Another 2 weeks flew by after our victory at Snetterton (we are trying to forget about the KA washing machine), which you can read about HERE, and we were ready for Cadwell Park in the MSVT SuperCup in the Golf, as well as the Focus Cup

Below is the layout of the Cadwell Park Circuit:

For this weekend, those in charge of the timetable were a little more considerate of my car hopping, so there is at least a decent gap between all the sessions I need to do. It does mean we are there until the bitter end, so hopefully there are no major incidents to push us past the curfew.

Focus Cup Testing

Friday testing was back to normal, with four 30 minute sessions. The weather forecast had been mixed all week so it was impossible to say if we were going to be testing in the same conditions as Qualifying and the Races, so we just had to dial the setup for each session and hope we learnt something!
This weekend we had a curveball as we were running Nankang NR-2R Tyres as the Dunlop Direzza normally fitted were still stuck on the Suez! This meant we were all starting from scratch in regards to optimum pressures.
In one of the sessions, I found that if I hit the rev limiter in 3rd gear, the car would go into limp mode and beep. It brought the Engine Management light on and a fault for Rail Pressure. The guys investigated it and changed the Regulator and Pressure sensor on the rail to hopefully eliminate the issue.
The day was a frustrating one as the powers that be at Cadwell decided to red flag the session EVERY TIME a floppy corner marker was knocked over, so most sessions we had 1 or 2 flying laps before waiting 5 minutes in the pits for a marshal to put the post back. It sounded like the main culprits were the Lotus we were sharing the session with, and after I had a bit of a rant in earshot of a few of the circuit staff, they were promptly told off and we had about 5 uninterrupted laps!
By the end of testing, there was less than a second between the top 6 drivers, so it was going to be an interesting Saturday!

Focus Cup Qualifying

While most of us had struggled to get into the 1:48s in testing (mainly due to all the stoppages I think!) we were confident at least a few of us would dip our toes in during Quali.
I did a 1:48.750 quite early on in the session, jumping to the top of the timing until Simon Rudd pipped me with a 1:48.548 about 45 seconds later!
I pitted for a tyre pressure check and knew there was more time in the car to get closer or beat Simon, but I needed a clear lap. My first flier was only an improvement of 0.009s, but my next one, which I knew would probably be my last, was a flier, and by the Mountain, I was 0.6s up on my previous lap. Unfortunately there were yellow flags through Hall Bends, and as I came round the Hairpin, Macauley Underwood was on the grass with a car issue. As I rounded Barn and headed towards the straight, I watched in agony as the time on the AIM Solo slipped away into a positive number, meaning I was slower than my benchmark.
I was thinking I would be 2nd, but Gary Mitchell did a blinding lap right at the end to get his nose in front of me, only 0.050s behind Simon. I don't like making it easy for myself!

Only 15 minutes of qualifying time on a relatively long lap means you don't get many attempts at a quick lap. We were also playing around with the pressures which meant a quick trip to the pits, whereas I would normally try to stay out for the full 15 minutes to get plenty of laps in.

So like Combe, I would be starting from P3, and hoping to emulate that as well, P3 to P1 by the first corner! How hard can it be?

SuperCup Qualifying

With Ryan here to share the driving duties, it meant I was not in as much of a rush as normal to get into the Golf, but with the Pitlane on the infield at Cadwell, we had a short window to get across the track and down the hill, so I could not hang around too long!
With a lot of the grid from the South, and fearing nosebleeds if they ventured too far up North, the grid was only 14 cars this weekend, and only two of us in Class A. This meant we were racing the Class S cars, with 35whp/ton more than us (so realistically some of them have ~50-60bhp more to play with!). Cadwell seems to be a power circuit, with a lot of fast flowing sections, but there are some sections that require some brave pills, so that is where we needed to make up the time.
Ryan got off to a great start, putting in a 1:41.844 on his first proper flying lap, almost as quick as we had managed the Wednesday before when we brought the Golf for a quick shakedown. This was enough for P1 behind the Jackson / Pidgley SuperCopa with a 1:37.946, until Callum Noble in the E46 M3 raised the bar for P2 to the 1:38.5s. Ryan responded a few laps later with a 1:37.920, which put us P1 by 0.026s!
It was time for Ryan to hand over to me with just over 10 minutes left, for me to hopefully stop us going backwards, as that is the only direction we could go!
Immediately the car felt planted with so much front end grip, a sharp contrast to the Focus on the NS-2Rs. I pushed hard straight away as I was in clear air, and shaved 0.150s off Ryan's time, increasing the margin we were on pole by. I did a few more steady laps negotiating some traffic to try and find a nice gap.
With just over two minutes off, I improved further, with a 1:37.171, which was 0.775s quicker than the Seat in P2. With them being in the pits, they were not going to be able to challenge for Pole, so that was that, our first Pole Position in the SuperCup!

