The first round of the the 750MC Club Enduro Championship did not go exactly to plan, with the engine in the Golf giving up the ghost, and the lack of pace in the TT leading to 13 track limit infringements! You can read about it all by clicking the below image.

All the details and dates for our racing exploits can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.

So what we thought was a coolant pipe popping off at high temperature / pressure (temps were 135c and the pressure was over 50PSI!) turned out to be much worse, with a 5th valve hole being burnt in the head as a result of pushing the engine too hard for too long.
So the issue next was what engine were we going to fit? We'd already used our spare over the winter, and were on the lookout for another, but with 4 working days to get the car ready, time was of the essence!
Paul casually mentioned that his Octavia Daily driver had the same engine, and he thought it was a peach. We decided to use that. At first I thought Paul was being completely selfless, until I realised that all the ours cars we had available to lend him in the meantime were an upgrade for him! He is not as daft as he looks, clearly!

Paul and Jake did some late nights that week (remember we still need to work on customer vehicles through the day!), with Paul ripping the lump out of the Octavia while Jake did the same with the Golf, then Jake got the car ready Friday Afternoon, in time for a quick blast on the Dyno to verify everything was good, then it was loaded onto the truck Saturday for the 2hr drive to Silverstone.
As well as this, the 2nd TT was given the final touches to make it as race ready as we could in the timescale we had. The quick test we planned at Blyton on the Wednesday was not a success, with the radiator bursting after only 5 laps. So into Qualifying, the Golf had done some Dyno pulls and the TT had zero miles since the radiator was sorted. Who knows what was going to happen?

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.

Full Race Day Vlog

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

Qualifying

We were first out on track at 9am, so it was a little panicked getting everything ready since we had the drivers briefing at 8am, and would need to be in the assembly area for 08:40 sharp. You think you have loads of time, right until you are called and realise there are 100 things to sort!

Scott Qualifying

I'd been at Silverstone the day before competing in the Focus Cup, where I had bagged two podiums (a 3rd then a 2nd), so I was confident I knew where I was going, but it had been a while since I drove the Golf here so I had to figure out the braking points. Right away I was on the money with a 1:05.609 which would have been good for P11 and 2nd in class, before I quickly improved with a 1:04.704 which put us 1st in class.
I had to then jump into the pits to give Ryan a chance in this, and drive the TT for the first time in anger in a race environment. Ryan had done a 1:04.543 but the VBOX had been set to the wrong track layout, so it was constantly looking for the Start / Finish line on the GP circuit, meaning he had no idea where the lap times where, and if he was improving or losing time on his delta. I corrected this in the pits then went out.
It was immediately obvious that the TT had much less front end grip than the Golf, so it was going to be difficult to manage. My 1st flying lap was a 1:03.187 which had put us firmly in P2 in class, behind Adam in our other TT. I improved with a 1:03.050, but it was not enough to jump any more places.

Ryan Qualifying

Having George to look after while his babysitters caught up on their beauty sleep made qualifying a bit hectic to start with, but once I had Jake and Paul briefed all was well. Out of the box I was struggling with the front end grip and managed to put in what I thought was a decent lap time but a 1:04.543 would not be enough,
Jumping into the Golf the front end grip was amazing in comparison, but I was no match for Scott's lap time set earlier.  I jumped back into the TT for the new addition for this year, Super Pole.

Adam Qualifying

Right, I’m doing this as a one off as I HATE blogging (used to do it for KA races and quickly stopped as it feels like work!). When I arrived at the circuit, I realised I hadn’t been there in such a long time that I had to go back and ask the security guard how to get to the paddock!
In qualifying, I was surprised to be 3rd overall (1st in class) ahead of my extremely annoying Teammate, Scott, who asks me to write bloody blog posts against my will…

To say that the TTs are nowhere near where we want them to be chassis wise, we were pleased to be up there in the middle of the Class X cars. Whether we could maintain that for the 20 minute races was another story.

Qualifying Laps

Our 'fastest' laps are shown below:

Super Pole

The Turismo-X Series has introduced a new element to Qualifying, the Super Pole. Basically the top 10 cars go straight from Parc Ferme to line up for a 1 lap shootout. There is a warm up lap, flying lap and in lap, with cars setting off at 10s intervals so keep them spaced out. We were hoping for some good results.

Scott Super Pole

Normally one flying lap would be my Forte, but for some reason I did not get it nailed this time, and 1:04.878, which was shy of my previous lap of 1:04.704. Part of it was being put off by the guys in front. I was out 2nd to last, and a few of the cars in front were going pretty slow. This meant the first guys were already passing us on their hot laps. So I was only good for 9th in the Golf. Steve in the Cayman jumped two places to 6th with a massive improvement. I was then promoted to 8th for reasons mentioned below.

