Anglesey - Roadsports and ClubEnduro - 750MC - 12th - 13th May 2023

With Ryan back in the UK, we were off to Anglesey for Round 2 of both the RoadSports Series on Saturday, then the 750MC Club Enduro on Sunday.
DannyDC2 was not with us this weekend, and neither was Brad in the RS3. This meant we were running two cars, the Golf with me driving, then the TT for Ryan and Dylan.
This weekend was also the race debut of the TT TDI, which after some back to back testing against it's TFSI sister should be very competitive in Class A.
We had a pretty good start to the season at Croft for the Golf, but not quite so much for the TT, which you can read about below:

Below is the layout of the Anglesey International Circuit. Last year we were on the Coastal Circuit which includes the Corkscrew. The GP layout misses this and adds a hairpin and 2 long straights. This might help with the tyres overheating and bring us closer to the lightweight cars such as the Ginettas and Lotus Elise, but it is not as exciting to drive for sure. We had also not done this layout since 2018 in the Ibiza on a Trackday, so we needed a few extra laps to get used to it.

For both races, the Golf would be running in Class B, which is 240bhp/tonne without the driver. Diesels have a 1.05 power multiplier, so theoretically we can only have ~228bhp/tonne. After the domination at Croft, we had to take the car to the dyno, firstly to REPerformance, then to Tegiwa to verify the figures. We ended up with 283bhp at the flywheel with a 1242kg minimum weight, bang on the money.
The TT TDI has a declared weight of 1140kg, and being in class A can only have ~285bhp/ton, which works out around 325bhp on the Championship Dyno.
The TT TFSI can have a maximum of 295bhp/ton due to Petrol Forced Induction cars having a 5bhp deduction. It would be with us as a backup should we need it over the weekend.
The 750MC uses TheResultsLive.co.uk for timing.

Full Race Day Vlog

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

Testing

With around a 4 hour drive and full days testing booked, we decided not to risk it setting off in the morning, so Thursday was the travel day. We also needed to take both TTs to the Tegiwa Dyno to verify we were in the right ballpark for the power to weight figures. Whilst it was not on the way, it saved around 3 hours of driving time to go there before heading to Anglesey, so Ryan and Luke did that while we tidied up at the workshop and headed straight to Anglesey.
The timings worked out perfectly, and we arrived at a similar time as the truck and unloaded ready for a 09:20 start on Friday.
Testing was 6 x 20 minute sessions, which worked perfectly for doing some small changes and verifying they worked. We quickly established that tyre wear and temperature were still an issue on this layout as they were last year, allowing only 1 good push lap before the tyres felt like toffee. You then needed to do a super slow lap to get them back in the window.
On dead tyres I managed a 1:39.00 in the Golf, Ryan did a 1:37.13 in the TTDI and Dylan a 1:37.72. We had the TT TFSI out at the same time in the last 2 sessions, with Ryan and Dylan swapping between, and that did a 1:37.45 with Dylan at the wheel, and a 1:36.82 with Ryan driving. So we knew the TFSI was slightly quicker, with its wider 295 front tyres (vs the TDIs 265s) but we wanted to give the TDI it's first real race test.

Roadsports Qualifying

Saturday morning was dry, bright and sunny, so for once we had tested in the same conditions as the race! With the setup dialled in nicely, the plan was to go out and push hard on the first lap, since the data suggested that is all we would get before the grip levels dropped. As I started my lap, I noticed a horrible noise and vibration when turning. I decided not to push and come into the pits. It turned out the spigot on the rear wheel had twisted slightly, so the wheel bolts were torqued but still loose. Lucky I came in rather than losing a wheel! On my first push lap I did a 1:38.26 which I figured would be plenty quick enough for Pole, considering it was almost eight tenths quicker than I managed during testing. I sat in the pits and then decided to try for another, but did not improve.
Ryan was right on the money as well, with a 1:36.54 on his first push lap. He then spent another 10 laps trying to beat it, doing quite a few laps in the 1:36s but was not able to beat the first lap due to traffic.
Qualifying over, the Golf was P1 in class and P8 overall, 1.2s clear and the TT was P5, 1.46s from Pole and only 0.1s away from Handley in P4. Ryan was thinking he could have gone at least 0.5s faster which would have got him to P3 possibly.

Just about everyone did their best lap on the first one out, sometimes when the second driver got in.

