This year I took a detour to visit my tyre sponsor on the way to Knockhill, it was a great chance to see the guys from Landsail and show them the car. When I arrived at the circuit the weather was cold and windy but dry, which was a good result for Knockhill. I set up the pits and disappeared to a local hotel for food and much needed sleep.
Saturday was for the Pro-Am class to qualify and battle so we had the whole day to check over the car and do any last minute adjustments ready for qualifying Sunday. Sunday seemed to come around quickly and while changing the tyres ready for practice, the inevitable happened. The heavens opened. Knockhill is notoriously unpredictable in the wet. Anything really can happen.
I took my first run of the practice session pretty easy trying to gauge the track’s grip levels, but soon the speed was up again and I was quite happy with my lines. I was confident that I had managed to put the car in the right places on the track like the judges had asked for.
Just before qualifying started the worst thing possible happened. It stopped raining. That may sound like a good thing, but all through the practice it was wet. Settings & tyre pressures would need to be changed to accommodate the now drying track but sadly we were called to line up for qualifying before I had a chance to change anything. The track would now be pretty grippy, but just how grippy I wouldn’t know until I hit the crest and dropped into turn 1.
As suspected, the track in qualifying felt totally different and getting the car out to the clipping points was now a lot harder. I knew my first qualifying run was not fantastic but I still had one run left to try again. On my second run I came over the brow of the hill faster and while transitioning for the forth clipping point, the car gripped up massively and shot me across the track and straight across the grass destroying aero and ending my qualifying.
I honestly thought I had no chance of qualifying so went back to the pits to see what damage had been done to the car. Luckily it was mostly cosmetic but the steering just didn’t seem quite right. Then came the news that I had actually qualified. It seems like nearly everyone had also struggled with the changing track conditions.
The sun was now out and my first battle was against Martin Richards in his R33 Skyline. I hadn’t ever battled against Martin before so I knew it was going to be a tough battle. Martin was the lead car on the first run and I was to chase. As we initiated Martin had pulled a small gap but dropped a wheel into the dirt a few times and I was able to pull back the gap to Martin. Because of the dirt drop I held an advantage going into the second run.
On the second run with me as the lead car, we were both fairly matched but off of the desired judges line which ended up with Martin in the gravel pit on the last corner. I took the overall win.
My second battle was against Matt Tillyard. Another person I have never been drawn against before. Matt was to lead first. Matt had the better line round the track giving him the advantage going in to the second run. With roles reversed and me to lead, I struggled to keep the Soarer on the right line with the handling issues it had developed earlier and the win was awarded to Matt.
The Landsail tyres performed very well in both the wet and the dry, its just a shame that the handling issues plagued me all afternoon but that’s racing. Thanks to all of my sponsors, see you at Round 3.