After Round 1 of the 750MC Club Enduro Championship at Donington, we knew we had a lot of work to do to get the cars competitive for Round 2. Especially since the Golf engine expired, and the engine fitted for the Silverstone round of the Turismo-X Racing Championship was temporary.

Round 2 is further North for us, at Croft. Having never raced here, and only doing the odd trackday, it was going to be interesting to see how we could adapt from the more sedate trackday etiquette to full race mode!
All the details and dates for those series can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.

A layout of the Croft Circuit is below. This track has a combination of some fast flowing corners, as well as some tight, technical areas.

For the ClubEnduro, the Golf would be running in Class B, which is 240bhp/tonne without the driver which means we are at similar power to Class A for Turismo-X (and the SuperCup last year), ~270bhp at the flywheel as Diesels have a 1.05 power multiplier, so theoretically we can only have ~228bhp/tonne. The TT was going into Class A, which is 300bhp/tonne.
The 750MC uses TSL for timing at some rounds, but also TheResultsLive.co.uk for others, so the results can be found using TRL link for this round.

Full Race Day Vlog

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

Qualifying

The wonderful British weather threw a spanner in the works for Quali. We were late getting to the assembly area as the wipers on the Golf decided to not work at all (it turned out to be a fuse under the bonnet). As we were about to head there, the heavens opened. It looked like it was never going to stop, so I made the decision to go to a damp setup. Tyre pressures up, dampers softer and ARBs off. Ryan and Adam opted to leave it on a dry setup and got out right away.
As I headed to the Assembly Area, we were told the track was now live so we had to go back to the pits. This lost me at least 3 or 4 laps to the rest of the field, and as soon as I got onto the circuit, there was a Safety Car due to a stranded vehicle.
By the time I had chance to do a flying lap, the track was dry even though it was still spitting in some areas. I put in a few reasonable laps, but nowhere near the pace so pitted for a partial reversal of the setup changes. The ARBs would have to stay off for now otherwise there would be no time to get back out.
Meanwhile Adam was still blasting around, his early laps putting right at the front with the usual suspects. However, as they got into the groove, they started to knock chunks out of his time. With not a lot of time left, he pulled into the pits to get Ryan out for his 3 laps. It was just in the nick of time, as Ryan had an outlap, flying lap and in lap before the flag. If Adam had stayed out another lap, he would have failed to qualify.
In the end, Adam had put in a 1:28.95, close to the E46 M3 of Andy Marston, but 1.3s off Carl Swift in the Cupra TCR and nearly 2s off Will Stacey in the Elise. We still have some work to do! It fared no better for me, down in P22, 6th in class with a 1:32.50. An improvement of 0.02s would have got me P5, a full second would have still only got me P2 as Jonathan Packer was way ahead with a 1:31.14.

Adam had been right up there at the start, into the 1:30s, but as the others got into the groove after the Safety Car, they dropped down to 4th.

Not getting out before the safety car put me on the back foot, and the damp to almost dry setup change midway through the session also didn't help, I'd only completed 9 laps, with traffic on most of them. It just means I have more to make up for in the race!

Qualifying Laps

Our 'fastest' laps are shown below:

Race

This time Ryan was going to start in the TT, promoted to P3 after the Elise of Will Stacey was dropped back to 11th as he had to change cars due to a mechanical issue during Qualifying.
The starts in this series are 2x2 rolling.

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

Adam & Ryan Race

Ryan started really well, jumping Carl at the start to get up to P2, and he was battling hard with Andy Marston in the White E46, until the safety car came out due to my tangle (with a white E46!) on lap 1. As Ryan was attacking Andy in front and defending Carl behind, he didn't see the flag to his right as he entered the complex. Andy jumped on the brakes into the right hander very early, and Ryan dove down the inside as the BMW turned in. They banged wheels, Ryan carried on and the BMW headed to the pits. So Ryan was in P1, but with a bitter taste from that move. It was not how he wanted to take the lead.
He held on well at the restart, but understeered wide at Tower Bend, dropping back to P4. For the next 18 or so Laps, he was hanging on to P4 until Carl Swift had to pit mega early (just in the pit window) to fix a rear left puncture.
At just over the halfway mark, the Orange E46 of Matt Hampson and Andy Schulz was in the lead until their front left wheel decided to go in a different direction to the rest of the car at Clervaux. They were lucky not to smash into the wall, but the car was stranded and brought out the safety car. As expected, everyone dove into the pits, so it was utter chaos!