Ryan Super Pole

With not much of a gap between Qualifying and Super Pole, we didn't have time to analyse our laps, so I just had to go for it knowing I was a bit away from Scott's time in the same car. Holding back from the Ginetta as much as I dared, I got into it way too late and was almost a second down after the first corner. After that I just chased it and ended up a couple of seconds off the target time, but starting close to the front adds pressure, so I was happy not to have made anything worse. The only car slower out of the top 10 was the Ginetta in front! I settled on a 1:05.088 - so 10th but promoted to 9th with Adam's mishap...

Adam Super Pole

Going in to “super pole” I was actually quite confident of beating the faster cars in the class above because I’ve always been quick straight out of the box compared to other drivers for some reason.
As planned, we put the car on pole position overall, with a 1:02.233. Sadly, the time was disallowed because I touched the kerb at the exit of T1. Apparently this is an illegal act in motor racing these days.
So I was starting 10th, right behind my Teammates, Ryan and Scott.

With the position of the assembly area at Silverstone, technically you are doing a full lap on your warm up, so it was interesting to see what some people did. The guys at the front (Adam included) just went flat out immediately, Adam's first lap was actually faster than the one that would have counted. This explained why we were quickly overtaken by the front runners before we started ours!

Super Pole Laps

Our Super Pole laps are shown below, see if you think Adam was too far over the kerb at Turn 1!

Race 1

We have definitely started races from worst positions in the last few weeks! We were all in a bunch on row four and five. We were just hoping that we didn't hold each other up!

Mine, Ryan and Adam's full race 1 videos are below. I've done a quick rundown of what went on during the race as well, for those that want to have a bit of a read!

Scott Race 1

I launched pretty well, similar to Dylan (the same Dylan who we build a TDI Ibiza for a few years ago) in the SuperCopa to my left. The RWD cars in front made some good initial progress, but then all blocked each other, which allowed me to slip down the inside up to 6th.
I was hot on the tail of the grey BMW and RS3 but as we turned onto the Wellington straight, the lack of power compared to them meant I had to focus my attention on the Cayman behind, which seemed to have nitrous compared to our battles at Donington 6 days earlier. I stayed ahead and crossed the line watching Darren in the RS3 pull away.
I could see Ryan ducking left and right trying to get round, but it even had the legs on the TT. Eventually he was on my tail, so we needed to make sure he got round without compromising both of our laps. At this point Adam was nowhere to be seen! The TT came round at Brooklands, and it was clear to see that it was struggling with mid-corner speed and exit, as I was able to stay with it until Ryan could get the power down.
I then watched it disappear into the distance and focused on getting some good laps to keep everyone else behind. Dylan had negotiated the Cayman and was catching me up, but not as quickly as I would have expected for a Class S car. He seemed to be struggling with straight line speed.
I then caught the Class S Civic TCR of Clarke, but it proved difficult to get around with its superior straight line speed, and this only brought me closer to Dylan. Some of the Class A Elise cars also seemed to be struggling for pace so we were lapping them pretty quickly.
A few more laps and I was behind the Class C Civic of Will Arif. Knowing he was an experienced driver, I went for the inside line at Becketts and he just turned in on me. I took to the grass and instantly regretted it. Another splitter bit the dust!
Onto the Wellington Straight and Adam appeared in my mirrors! He'd had issues at the start and it took him a fair while to get back. He easily breezed past me and didn't compromise my line, which was helpful!
A couple more goes round and that was it, the first race in the Golf with Paul's engine went without a hitch (forgetting the dead splitter!), not bad going! We were P1 in Class and P9 overall,

Ryan Race 1

It was a busy start with everyone looking to find their place off the line. I got stuck behind the Cayman for a couple of laps, which seemed to have even more pace than the TT on the straights! On lap 3 I sent it down the inside of Scott at Brooklands before chasing the RS3. I got him a lap later, so was up to 5th where I stayed for the rest of the race.
The front end grip was still not improved with the changes we made, so it will be back to the drawing board when we are back to base to figure out what could be causing it.

Adam Race 1

At the start, of race 1, the car stuck in 1st gear. I pulled to the right of the track to avoid being hit
while I tried to switch the engine off and restart. This is easy to do in a pit lane setting but took longer with cars hurtling past at speed as I couldn’t hear whether the engine had restarted or not and there is a delay with the dash switching back on.
I eventually got going, dead last by a long way and began an “angry” drive (which is something else I’ve always been good at!) back through the field. As the race was only 20 minutes, I could only reach 6th overall. The good news is that we were 1 & 2 in class with Ryan 4th overall and Scott was 1st in Class A, and 9th overall.

Not a bad result at all for all 3 cars, right in the middle of some much faster machinery.

Adam had the fastest lap in Class S, and I had it in Class A.

Mine and Ryan's quick laps were spread all over the place, mainly due to traffic. Adam's was right at the end, only a few hundredths off his laps earlier in the race. Looking at it, Ryan was the most consistent of us all throughout, even through the back markers.

Race 2

With Race 1 determining the grid for Race 2, we were a little further up the order this time, Ryan got the TT onto Row 2 in 4th, Adam on Row 3 in 6th and then the Golf on row 5 in 9th. This time however, I would be in the TT and Ryan in the Golf. Hopefully we could maintain our positions and maybe Adam could make a few more if he could get off the line!

