Saturday 1st March saw the team travel to Snet, the first outing for any of us with Big Al behind the wheel of Kermit for an MSV trackday. Gale force winds through the night were of slight concern, but an arrival to Snet it wasn’t too bad, though we were all glad of a garage for shelter…
Kermit is fast, and not just a little bit fast, a lot fast! Heading into the first bend (Riches) off the start finish straight, everything goes into a bit of blur – the speed that you’re passing your surroundings, the G-force on your neck as the tyres literally bite into tarmac, and the strain on your eyes as you wait in anticipation to see if you have made your apex & then apex – quite a feeling – what a buzz!! The car is reaching 7200-7300rom in 5th heading into the Esses, we don’t know the speed yet, but is likely to be ~135mph (or maybe even higher) before diving onto the brakes for ~50mph chicane!!!
The car ran perfectly all morning, and the team (Mike, Des and JB) did a fantastic job of keeping Kermit ready for action, slipping in a few geometry changes to optimise the setup. A change to new tyres mid-morning gave a surprise as the wheels spun up in 3rd gear leaving the pits!! The release agent soon departed and back to normal grip levels again – Phew.
After lunch we saw a few gremlins appear, that slowed progress. Nevertheless, as the afternoon progressed, there were less and less cars, so the opportunity for some really clear and hopefully fast laps…data to be analysed....and shared if legendary!
From what we can tell, the car has performed really well compared to last years qualifying times at Snett, and so bodes well for 2 weeks time, when Al enters his first Kit car race at Snett on the Sunday 16th March.
Big thanks to the team for making the day such a success, especially given that the feedback I was giving on the changes to car set-up were the complete opposite of expectation!!!
Special thanks to JB for bringing his Swedish mate ovlov to Snett, without whom life would have been impossible!
Oh, I couldn't possibly forget to mention our new livery, check the stickers (and my cheeky race number) in the attached photo links - great job on the sticker design and attachment - they look great.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajullie2/MADRacing02
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