Sunday:
A slightly more relaxed start time of 7.30am today and a more leisurely cruise from Kilkee to Limerick. The weather was looking good, blue skies all around!
I arrived at the track, it had rained quite hard overnight and the tarmac was wet. There was also a 2" deep pool of water in the seat of my race car..great. I'd left my overalls, helmet and boots in the enclosed car trailer overnight. It turns out the trailer leaks...quite badly! My fire proof suit was soaked from the waist down...and freezing cold..I was not looking forward to putting that on! Thankfully, even at 9 in the morning the sun was warm and there was a good breeze. Great drying weather, for the suit and the track.
Kevin had fixed his car after clipping the ditch and bending all the front wishbones on the last run yesterday.
Leaving it till the last possible moment I got togged up, the suit was still damp but not cold at least. The track had dried though. In the queue to the start line I ran through the circuit in my head, picking out the points I thought I could make up most time. There were 3 or 4 places around the track where I knew I was holding back, I'd been braking hard into the fast sweeping right hander at the back of the course and my team mates reckoned they were just lifting there. The bend was flanked on both sides by high stone walls and there was zero run off or room for error. I figured i'd see how brave I was feeling when I got there!
Paddins Dowling lights up the rears ahead of me in €1.5m worth of ERA
The starter gave me the green light and I dumped the clutch in 2nd with boot-full of revs and plenty of wheelspin, immediately a dab of brakes and into the tight right hander with a satisfying powerslide and a touch of opposite lock on the way out, short shifting into 3rd to settle the back end before the sweeping left hander which plunges, slightly off camber downhill making the back of the car step out, a quick lift and a flick left then hard on the power for a second before standing on the brakes, locking the inside left and down to 2nd for the 90 degree left at the bottom of the hill, straight away another hard left then flat out and up the gears for the fastest part of the course towards the sweeping right hander.....was I going to be brave enough to just lift? .....maybe next time! there was definitely grip to spare though.
Through another technical, twisty section then hard on the power down the short straight and on the brakes far too hard for a deceptive left hander flanked by huge bales and stone walls but with a wide exit, Onto the main straight I miss a gear as I head for the chicane, then miss another one on the way out, down the off-camber left hander for the 2nd time. I brake too late for the hairpin and the car understeers, both left wheels end up on the grass and the engine is screaming as the tyres scrabble for traction over the 20 yard sprint to the finish.
My time was 61.98 seconds, 3 seconds faster than i'd gone yesterday. I was going in the right direction. If I could calm things down a bit for the next run I should be able to shave some more time off.
For run 2 I tried the smooth approach, concentrating on clean gear changes and on braking points, trying not to lock wheels. Although a lot less wild and exciting it felt faster. The time was 61.72 seconds. Still going in the right direction but I thought it should have been quicker.
Time for lunch. I had a good wander round the festival site as I hadn't really had a chance to see what was going on. I grabbed a quick sandwich and sat on the steps of the grandstand watching helicopters taking off, stunt planes doing their thing and some quad racing, which was great but was miles too far away and nobody was watching it. There was a great selection of Ferrari's and Lambo's in the supercar paddock and on the way out I bumped into this thing:
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I'd never seen one before. It's An Aston Martin of some sort with a bespoke Bertone designed body. I still don't know what it was exactly. There was a good selection of attractions for visitors from autotest demo's, stunt bikes, karting, trade stands, a good selection of places to eat, bouncy castles, a live band, car club displays and loads more besides. One big criticism would be the spectator areas for the sprint. All you could see was the start line and a section of the straight. For the price, this was not good enough and everyone I spoke to was grumbling about it. Hopefully the feedback from the fans will make it's way to the organisers and they'll act on it for next year.
Back to the action. For run 3 I decided a mixture of aggression and smoothness was required and tried to combine everything i'd learnt so far. it felt quick but I just clipped a cone going through the chicane which meant my time would be eliminated from the results. During the drivers briefing in the morning the amount that you were allowed to move the cones was the hot topic of debate. The Clark of The Course clarified with a great analogy: "Lads, it's like this. You cant be a little bit pregnant, either you are or you aren't and it's the same for the cones. you either hit them or you didn't. hit them and you're out!"
For the last 2 runs it was just more of the same, I kept pushing harder while trying to keep it smooth. The final run of the day was my fastest on 59.49 seconds. My team mate Dave was going extremely well on a 56.73 putting him 7th overall and winning our class. On his 4th run he hit a rock which had been dragged onto the track by one of the buggies, sending Dave off into the ditch and wrecking the car. Kevin was going well too and finished 8th overall on 57.01 seconds. I finished 16th overall, which to be honest I was pretty chuffed about!
So that was it, all over. On the whole I think the competitors had a good time and enjoyed the track. The Formula Sheane cars did themselves proud against some serious competition. Will we be seeing them at a few more hillclimbs and sprints in the future I wonder?
As with any new event there were a few obvious teething problems which was to be expected and It's easy for us to fans and competitors to criticise but I do think overall the organisers did a fantastic job. Yes there's room for improvement and hopefully next year mistakes will be learnt from and the Irish Festival Of Speed will go from strength to strength!
Rob.
Big thanks to JayTee Photographic and Caora Dubha.com for the photo's