You can see from the laps, I did not get many flying ones, as traffic can make a huge difference here. If you get caught behind someone at the wrong stage, it can cost multiple seconds.
Michael did great as well, P7 which was top of Class B that had 5 competitors this time out. He had a significant margin as well, 1.237s from P2 in class.

Nick Jackson had got the measure of Ryan until Lap 5, then we led the session from there. A great result!

A comparison of our Fastest Laps is shown below:

Focus Cup Race 1

I did exactly what I needed to for the start, quickly passing Gary Mitchell to my right and closing the gap right up on Simon Rudd in front. I could have probably made a move on him into turn 1, but with Cadwell being so narrow, it would have probably required using a bit of grass. Not ideal on lap 1!
I was all over him down the Park Straight, but he placed his car perfectly to prevent me making any further progress. As we negotiated the Gooseneck, I forced Simon to defend and I was able to make a move out of Mansfield at the bottom of the hill.
As we headed towards the left before the Mountain there were Yellow Flags and the safety car board, something clearly had happened that had neutralised the race.
It turned out to be a car had caught fire at the Start line, so the Yellow Flags were quickly swapped for a Red. This meant I had all that work to do again, and Simon would know where I was going to try to have him!
A few of the guys further back thought I might have passed Simon under the Yellows at the bottom of Mansfield. I was so close to his back bumper I was not looking anywhere else, so it was more that possible, and I would have given the place back if the race had continued.

So with Dale's car safely out of the way (he was OK, there was a small under bonnet fire to deal with!), we were ready to restart the race. We were gridded back up in the original positions, so I was back in P3, with the guys in front more prepared to stop me coming through this time!
I had another great start relative to Gary, but this time Simon was quicker off the line so I was not quite as close through Coppice and Charlies, but his defensive lines meant by the Park Straight we were battling again, but I wasn't able to make the move.
On lap 2, braking into Mansfield, Simon over slowed the car, which caught me out a bit. As I braked a little more, the pedal went rock hard with no braking force, which made me bump into the back of him. I then hit the limiter in 3rd coming out of the corner, which put it into limp mode again like testing, meaning I was immediately swamped and dropped to 4th behind Gary Mitchell and Andrew Perry.
I managed to get by Andrew by lap 3, but had already lost almost 4s to Rudd and Mitchell, then battled with 109c-111c coolant temperatures for the rest of the race, which meant I was defending 3rd from Charlie Barre behind, instead of battling the leaders. I lost ~7s over the race because of that.

You can see on the Lap Chart, once the two up front had the gap, they just extended it lap by lap while I struggled to maintain their pace.

While Simon and Gary had managed to improve on their Qualifying times slightly, I could not get anywhere near mine, I think the tyre pressures had come up more than expected as well as the coolant management I was having to do to keep Charlie behind!

Focus Cup Race 2

The reverse grid converted my P3 to P4 for race two. I just needed to do a carbon copy of Race 1, and hopefully be battling for the lead down Park Straight.

I did get a good start, and we were 3 wide at the end of the Park Straight for P2, as I braked and the pedal went rock hard again, sending me onto the grass and tumbling me down to 11th. I then battled with Coolant issues for the rest of the race, managing to get to P6 in the train behind Mark Proctor in P3, with the widest Focus on earth. Branko was just in front, but I had seen a 5s Penalty Board go up for him, so I just needed to stay within 5s of him to get P5.
Luckily from a Championship perspective, Simon Rudd was only 1 place in front, so the points difference was not as much as if he had got through Mark to battle with Andrew Perry and Charlie Barre!

