• rob_4ucz0g4c
• | July 12, 2014
• | Races 2014
• | No Comments

Castle Coombe – 2014

We arrived at Castle Combe on the Friday and set up the truck, relaxing before the following days qualifying and Race.

Signing on and Scrutineering was at 07.30 with our qualifying being the first of the day at 08.30
The weather was hot already at that time of the day and went out in qualifying and Rob put in as many laps as he could to see what the fuel consumption was going to be like in the hot conditions. 18 laps were done, with the fastest lap being on lap 9, with a time of 1.30.259 and with the ForTwo Cup out at the same time, was 3^rd fastest Smart on the track in qualifying and 19^th overall on the grid which Rob was happy about.

Come the race and the temperatures had increased and with ¾ of a tank of fuel Rob was in a good mood. At the start, Rob got baulked by a Golf and this slowed him down a bit before the first real bend at Quarry Corner where one of the ForTwo Cup Smarts was able to overtake him. Rob stuck on their tail until they got to Camp Corner, just before the start/finish straight where Rob drove around the outside and was able to start to pull away. Robs Fastest Lap of the race at 1.29.072 was put in on lap 2 as he pulled away from the other Smarts. Putting in consistent lap times, Rob Spun on coolant from an MR2 which had broken a coolant hose on the entrance to Quarry Corner. Gaining control again, Rob was still able to come back just behind the leading ForTwo Cup car which he followed until the end of the lap, pealing in to the pits for his compulsory pit stop. Getting out of the car and shutting the door, Tony went to open it and in his haste the handle broke and Tony went flying across the Pit Lane, much to the amusement of everyone around and once the door was opened again Rob was able to get in and carry on out onto the circuit for his second stint of the race. Rob managed some more 1.29 laps in the second stint as the car ran superbly throughout, not missing a beat and lapping other cars on the track until the end of the race which was Red flagged due to an incident on track, but only a minute or two before the 40 minutes was up anyway. Robs Final position was 13^th overall, winning his class in the CSCC.

A great day was had and to have the car in the same spec as last year and with the only addition of different Road Legal Tyres and doing what it did was testament to the hard work put in by S2Smarts and Tune4Performance over the winter months to iron out the issues the car has plagued us with.