I'm a newbie on here but as I've recently been travelling to race meetings with Chris Allanson I thought I might have a go at posting a race reports for people to keep up with the Zcars racers. Just to confuse you all I'm also called Chris!
Last weekend was a double header at Anglesey.
Saturday
With the newly revamped Anglesey looking very smooth, wide and very different to the old circuit this weekend presented a unique opportunity for the whole grid. Almost no one had been round the circuit before and so qualifying was going to be a first for most of the field although a couple of people had tested on the Friday. Friday testing was soon to count for little though as Saturday dawned with constant torrential rain.
Click here for coastal circuit
The steeply banked hairpin known as ‘The Banking’ the uphill blind crest at the end of a long curving straight aptly called ‘Rocket’ and the very tight twisty downhill corners called ‘The Corkscrew’ provided some amazing challenges. The new circuit seemed to get the thumbs up from the drivers and the scene was set for qualifying.
Three Zcars were in attendance, The Monte Carlos of Chris Maries (Hayabusa) Graham Wynn (Honda Type R) and Chris Allanson’s steel bodied Hayabusa engined Mini.
Chris Allanson straight away enjoyed the slippery conditions bringing all his years of autograss racing experience into play by qualifying on the second row of the grid of 21 cars with only a 400hp V8 Darrien, a Caterham R400, and V8 Rover in front.
Chris Maries took a bit longer to settle into things and had a number of uncharacteristic spins “exploring the limits� as he put it. The last monumental spin off at Church not only completely filled the car with mud and stones but turned it from a white car to a completely mud brown one much to the amusement of all the children given free cameras for the photographic competition!
So with Chris Maries qualifying on row 4 and Chris Allanson ahead of him on row 2 the challenge was on! Time sheets here
Anyone who has seen a Zcar’s start will know that from the second row leading the field into The Banking was a distinct possibility. As the lights changed it just didn’t quite happen though and the mega power of the Caterham propelled Alastair Chambers into the lead with Chris A second. That was the way it stayed until lap 6 when Ian Hall’s Darrien and Paul Dobson’s 350hp RX7 powered their way past on the long straight. Chris Maries storming start unfortunately had him “exploring the limitsâ€? again on the infield section. He rejoined the race and then proceeded to drive past half the field before finally giving up two places by leaving the circuit again at the scene of his morning excursion.
Graham Wynn running different tyres drove a consistent race and appeared to enjoy the fabulous new Anglesey Circuit.
Sunday arrived, again with torrential rain but with the slightly longer International GP Circuit in use it was another new challenge for everyone. Click here for International circuit
Chris Maries clearly had put his previous day’s exploits behind him and was only out qualified by two cars leaving some amazing machinery behind him on the grid. Chris Allanson’s car lost its coolant after a lap thanks to a brand new but faulty radiator cap and after a frantic pit stop just got his mandatory qualifying laps in and managed to qualify in the middle of the grid.
Then as everyone waited for the afternoon’s race it finally stopped raining! Out came the slicks and everyone was learning the circuit again but this time it was the dry lines. As the start lights went out a very uncharacteristic poor start for CM and the usual storming one from CA put them together on the track and the scene was set for a mega Zcars battle. The new and now dry track produced some very high speeds down the long curving straight and needed some heavy braking at several corners and on lap 5 CA’s brakes cried enough as the brake pedal faded causing him to back off and drive for a points finish only. Perhaps all the moisture that had got into everything else over the weekend had got into the brake fluid and caused it to boil.
So despite all the weekends’ events Zcars still reigned supreme in Class C and had mixed it with the supercars again in the Ace Deliveries Sports / Saloons Championship.
Croft is the next meeting in a couple of weeks. See you there?
Chris Thomas
Edited by crossed thread, 05 July 2007 - 05:05 PM.