Qualifying Laps

Our fastest Quali laps are shown below:

Roadsports Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:

Ryan was on Row 3 with a Cupra TCR in front, a Cupra TCR to his right and an E36 BMW behind. I was on Row 4 , surrounded by Class A cars again!

My start was pretty even compared to those around me. Ryan was right in the mix battling with Handley, Grice and Gillespie while all 3 of them tried to get round the Ginetta! I'd said to Ryan in the Assembly area to take it easy to save the tyres for the end and let people battle between themselves while destroying their tyres. He didn't get the memo. He ended up stuck behind the Ginetta which did not seem to have the pace it had in qualifying and allowed the other guys to pull a decent gap.
Ryan had some great battles all the way through to the pit stops, but that didn't help his pace in relation to the guys right at the front. The winner from Croft, Will Stacey in the Elise had missed Qualifying so started at the back, but he was at the front 18 minutes into the race.
After the bit of battling at the start for me, I was in clear air until we hit traffic on lap 6. Then it was a straightforward drive until the pit window. In the Roadsports races we can still pit under safety car, so the idea is to wait until as late as possible. Since the radio was pretty much non-existent due to the signal here, I had to wait for a board from the guys on the pit wall.
Ryan pitted a lap later and did a good stop.

I was back out in the lead of Class B since I had built enough of a buffer to overcome the 15s penalty for coming 1st at Croft.
Ryan came out in 2nd position behind Rob in the Area Golf, which had only a 5s penalty in the Pitstop. A lap later there was a safety car so we were all lucky that most people had done their stops, otherwise someone would have jumped a few positions for sure!
At the restart, Baker had a good few Class C cars between himself and Ryan which meant he pulled a lead of around 8s that would be difficult to claw back. Ryan's pace was equal to that for the last 3 or 4 laps, but he was never going to catch up. Stacey in the Elise had an alternator problem that put him out of the race, so Ryan just needed to keep Will in the Cupra behind to get the second spot on the podium. Despite a few love tabs from behind, Ryan kept the position. What a result for the TT TDI on it's first competitive weekend!
I had a boring end to the race on myself, but brought the car home P1 in Class, so I can't be too down about that!

8 seconds was the gap out front, all of it made on the Safety Car restart. Mine was just over 10s to Liam Crilly in the Z4, who's pace was mega considering he was on Nankang AR-1s and he turns up with the car on a trailer by himself. Hats off to him.

The pace for both cars was pretty consistent throughout the whole race, just a fair bit slower than can be done in Qualifying. The TTs best was a 1:37.75 and the Golf a 1:39.71, a big gap to the morning shootout.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

ClubEnduro Qualifying

We'd had an early finish Saturday and the weather was perfect, so the guys had plenty of time to prepare the cars for Sunday and then head off to the beach. The forecast was not looking great for Sunday, especially in the afternoon, so it was going to make for an interesting race like last year.
Ryan went out for a few laps and set a decent 1:36.52 so then jumped out to let Dylan get a few more laps in, since he had missed the Roadsports race the previous day. Their agreement was whoever set the best lap in Quali would start, and Dylan rose to the challenge, punching in a 1:35.38 on his first lap. The homework he did absorbing all the VBOX data clearly paid dividends!

The laptimes were all over this time, probably with everyone scrubbing tyres in ready for the afternoon.

I went out and did a 1:38.76 on my first flier, then did my 3rd lap to qualify and came in. While I was in the pits Plaskett did a 1:39.27, a bit close for comfort so I changed front tyres back to some dead ones and went back out to improve to a 1:38.23 which I figured would be enough to secure pole. I brought the car back in to save the engine and tyres for the 2 hour race!

Qualifying Laps

Our fastest Quali laps are below:

ClubEnduro Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:

I was on Row 6, just ahead of Plaskett in the Mk7 Golf and Joe Williams in the Mk6. Since Dylan won the bet for Quali, he was starting in 6th on Row 3, next to Carl Swift in the Area Mk7.