As with Race 1, the two leaders disappeared into the distance, this time by a massive 14s, so the best result me or Simon could have hoped for was P3 if Mark and Branko had come together, which from where I was sitting, could have happened at any moment!

You can see the different in lap times being bunched up caused as well, over 1s between those at the front and us in P3 to P6!

Amazon Prime were following us round to make a video series on the championship, take a look at the Round 4 Video here:

We are now 8 races down in the Championship, and for the first time I am no longer in the top spot, 3 points separating me and Simon Rudd. There is not much between P3 to P6 either, so it is anyone's at the moment, with 5 rounds (Brands Hatch is a Double Header), and 500 points available. The next round is at Oulton Park on the 24th July. I will then be missing Croft as there is a clash between this and the TDC at Oulton in August, which I am gutted about. It also means I am likely to drop further down the order and can't afford any dropped scores!

SuperCup Race

So from P1, the only way we could go was backwards! Ryan was starting, and in the Assembly area he was concerned that the Class S Cars would use their extra power to push past on the straights. I told him we were 0.7s quicker over a lap, so to park it in the middle of the straights, as we were clearly significantly quicker on the twisty bits!

Least in this race we had a FWD car at the side of us, rather than a RWD last time we were on Pole. However with an E46 M3, E36 M3 and a Porsche Cayman (with launch control!) behind, the pressure was on!

You can watch the full video below, or read the race summary further down the page:

Ryan had a great launch relative to the Leon and everyone else, but with a little too much wheelspin and changing up to 2nd a bit early, he bogged and the Leon was able to push past.
The Leon was losing a lot of it's time in turn 1 and 2, which is a much faster corner than you can believe, the camber really holds you in. This then held Ryan up through onto Park straight, then the more powerful car pulled away slightly.
He was back on the Leon through the Gooseneck all the way to the final corner, Barn. While they were battling, it allowed Callum Noble in the Purple M3 to get dangerously close. Ryan soaked up the pressure and carried on pushing.
7 laps in Callum made a mistake into Park, ran wide and damaged his front bumper and radiator.
We estimated Ryan was being held up by around 1s per lap, so made the decision to pit early, swap drivers and hopefully jump the Leon in the stop or on the outlap.

It worked out perfectly, Nick stayed out another couple of laps, but when they had finished their stop, I was just passing the pits as they exited, so I pushed flat out, doing the fastest lap of the race in the process (1:37.961).
As the gap increased, traffic became an issue, as it is so hard to pass around here, even with a huge speed advantage. Luckily I did not get held up my much, other than when Roger had a wobble at Turn 1 and blocked me all the way to Park Straight. I forgive you Roger!
Cadwell is a track that you get into a really good rhythm at, and the time flew by in no time, and we were taking the chequered flag! So we had converted out first SuperCup Pole into a win!
Michael was in for a solid 1st in Class and 5th overall, but his pit stop was 0.029s too quick, and he was hit with the 1 lap penalty which demoted him to 4th. We were gutted for him as he was driving brilliantly, between 0.5 and 1s a lap faster than the other Class B cars.

You can see from the below that the car was pretty consistent considering the traffic and conditions. It was red hot, and the tyres were definitely suffering!

The fastest lap was swapping around a fair bit until lap 5 when Callum grabbed it, unfortunately he retired before he got into the swing of things, otherwise we might not have been able to get it back on lap 13!

As we only had 2 cars in our class, and there is no provision in the regulations for beating cars in the class above, we did not get any extra championship points for Pole, Fastest Lap, or beating four of the Class S Cars, so we had to settle with 31 points instead of the 37 we were expecting. This puts us in 3rd still, but only 1 point behind Darren Goes, who had a stinker with a cracked bottom arm mount causing strange handling for most of the race!

Thanks again to the Focus Cup Guys, and our Team this weekend, Paul, Rob and Mathisse had an easy weekend as the car was pretty much faultless, exactly what you want!

Photos by - Nick @ NE Sports Photography and MSV.