Is it okay to spin twice on the warmup lap? (Video evidence)
Discussion
I have just spent the weekend competing in four Radical races at Rockingham, and thought I would share the video and my experience, as it was amazing. The first time I have ever driven a Radical (SR3) was in the first qualifying session, it was also the first time competing at Rockingham, and my third ever race!
What an amazing car, the engine and gearbox were a joy to use, the sound of the engine revving up to 10,000 rpm before you snatched the sequential gear lever to select another cog made me feel every inch a bona-fide racing driver. Once the slicks were up to temperature we were recording 1.7-1.8G lateral acceleration through the corners, and maintained around 1.4-1.5G around the banking for 6s. Even though I had been doing some serious training in the gym in preparation for the weekend, after 2 qualifying sessions and 3 races, I was unable to hold my head upright around the banking! Luckily the roll bar padding was close enough to my head to wedge it in place. It was very alarming slip-streaming a car at 125 mph around the banking whilst not being able to move your head at all.
We had numerous technical problems over the weekend, a broken driveshaft on the first warmup lap of the first race (ahem, my fault as I did one to many clutch dumps to warm up the tyres), then fuel starvation around the banking leading to a retirement, then a horrendous handling in-balance on right hand corners which saw me spin twice on the warmup of the 2nd race (oh the shame), a gradual loss of power and top end speed throughout the weekend and eventually a broken water pump. Even through all of these problems, I still had an absolute ball as it was an incredible experience racing one of these beasts around Rockingham, wheel to wheel with other similar cars.
The warmup lap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz-L07tDHY0
My fastest racing lap of the weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5ZcK8Pj9c
What an amazing car, the engine and gearbox were a joy to use, the sound of the engine revving up to 10,000 rpm before you snatched the sequential gear lever to select another cog made me feel every inch a bona-fide racing driver. Once the slicks were up to temperature we were recording 1.7-1.8G lateral acceleration through the corners, and maintained around 1.4-1.5G around the banking for 6s. Even though I had been doing some serious training in the gym in preparation for the weekend, after 2 qualifying sessions and 3 races, I was unable to hold my head upright around the banking! Luckily the roll bar padding was close enough to my head to wedge it in place. It was very alarming slip-streaming a car at 125 mph around the banking whilst not being able to move your head at all.
We had numerous technical problems over the weekend, a broken driveshaft on the first warmup lap of the first race (ahem, my fault as I did one to many clutch dumps to warm up the tyres), then fuel starvation around the banking leading to a retirement, then a horrendous handling in-balance on right hand corners which saw me spin twice on the warmup of the 2nd race (oh the shame), a gradual loss of power and top end speed throughout the weekend and eventually a broken water pump. Even through all of these problems, I still had an absolute ball as it was an incredible experience racing one of these beasts around Rockingham, wheel to wheel with other similar cars.
The warmup lap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz-L07tDHY0
My fastest racing lap of the weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5ZcK8Pj9c
I am not doing the whole season, just the odd race here and there. We still have no idea what caused the problem, most likely something like a bush had broken on the left hand side which changed the geometry under load. Luckily I didn't get called in front of the clerk of the course, I managed to finish the race and collect a valuable signature.
Edited by Racelogic on Thursday 15th April 09:35
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