fastest Quali lap was lost to the VBOX issue, but Dylan's is below:

ClubEnduro Race

For our strategy to work, Dylan was starting and pitting pretty early for me to jump in. We were on row 3 this time, but on the inside again which was good.

Dylan got off to a good start. Predictably the Jones / Gadsby BMW was off like a rocket, bashing everyone around along the way. As Jones gave the Bialan Cupra a nudge, this allowed Dylan through and into 4th, but it did not last long as the Cupra had the legs on the TT down the Wellington Straight to take the place back.
Into Copse on the next lap, Jones went for a lunge on the E92 and punted him off as well, promoting Dylan to 4th again. Through the twisties he could keep with the leaders, but with so many long straights, we had no match there.
For the next few laps Dylan had a front row seat of the Compact and Cupra battling away, but could not get involved as they pulled away on every straight.
On lap 7 the MX5 had an issue and pulled into the pits from the lead of the race.
11 laps in, the Compact started leaking oil coming into the Loop and retired. Dylan was now in 3rd and by lap 15 had a 17s gap to the leaders, who were within a second of each other! He came into the pits to hand over to me.

Again, the guys did a mega stop. As I was the first to pit, I ended up right near the bottom and a lap down, but hopefully it would all even itself out when the leaders pitted.
By the time Mauger pitted on lap 34 and came back out, I was ~45s behind. Without a safety car or an issue for him, there was no chance I could catch up. I just needed to keep it clean and stroke it home.
The gap widened to over a minute by the end. The most we had lost by in a long time (when we had finished on the same lap!)

The leaders were more or less battling until the end, and were consistently in the low 19s and high 18s, a pace I had no chance of matching.

The lapchart shows we didn't move much once everything settled down.

I was happy with my laps early on in the stint on decent tyres, but then I was able to almost match the time on lap 41. However it was still nowhere near quick enough! Mauger put in his best laps towards the end of the stint when he was being caught.

On the sector times we were further up than expected.

However again on the speeds, 13th, 14th and 15th.

No Safety car again. That would have helped us massively!

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

The 2019 Lap record was smashed by over 1.2s and will take some beating next year!

Despite the disappointing result, 3rd place puts me at the top of the Championship.

So despite feeling a little frustrated at our straight line speed, we'd come out leading both championships so it was not a complete disaster. The next rounds are at Anglesey on the GP Circuit in early July for RoadSports and ClubEnduro. Let's hope the track suits our cars more! We are hoping to have both cars ready but it's going to be a tall order!
Thanks again to the team for their help this weekend!

Photos courtesy of Mick Walker, 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.