With a load of 750MC Club Enduro and RoadSports races done, it was time for another BRSCC ClubSport Trophy race in my TT before the last TTCR Round at Snetterton.
Luke Handley was supposed to be joining me again but was away on holiday, however Andrew Dyer and Ross Makar brought their cars. I am using Yokohama A052 Tyres instead of the TTCR spec Nankang NS-2Rs, Dyer was sticking to the Direzza (that will be the mandatory tyres for next season) and Makar was on Yokohama A052s like me, albeit 225/45R17s instead of the 265/35R18s I was on. His looked shiny and new vs my old dead ones. Bilimoria with the Scirocco had finally parted with his ancient Dunlops and had sorted a set of A052s as well, it was going to be spicy!

Last time out in the TT for the ClubSport Trophy, we had a very good result, so I was hoping for the same again.

Below is the layout of the Silverstone International Circuit. It is basically the GP Circuit with the National Circuit cut off. This means they can run 2 separate events at the same time as there is a gap between this and the National Circuit:

For the ClubSport Trophy, TT would be running in Class B - Sport Pro, which is a maximum of 205bhp/tonne with the driver. Class A - Elite is 206bhp to 235bhp/tonne. Tyres are MSUK 1A / 1B/ 1C so I will be using the Yokohama A052.
The BRSCC uses TSL for all the timing info, so the results can be found using TSL link.

Testing

With the race being on Sunday, I did not do any testing again.

ClubSport Trophy Qualifying

Quali was 09:50 so me and Luke were up early to get the car scrutineered, me briefed and then the car prepared to go out. It was pretty warm for an October morning, and the forecast was 25c and sunny all day, more like the middle of summer! Everything went smoothly so we headed to the assembly area with only a few cars in the queue already.
I pushed hard on the first lap to get the tyres warmed up, and had a clear track in front of me (despite a few cars still coming out of the pitlane as I started the lap) so I was on for a good one, but the red flag was out already before I could get through the Vale Chicane. A car had dumped it's oil all the way from the pit exit to the Village hairpin! 10 minutes of cleaning up later, we were back out.
This time I was not in as good of a position to get a clear lap, but still made the most of it and managed a 1:17.02, which I didn't think was bad for my first lap around this layout in a year, and the first time around this in the TT. This put me on overall pole for a few minutes until Makar in the other TT then Bilimoria pipped me by 0.07s then 0.2s.
My next laps I had a fair amount of traffic so didn't improve and I wasted another couple of laps finding space before improving with a 1:16.350. This put me back onto pole for over 10 minutes until the Class A TT of Jones and Rodgers (it says Reynolds for some reason on the timing) smashed in a 1:14.955. I knew I couldn't touch that with Class B power, so settled for 2nd position with a 1:15.799.

I did 3 laps within 0.05s of each other in a row, all of them could have been maybe 0.5s faster with no traffic, but everyone was in the same boat and we all have to find space as well as the time to stitch it all together. I was surprised that Makar was not much closer, but he only had a few laps before handing over to his co-pilot who had never driven the car. Dyer did great to say he was on the Dunlops, and so did the Hayes Class A BMW on Nankangs. If everyone listened to us about A052's I'd be a bit further down the order I think!!

I was almost on pole overall again, but would settle for the class pole and front row.

Quali Lap

My fastest lap from qualifying is below:

ClubSport Trophy Race

The BMW behind was going to be hard to beat off the line, with the rest of the top 6 being VAG cars!

The race was live streamed here:

If I thought my starts in the TTCR at Croft were bad, this one was TERRIBLE! I launched at ~3000rpm, and the car went nowhere! Even with my foot flat down the tyres didn't even chirp, and until the car was over 5000rpm, there was zero power. It turned out the ECU I had fitted (a new spare after giving someone else my spare at a previous round) was coded for a DSG not Manual, which for some reason on these engines, gives you basically zero torque at low RPMs, probably to protect the transmission (as it has a No Communication with Transmission Control Module fault). The issue must have been there since Quali, but I didn't need to launch the car and 95% of the time it was above 5k, so I stupidly had not noticed. Clearly it didn't hurt the laptimes, but I was definitely much slower in the Chicane and Loop section that I could have been with full power at the lower RPMs.
Anyway, because of this, I must have been down to 10th position before turn 1, with a lot of making up to do. Jones in the Orange TT also had a bad start, so Dyer was in the lead along with the BMW and Scirocco. Makar was battling with Jones, and as we went towards the link road to the Hangar Straight, they touched and both had damaged wheels. Dyer had been struggling in previous races with his car jumping out of 4th gear. It finally gave up on the first lap, allowing me to sneak through.
So it was me Vs the Scirocco for the lead. I kept him honest for a few laps, then coming into the Vale Chicane, there were quite a few cars needing to be lapped. He dove down the inside of a row of cars, but I was convinced the MX5 at the front won't have seen him, and I was right, they collided as the MX5 went for the apex, and I was able to take the lead.
From there I just pushed as hard as possible to build a gap, as the traffic was slowing me down in a few of the pinch points, it was easy to lose 2 - 3s a lap if you caught someone in the wrong place. There were also quite a few yellow flag zones, you could lose even more in those.
I pitted with probably a lap to spare. Being right at the start of the pitlane, and not taking the initiative to time the lane during Quali, we had to guess how long to leave. I thought 30s, Dylan said 20s. It was more like 25s, so I was a bit over, but I had a decent buffer anyway.

From here it was just a case of banging in the laps to keep ahead. However, a lap after pitting, Phiroze had a wheel stud snap, causing his wheel to come loose and the brakes to act strangely (due to the disc moving around, pushing the pistons back). He'd had the same issue at Snetterton previously, and almost lost a wheel, so decided to pull over and retire. This meant I had about a 40s lead.
You can't count your chickens though, so I knew I needed to keep up the pace. Due to a bad crash at the Loop, there were double waved yellows from Turn 1 until the Hangar Straight. I lost 9s on that lap as I could not overtake any of the cars in front.
Luke came on the radio to say there were only a few laps to go, so I decided to try and beat my Quali time at the end. I came close, with a 1:15.927 on the penultimate lap, then a 1:15.857 over the line. 0.058s away. Not bad on tyres that have well over 2hrs punishment through them by now!
I'd also got the overall fastest lap of the race, which I was quite surprised with, considering the lag issue. Dyer did great to come 3rd overall and 2nd in Class B, with a missing 4th gear!

My full on board from the race is here:

Most people did their quickest laps early on when there was no traffic to worry about. I'd have done the same if I hadn't decided to go for it on the last few laps.

I'd held the fastest lap of the race more or less all the way through.

Fastest Lap

Our fastest lap from the race are below:

Next round for the BRSCC TTCR is at Snetterton, the final round for this season. Fingers crossed for some decent results there.
Thanks to our Luke for all the spanner work this weekend!
Also thanks to our main sponsor in this car, Partly, who are helping us with fitment data for some exciting changes to the website, coming this year!

Photos courtesy of BRSCC, KRFPHOTO and Mick Walker.

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