We had a good few weekends off racing, then it was time for another TimeAttack round, this time all the way down South at Brands Hatch.
I would only be bringing the RS3 with it's new livery. The TT is being prepared for Snetterton the weekend after so would stay at HQ. The Ibiza was coming along again, this time being piloted by Tom. He wanted to do Brands as he'd done a trackday here a few years ago in his 90bhp Mazda MX5!

Below is the layout of the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit. It is a great track for beginners as there are not too many corners to take in, but its a tricky track to master, which quite a few different approaches to most of the corners.

TimeAttack uses TSL for timing, which is where all the data is taken from. The Lap Records we were aiming for are also below. I'd like to dip into the 49s in the RS3, but I think it would be a struggle. Tom had no chance for the Clubman record, the Evo must have been 400bhp!

Full Weekend Vlog

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

Testing

With the event on a Sunday, there were no test days, so we were straight into warm up. There is plenty of time to get into it before the finals.

The various classes are split up into 15 and 20 minute sessions. We were in Club Pro for the RS3 and Clubman in the Ibiza, at little less chaotic that Cadwell for sure!

Warm-up

We had a game plan for Tom. He needed to build up slowly, concentrating on the lines first then speed later. He did exactly what I said, and finished up with a 1:02.062. We were aiming for sub-60s so he wasn't far off!
The guys in the Club Classes were flying, close to even the TTs and a fair bit quicker than the Golf had been around here.
I was hoping the short track would favour the RS3 over the Noble, and we were close in the first session, but the Caterham was off in the distance, the perfect car for this track really.

You can see the improvement from Tom during the session, especially considering the traffic with 26 cars on track! I'd done 4 laps within 0.1s of each other, so was sure that was the pace of the car with 265s all round.

I was fractionally quicker than Robinson in Sector 1, then he was ahead slightly in Sector 2, but it balanced out that our ideal times were basically the same. Again Barrett in the Caterham was over 0.5s ahead and going to take some beating.

Tom, as expected, was one of the slower cars through the speed traps. The RS3 the slowest of the top 3 in sector 1 and I was missing from sector 2 due to the transponder signal being weak.

Practice

We looked over Tom's VBOX HD Lite Data and could see his lines were pretty decent, but he just needed to carry more speed. He listened as he improved by over 4s in this session, easily getting into the Sub-60s aim!
We put a set of used 295s on the front and I found just over 3 tenths, but it was still not enough. Ben had found some more time so was less than a tenth away from Josh. I was 0.6s back. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a big gap on such a short lap.

The fight for 6th, 7th and 8th in Clubman was tight, with not much in it.
We'd all stayed out doing loads of laps, just trying to get a feel for it. You can see that the Noble was over 5mph faster across the finish line, whereas the Caterham was slightly slower, which makes sense considering it has less power than the RS3.

There was not much in it for Sector 2, so I was losing most of my time in Sector 1.

Tom's speed was improved with his confidence, so he just needed to use it in the corners!
Even in Sector 1 there was a significant difference between the RS3 and the others, over 4mph between me and the Caterham.

Qualifying

We'd looked over Tom's data again and could see a few places for improvement, but now he was getting close to the limits of the car and setup. His Ideal from Practice was a 58.144, and in the session he did a 58.161, more or less bang on what we could see. Unfortunately his 4th gear decided it did not want to carry on and and after some dodgy noises, he limped back to the pits. Game over for the Ibiza, gutting.
Ben found a heap of time, so now I was almost 1.6s away from the lead, and 0.6s from 2nd position. I had new tyres to go on for the final, but needed a miracle to get anywhere close to a 49.2!

Tom had stitched together a good lap, so his ideal this time was the same as the lap. Shame the gearbox let go as he was doing pretty well!
Again we all did loads of laps, but the tyres were past their best on the RS3 halfway through the session.

I was down by 0.9s in Sector 1 and 0.7s in Sector 2. Some big margins!

Ben had found a lot of time and speed in Sector 1, over 4mph faster in that sector.

The lead in Club Pro swapped a few times before Ben set about smashing his lap time every 3 rotations!

Final

Now it was time for the Finale, what we'd been building up to all day. A lot of stoppages in the other sessions (I am looking at you, Racing Hondas!) meant we were close to the curfew. We needed a clean session.
I erred on the side of caution and decided to get a lap in early, despite the best times most likely coming at the end as the track cooled slightly. It was a good strategy as even though the Noble improved again, with an unobtainable 49.186, the Caterham didn't get a good lap in. The new Tyres on the RS3 were enough to get me down to a 50.236 which had Josh matched his Quali time, would have still put me P3. However he didn't, so I was on the 2nd step of the podium for once in Club Pro! The session was cut short by the Mazda flying into the gravel and setting on fire! Luckily the driver was out and unharmed, but the car didn't look too clever!

I'd done my ideal in the session, as had Ben. Josh was a fraction off, but it would have not been enough to pip me this time. Had we done a full session, I am sure I would have been behind him.

The sectors show Barrett lost it in Sector 1, costing him 2nd place.

I as still slowest in the sector 1 speed trap but 4mph difference between us 3 at the finish line.

Ben and Josh squabbled over the lead again, but ultimately the Noble took it.

Laps

All the fastest laps from Round 3 are below:

The lap records for the circuit were released after the event as well:

The Championship points were corrected after the last round, but then they have separated mine and Adam's points, but it is going to be sorted for the next round. This means at the moment the RS3 is tied for 2nd in Club Pro.

So that was it. Not the way I would want to take 2nd, but this is Motorsport. It doesn't always go to plan (read never goes to plan!) so we have to take the points when they come!
I've got to mention the mental Gobstopper 3 from Roger Clarke. It was the first time out in TimeAttack and it was mental. Just look at the times and speed difference! Over 20mph faster than the RS3 over the line!
We are at Snetterton in the TTs for the RoadSports and ClubEnduro, then the next TimeAttack round is Oulton Park on 20th July on the Island layout, one that I've never done before, with Cadwell for RoadSpors the day after, so another busy weekend!

Photos courtesy of Time Attack

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