Scott Race 2

With Adam's dodgy launch in the back of my mind, and the fact that I had never tried setting off in anger in the TT, I had no idea how it was going to go. It was probably just as good as the RWD cars in front, so I was happy with that, but Hufford in the Orange E46 had a demon launch, jumping me and the grey E46 to my left. This meant I was basically back where I started in 4th!
The changes we had made didn't improve the turn in, so it was understeer city for me still. That being said, I was side by side with Hufford down the Wellington Straight, and tried for a move on the outside at Luffield. If I had the front end of the Golf, I think I would have made it stick.
I was still on the BMW into Maggots when Adam sent it down the inside on me. Thanks mate! This gave the grey E46 a run on me as well, so 1 corner and 2 places lost! The little consolation was one was my team mate! As quickly as I had lost it, I gained the position back with a mistake on the exit of Luffield for the the E46. I returned the favour at Copse going wide and letting him back through.
Goes in the RS3 was now hot on my heels, and bouncing off the limiter on the exit of Luffield allowed him passed on the straight. More understeer put me onto the grass as we entered the Wellington straight again. This put me in no mans land down in 7th and 3rd in Class.
This is where I stayed for the rest of the race, and other than some fuel surge near the end, it was pretty uneventful! I was promoted to 6th when Mark Lee in the Ginetta ran out of fuel 1 lap from the end!

Ryan Race 2

Starting P9 in the Golf, with everyone else in Class A behind, it was going to be a tough race, especially since everyone else had driven their cars in a race environment a few hours before! I'd done a few laps in Quali and that was it.
I had a great launch, jumping the Civic and RS3 TCRs and following Adam into Maggots, but onto the straight, the Class S TCRs were too fast and easily drove round. Onto lap 2, the battling Cayman and SuperCopa dove down the inside at Copse. Over the next laps, the slowly edged away as I struggled for pace. Eventually we figured that the Turbo actuator was faulty, reducing the power significantly which hurt straight line speed massively. I did my best and clung on to 2nd in class behind the Cayman, P9 overall.

Adam Race 2

It didn’t look good for race 2, as the car would not shift out of 1 st gear at all in the paddock.
But due to the incredible team work and talent of Mathisse, Stylianos, Paul and Jake, they managed to find a bodge whereby we had to devise a special way of starting the car. Ryan wanted me to start from the pitlane, but I insisted on starting on the grid in 7th .
Thankfully our workaround starting procedure worked (although it meant we had a slower start than otherwise).
Pretty soon, I was fighting Scott in the other Darkside TT for the class lead (4th overall) and managed to pass him at T2, unfortunately compromising him, which let another car slip through (sorry boss!).
I then pushed as hard as I could to catch the leaders, who had significantly more power as they were in the “top” class.
During the race, I had to develop a very peculiar driving style for T1 to deal with horrendous understeer which helped. It was very counter intuitive but necessary to keep the car on the circuit and off of the “illegal” kerb.
To my surprise, we started to reel in the Orange BMW in P3 and we started thinking that an overall podium might be possible.
On the last lap we were on the tail of the BMW and under pressure, it missed a gear on the exit of T2.

We momentarily passed it on the straight but the BMW’s horsepower (and the fact that the driver blocked us in behind the failing Ginetta GT4) meant that he was again ahead.
Angrily (which, unlike for some drivers is a very good mood for me to be in when racing) I decided to try to humiliate him by passing around the outside of the final corner of the final lap.
Flustered, he missed another gear and we were able to throw the car to the inside to take the position on the line. P1 in class and 2nd overall.
This was truly a team effort. The car isn’t 100% right yet, but Darkside know how to develop a car more than any other team I’ve ever encountered.
If we are able to do what we want with the Darkside TT’s then the competition will be scratching their heads!

With two cars as guests in the mix, we were basically P1 and P4 in the TTs, and P7 in the Golf.

So I had gone backwards, Adam forwards and Ryan stayed the same. We had clearly gone the wrong way setup wise in our TT as it was off the pace of Quali and Race 1, whereas Adam got closer to his Super Pole time. The issue this time was another Class S car finished between the two TTs and the Cayman finished ahead of Ryan in the Golf, so it was not too great for the Championship Points.
The fastest laps did not go our way either, with the RS3 nabbing Class S honours, and the Cayman Class B, by a fair margin from Ryan, and 0.5s quicker than it had done in Race 1.

This could have been a complete disaster of a weekend. With little to no testing on two of the cars, and Adam not visiting this circuit since I was at Primary School, everything was going against us, however after the disastrous ClubEnduro race at Donington, instead of giving up, it pushed all the guys to dig deep and got the cars to a level where they were pretty competitive against a very tough field.
We couldn't have done it without them and at least now we have 4 weeks to rest, regroup and get the cars ready for another 2 hours at Croft.

We currently occupy P1, P2 and P4 in the overall championship, with the Golf 4 points ahead in the Class A Championship. It is a long season, so let's hope we can stay there!

Photos courtesy of Mick Walker.