The changeover to Adam was not great, the refuelling still took way longer than we would like, but compared to everyone who was ahead, it was not too bad, which meant Adam came out in P1 and held onto the lead for almost 20 laps, with a gap to P2 of over 14s at one point.
However our gearbox gremlins had not disappeared, and out of the hairpin, it was doing some weird stuff. The gap that Adam had pulled slowly dwindled and by Lap 56 he was in P2, 57 down to third, then 4th on Lap 61 where he managed to hold until the end, lap 74. It was painful to watch and probably even more painful to be driving, seeing all that hard work drain away.

Scott Race

I knew I had qualified out of position and would need to make up some places at the start, but the guys in front did not bunch up to the pack on the rolling start as they should have, so we were on the back foot from the get-go. The start lights were off before we had even turned the hairpin and onto the straight. I guess that is my fault for not qualifying better!
I made a move around the outside of the Cupra TCR at Hawthorn, then got a Mk5 Golf on the brakes into Tower. I had a great run on the white E46 of Julian McBride through the Jim Clark Esses and went for a move at Barcroft. Looking back at the footage, I hesitated for a split second and I think Julian expected me to be behind him, not at the side as he went for the Apex. We touched and he did a 180 and I took to the grass to avoid him. The track was damp and the grass was damper! I had zero grip and could see myself sliding painfully towards the barriers! I managed to make it onto the tarmac runoff at Sunny In, but the grip then spun me round. I watched as everyone streamed past and I dropped to P33. So now I had even more making up to do!
Every lap then was a Quali lap and getting round the slower cars without losing any time if possible. I'd dragged myself back up to P5 in class by the halfway mark, but with a big gap to the guys in front.
The safety car came out and worked perfectly for me, I was able to do almost a full lap at full race pace before diving into the pits, whereas the other guys in front were in early, but had to do more laps at safety car speed. The guys did a great job in my pitstop, and of the 3 minutes stationary, we had probably 30s to spare. As I was pushed back into the fast lane, we were up to P1 in class!

I didn't let my fortunate position slow me down, as I always like to have a safety buffer where possible. As I had lost radio comms with the team, they were holding out the pit board with the gap. At it's peak, I was over 30s ahead of P2 (sound like a familiar story?) and the car felt great.
As always in racing, things are never that easy, and as I passed the pit entry and accelerated down the main straight, a loud whooshing noise developed, and the noticeable sound of a boost pipe popping off occurred. Through the chicane I was doing around 60mph and struggled to maintain that speed for the rest of the lap, the car bellowing black smoke from the exhaust as the boost escaped back into the atmosphere!
I was able to get back to the pits, but lost a lot of time. Luckily my radio had worked sufficiently enough that the guys were ready with a new clamp and the tools to get the job done in record time, and I was back out in the pits. Carl Swift in the Cupra TCR had overtaken me while I was limping around, and he came back again, so I had lost a full lap in total as well as a podium position in class. I was now back to 4th.
Shortly after there was a safety car, which bunched us all back up. I could see the three Area Motorsport Golf's in a line, with about 6 or 7 cars in front of me. I didn't know how long was left, but I thought if I had a few laps at least, I might have been able to close the gap.
I was wrong! Directly being me were a bunch of Class A cars that were all fighting for P5 so they were knocking chunks out of each other, and I got caught in the crossfire as well. I watched the Golfs disappear into the distance and any chance of a podium going with them.

I finished P11 overall, and P4 in class, 22s behind Luke Handley in first, and 18s from third. I couldn't complain really, dropping from P22 to P33, getting back to ~P6 then dropping to 11th, it still showed the Golf is very competitive.
I did win the Tegiwa 'Driver of the Day' award for my efforts, which included a £200 voucher, so I guess I won more than if I had won a trophy!

Ryan and Adam finished 4th on the road, which was good considering the issues they had with the box. However, Post Race it was not a good sign. Ryan was summoned to Race Control and it was determined that he had caused a collision under the Safety Car, and the car was therefore disqualified from the race.

Adam had the fastest lap of the day in the TT, with a 1:29.37 and Ryan was just shy with a 1:29.68, so they were super close. The TTs need more work to get close to the 1:27.28 of Andy Schulz in the M3 and Carl Swift in the TCR with a 1:27.76. We still have a long way to go with the setup of those cars.

My best was a 1:31.85, which was still a fair way off Freeman with a 1:30.52 so I have some time to find as well.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

So I have another P1 in class curse. I maybe need to stay in P2 right until the end and then go for it, as the car seems to give me issues when am I way off in the lead. With the TT, the gearbox woes are still apparent. We will figure them out, but how little hair we will have left by the time we do, I am not sure!
Thanks to the guys for working so hard in the runup to the weekend. We have only 2 working days to get the cars ready for Anglesey in the Turismo-X, where we also decided to do the KA 24hr race as well!

Photos courtesy of Phill Andrews and CommonGround