Apologies for the late Blog again, we have been back to back with the 750MC Club Enduro , RoadSports, BRSCC Audi TT Cup Racing, and ClubSport Trophy , as well as a trip to Idiada in Spain to test some tyres (more on that soon!), so I have not had much time to get these Blogs sorted.
I would be back for the CST with Luke Handley joining me, with the hope that I had finally found the missing power that seemed to have been plaguing me. We had gone all over the place with setup to try and fix what looks like a cracked Turbo manifold issue reducing the power by ~20bhp compared to the others.

Last time out in the TT was a bit of a nightmare - you can read about it all below:

A layout of the Silverstone National Circuit is below. Some people call it the magic triangle. It looks a pretty straightforward, but it is an incredibly difficult circuit to master and the laps just keep coming, with an expected laptime of just over 60 seconds.

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 instead of the TTCR spec Nankang NS-2Rs.
The BRSCC uses TSL for all the timing info, so the results can be found using TSL link.

Testing

With the races all being on Sunday, I did not do any testing, instead using the WSSCC Races as testing instead.

Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship - Qualifying

There was not much in the way of competition in this championship, so I had chosen to use these races as a test for the Yokohama A052 vs the AD09 in a race setting. The weather looked like it was going to be dry most of the time, so it should be the perfect opportunity to do so.
Having never driven the TT around this layout of Silverstone, I was happy to be into the 1:07s on my first flying lap, then into the 1:06s as I got into the groove and I managed a 1:05.864 just before the end of the session. I figured that sort of pace should have been decent in the ClubSport Trophy later on. This was done on the A052s. My plan was to do all the Quali sessions on these, plus Race 1, then swap to the AD09s for Race 2.

You can see the laps were just getting better as I found the groove, mainly into Becketts and onto the Wellington Straight, as that is the only corner we don't do on the GP layout.

The sector times were as expected in relation to the other cars. It will be interesting to compare with the AD09s later.

Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship - Race 1

With such a wide range of cars, I was racing the stopwatch not anyone else, so I concentrated on getting some good laps in.

The laps seemed pretty consistent for what we expect from the A052s, you can't just hammer them constantly, letting them cool just a fraction helps, so I was pleased with a 1:05.739 on the last lap after 15 minutes of beating.

The race was live streamed here:

Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship - Race 2

The WSSCC Race was after ClubSport Trophy Qualifying, but for the purposes of comparison, I will put it here. This time I swapped to the AD09s, and it was instantly clear that they did not have as much peak grip, but they felt much stiffer and the steering more precise with them compared to the A052s.
I knew they would be slower than the A052s over a lap, I'd done a 1:05.739 on the 52s and did a 1:06.351 on the AD09s.

They were also more consistent over the race, with more times closer to the best than the A052s. If you compare the sectors as well, most of the time was lost in Sector 3 (27.065 vs 26.685) which is the slower and more grip limited Brooklands and Luffield.

The race was live streamed here:

A052 vs AD09 Comparison

Doing 2 back to back races on different tyres is something I have wanted to do for a long time. All the details and data are below

Weather - Dry and mainly bright all day
Temperature - ~20-25c

Vehicle - Audi TTCR 8J 2.0 TFSI -
Weight - 1280kg
Power - 260bhp

Tyre Specs - 265/35R18 on 18x10” ET36 Wheels
Tyre Condition - Both sets were well used but with plenty of tread available

The data below is taken from the Performance Box installed in the car for logging purposes. It gives the lap time and delta to the driver instantly, then you can compare laps and G Force with the Circuit Tools Software once back at the pits.
It is clear from the times below that the A052 were quicker overall, with 9 of the 16 laps faster than the quickest time on the AD09s.

The graph view with Speed and Delta as well as G Trace for both fastest laps (A052 in Red, AD09 in Blue) show that they were pretty similar into the fast Turn 1, but once we were into the more grip limited section of the track, the A052 is able to carry more speed with higher G.

When overlaying the Peak G, you can see that is is mainly in the Lateral plane where the time comes from.

Overall this is what we expected. From a subjective point of view, the AD09 'feels' more direct through the steering wheel, most likely due to the much stiffer sidewall structure. The A052 feels softer but does not seem to slide as much. The A052 does make more noise, and sounds like you are destroying them at certain points, but from our testing, on a well set up car, you can get 2 hours of constant running from them at most circuits.
Our experience with the A052s has also taught us that you need much more camber on the front axle than with other tyres, to prevent them from wearing the outer edge before the rest of the tyre. How much would need some testing with tyre temp probes and closely monitoring wear.
In wet conditions, we have yet to test the AD09s thoroughly, but we are sure they are not as good as the A052, which is phenomenal in even monsoon conditions. A few of the guys here have AD09s on their road going track cars, and have said they do not handle standing water too well.

ClubSport Trophy Qualifying

I went straight from the WSSCC Race 1 into CST Quali, literally going straight down the pitlane and waiting at the end. for the session to start. This meant the tyres were well warmed up, and I had to wait for everyone to go past before I could leave. Not ideal normally, but I was able to find space to do 1 flying lap, a 1:05.736, which was 0.003s faster than the 1:05.739 I had done on the final lap in the previous session.
Luke Handley had shown up in his TTCR, and we'd had a gentleman's agreement to use our old tyres for this round. He showed up with 6 brand new ones, so I was on the back foot already. He pipped me by 0.121s. How annoying!

After my first lap, I had an absolute nightmare trying to find space to get another flier in. My ideal time would have got me pole, but Luke's was 0.1s faster also, so he needed to stitch it together too.

I was stronger in sector 1, but he just had me in Sector 2 and 3, I am sure the new tyres were helping, especially in sector 3.

I held pole for 7 laps, but it was not meant to be.

Qualifying was live streamed here:

ClubSport Trophy Race

I was a row behind Luke, with Class A Cars in front and to my right. It was going to be hard work keeping them behind on the long straights.

I had a great start in relation to the Jones / Rodgers Golf ahead, was squeezed towards the wall but still kept the position. I was right on Luke's tail then went for the outside at Becketts. It didn't work and I lost out to Phiroze and Jones in the Golf. I got back past at Brooklands but the speed in a straight line was far superior for the Golf, and he sailed past. I was much quicker in the corners but could not get past. It stayed this way for quite a while, and I could see I was losing ground to Luke as every lap ticked by.
We hit traffic and I was able to take advantage and pass the Golf, and set about catching Luke, but he just about had the pace on me. We pitted on the same lap with not much between us.
Luke went early then crept down the pitlane, ensuring that I could not jump him in the pits. Our stop times were pretty close, so now it was all about doing it on the track!

I just did not have the pace to keep with the TT in the second half of the race. I kept him close, but not close enough to make a move, the traffic seemed to hurt us both, and it is hard to tell who was slowed down more by it, but in the end we had 2.3s between us.

Luke did his fastest whilst in clean air early on, I was not so lucky and I think the tyres had already peaked when I had any clear laps to push hard. Still, only 0.095s separated our fastest laps this time.

It was also only sector 2 where Luke was quickest this time, once I had fitted the new tyres. Sector 2 is Maggots to the end of the Wellington Straight.

Fastest Lap

Our fastest lap from the race are below:

The race was live streamed here:

Luke seemed to think our cars were similar in pace now. I was still convinced he had a little more on the straights, so a Dyno test before Croft should settle it!
Thanks to Tom B for all the spanner work this weekend while Luke was on Holiday, and shout out to Luke Handley, who did the majority of the build on this car.
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 and Mick Walker.

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