The weather was looking pretty grim as the race time approached, with the organisers even bringing the race start forward to try and beat the worst of the weather. We decided on a wet setup before we headed to Assembly, but took all the equipment to swap back to dry. It is easier to go from Wet to Dry than the other way round. Right at the last minute, I asked Reuben to drop the pressures closer to dry ones, and Dylan asked for it to be between wet and dry levels. It had started to rain, but was not very heavy at all. Realistically for the setups we were on, it needed to rain hard for the majority of the race.
As we did our two green flag laps (and additional one is run in tricky conditions if they have changed between quali and the race), I instantly regretted being on this setup. Despite it raining relatively hard, the track still had loads of grip and I knew it was going to just destroy the tyres.
At the start, everything was pretty even, I maintained my position, as did Dylan. It was clear no one was going to match the pace of Stacey in the Elise. He was 3s up the road by the end of lap 1. I could feel my tyres struggling immediately, and Dylan was on the defensive as well. A few early safety cars in the first 20 minutes helped us, but it was going to be a long race!
Dylan didn't push too hard, wanting to save his rubber for later in the race when it hopefully rained even more, so dropped back from 6th to 8th. I had managed to maintain my position and had The RS3 of Stockford and James between myself and Plaskett. Whenever it started to rain, I could see myself pulling a bigger gap, but as soon as it dried back out, the gap was coming down. We just needed it to absolutely hammer it down!
At the halfway point, Dylan was in 8th and the Lotus of Stacey was over 1 minute ahead of his nearest rival.

The heavy rain never came, so Dylan pitted to get Ryan in the car and they put as much of a dry setup back on the car as possible. Unfortunately a drop link decided to be stuck in so their pitstop was ~20s longer than needed. This meant Ryan had a lot more to make up now!
While I was maintaining the gap overall to Plaskett behind (I needed a 10s lead to make up for my 30s vs his 20s pit penalty), I stayed out as long as possible, wanting to match his strategy. Last time at Croft he gained a huge advantage in his pitstop, so we agreed to just do the same as whoever we were battling with. Unfortunately I had lost radio comms with the pitlane, and was concerned about missing the pit window.
As I pulled off the track for my step, I was 12 seconds clear of my nearest rival. The guys did a great job, putting 20L of fuel in, 2 new tyres and refitting the front ARB with 20 seconds to spare. Perfect. I came out of the pits 2 laps down from Plaskett, but with only a Class C car and the current race leader (the M4 of Joel Oswick) which I thought was going to be great, I just needed to pass Plaskett, hopefully with the help of the M4 and then when he pitted for 3 minutes and 20 seconds, I would be well ahead since two laps was just about that time.
It was not meant to be, the safety car came out and in picking up the leader, let Plaskett through but kept me behind I had lost almost a full lap to my main rival. The Golf pitted as soon as the safety car boards were in, and I was still almost a lap behind him when he came out. What a nightmare.
Ryan was keeping it consistent and just needed to keep it on the track and wait until someone ahead made a mistake or dropped out. The TT was right on the pace of the Golfs and TCRs, but no one could match the Elise, M4 or Ginetta on this circuit.
With 22 minutes to go, I was over a minute behind Plaskett. I needed a miracle to get ahead! Even a late Safety car did not help as I was caught behind it again, so Plaskett was just a few cars behind being a full lap in front. A BMW had hit the pit wall causing the initial safety car, then the M4 fuel pump pipe popped off, lengthening it so we finished up with only 1 lap of racing by the time the mess was cleared up!

Ryan was right in the mix, with only 2.4 seconds between P3 and P6, taking Luke Handley on the last corner of the last lap to claim 5th position overall. I was unfortunately almost a lap down to Plaskett, finishing P8 overall and P2 in class. I did manage to get the fastest lap of the race, that extra point will come in handy at the end of the season I am sure. The TT TDI has been super impressive, it is right on the pace of our main competitors, even with so much more to develop on the chassis and aero, and it went the full 2hr race with zero reliability issues. Fingers crossed it stays that way!

Dylan's laps at the start of the race were pretty similar to the top cars, except the Lotus which looks like every lap it did (except safety car laps) were quicker than the fastest anyone else went. When Ryan jumped in he was immediately on the pace and quicker than the guys in front, but the gap was too much to make up to get to a podium position, especially with only one racing lap at the end!

Just about every lap I did was quicker than Plaskett in front, but the position of the safety car in relation to us both is what screwed me.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest laps from the race are below:

Since the ClubEnduro has never been on the International Layout, I got a lap record! I am sure it won't last long!

P2 is not where I wanted to be, but getting the fastest lap point means I am still 2 points clear for the championship at the moment. The result from Croft means Ryan is not currently a contender for Class A, but there are still 5 races to go and with 2 dropped scores, everything is to play for.

Next round is Oulton Park on Saturday the 3rd June. To confuse things even further, Dylan is unable to make it, so Aaron Cooke, the 2022 MR2 Championship winner is going to join Ryan in the TT TDI. Hopefully he can drop in and be straight on the pace like Dylan did!