Badgerwagen 2nd 2007 Race report-7th May

[badger5]

Badgerwagen finishes again (just!)

We set up on sunday afternoon as there was prospective paddock chaos on monday with 300+ competitors. I was staying overnight on site in the little marquee thing we have (tent of sorts) having bought a sleeping bag and camp bed that morning. I dont do camping since scouts when I was a lad - lol

It was windy as heck which made erecting the marquee fun. (not!)
Then it rained from about 10pm all blummin night to vary levels of monsoon to driven drizzle in 30mph winds.. What a night. Sleep was'nt a likely option in the tent no matter how hard I tried to ignore the groaning/creaking/tearing sounds from the buffeting wind.. I gave up trying to sleep @ 1am and got into the audi for a quiet nights sleep in the end. got a few hours I think on and off...

Monday early o'clock, up at 5.45am (could'nt sleep anyhows) so mooch about and wash, brush teeth etc... felt more human sort of. Put kettle on for a nice brew and then off to sign on before 7am. got car scruitineer'd the night before so just had to taker overalls and helmet for the vital "ok" sticker to be issued. It was ****ing down with rain - mostly horizontal, so backs of legs gettign soaked and umbrella's in fear for their lives. all good fun.

Deffo going to be a wet race. LMAO
Decided to try the 'dry' tyres as I have'nt actually ever tried em in the wet. disimilar front/rear on mine for fitment reasons. Bridgestone S03 front, Falken 452 rears. - Usual wets for me is Eagle F1's on my 16" rims, which need 15mm front spacers these days to clear my bigger brakes for 2007.

Out we go, fans on full to try and stem the steaming up issues. So many of the race cars have removed their fans in the name of weight saving, but boy did they regret that on monday's quali. so many 'igloos' about and cars having to come back in cos of vision & fogging problems.

I was trying mine on high boost (back on apexi control for this meet) and it quickly proved to be 99% pointless in the conditions. turned controller off so back to 1bar boost for more traction (ish) and tentatively circulate around. It felt loose... not helped by me not getting any confidence in its front/rear grip level at all... Caught Ballards EVO up which should'nt have happened, but then followed it (should have passed it) but I just could not get my brain to commit to the circuit at all. Driving like a grandad ultimately, safe but slow.

Slow as in 10secs/lap of Dollys 206!
I could'nt believe I was that bad, but I was. 90% driver issue I think, and 10% rear tyres just not having grip, but fronts worked ok I thought.

Nett result 21st out of 36. Totally crap position way back.

We chewed the fat between us on what to do tyre wise.. I should have run the eagles in heinsight in those full on wet conditions. what would the weather do for the race tho ????

Saloons had to be on the grid for assembly area 1hour before we were due to race as there was lunch and pit walk/meet the drivers thing (new for this year), and the weather was still drizzling on and off, but also looking brighter and feeling warmer.... Hmmmm What tyres to fit 1 hour before all of this?
On the basis I felt the front/rear balance of the car was dire in the wet on the mix of dry tyres I opted for the eagles, hoping for a wet race proper.

Well you can guess what actually happened. On the grid it was wet but as soon as we go round on the green flag lap, the only place which was wet was the grid.. Rest of circuit totally dry. Typical.

Surprisingly, I could see the starting lights fine from row 11, far better than row 3 from last race. Red lights come on, and OFF we launch.... not too much wheel spin on mine, being gentle on the throttle, boost now on full, hook up thru 2nd, 3rd, catching cars in front rapidly but crowded so baulked into quarry. Pretty hectic, cars left, right, front rear..... and me with more power than any of them driving out of their way out of quarry into chicane. Cars balance felt nice. Predictable... nothing like as edgy as it was in the wet, but the eagles just dont have the dry grip as the larger s03's I should have been on. Sliding around generally, but all predictable and user friendly.

Proceeded to chase down the cars in front, able to mix it under braking, cornering and blasting by with my extra power easily. Had to adjust driving on this new larger turbo as lag did drop me out of boost coming out of 2nd chicane and a couple of times, cars I had previously blasted by into there, were now baulked by me waiting for boost to wind back up.... funny moment when an integra type r pulled out and along side just as mine spooled and shot off ahead. Was using 3rd up to that point, but had to drop to 2nd and ease the throttle balancing load/torque and wheelspin so 3rd gear could hook up and fire away. that worked a treat, so I could now pull away out of the chicanes as well now, just minding that I could'nt afford to be silly on the throttle control and wheelspin madly. Thats worked a treat.

Up to 8th position now, exit camp corner lining up a 205 to blast past for 7th which was going to be easy prey, and BANG, as I pass the pit wall, 3rd gear goes and no drive...... Try and get 4th but not engaging.... debris I guess, so coast down the and up to Avon rise pulling off to the left on the grass (bumpy @ speed ) trying to find any working gears..... crunch, 2nd and limp round off line to cool it down and finish race... couple of laps and a lots of grinding/rattling noises, and 4th comes back so use that to pick my remaining pace up and finish (26th).

Happy and dissapointed at the same time. Dissapointed in my own driving performance in the wet quali, and happy with the dry performance on my lower grip wet tyres in the race. Only 2nd fastest race lap time to the eventual class B winner of Mark Wyatt and getting through from 21st to 8th before 3rd let go. I would'nt have got beyond the 7th place as there was too big a gap to 6th for the remaining laps. The Ibizas got tremendous performance and is suprisingly usuable. One M3 driver asked what the hell I had done to it as I blew his doors off when passing by.

For next time, another g'box with tricky diff in it finally (supposed to be good for 1sec/lap alledgedly) whilst looking for unbreakable gears from someone.

Got to say big thanks to JBS/Custom Code for their support in the run up to this and the prospective gearbox change now req'd.

No idea what power its producing, but its 30psi and GT35 60-lb compressor revving to 8k during the race making race M3's look like mini metro's down the straights & passing Ballards EVO under power into Tower

Thanks also to Forge Motorsport for their continued support on alloy & silicon parts, and to tony & nige for their able assistance on the day helping all this to happen.

Need some sleep now.. knackered.
Next installment 28th May Bank Holiday.

thanks & regards
Bill

[Decron]

Great post, unlucky about the box

Hope you get it sorted

[Mr Grumpy]

As ever an informative and humourous insight into Badgersport.
Thanks, and better luck/bigger cahunas next time.

[bengie]

very nice write up, well done bill and shame about the box. better luck next time

[badger5]

It was always a concern how long a std 02A box designed for a 150bhp car would cope with >500bhp in race conditions.
So far consummed 2nd gear, 3rd, 5th and a crownwheel and pinion since owning the car. oh and a driveshaft snapped a couple of weeks ago.. lol

My new bigger turbo seems to be producing the goods.. now to try and hold everything else together..

all good fun.
its on the pace tho for sure. probably the most power in a fwd car in the c'ship but surprisingly tractable even when having to drop down into 2nd gear thru the chicanes to keep it on boost.

[bengie]

your running a standard gearbox

blimey!!

[badger5]

Originally Posted by bengie

your running a standard gearbox

blimey!!

yep.. fraid so.
was running quaife dog box last year but did'nt like its change.
synchro 02A from 16v ibiza in there and now dead 3rd, so 02J 20VT box due to go in with new tricky diff finally. Still std gears, and the 02J has 3.3FD vs the 3.67FD of the 02A.

Looking at seqshift gears currently as alternates... hoping they're up to it.