Red Dragon MR2 Race Series, Brands Hatch Indy

This was my first ever Red Dragon race meeting competing against other Toyota MR2 mk1’s in a 1 make series. I had met some of the drivers previously at the 750 Brands event two weeks earlier. Having done that event I was confident that I could better my best lap time from that weekend during qualifying.

Qualifying;

Qualifying proved difficult with 38 cars all trying to string together a good lap in the 15 minute session, However lap 7 proved best for me and with a clear track ahead I posted a time of 1.01.011 which surprisingly was good enough for P10 on the grid. Also this time was half a second faster than my previous best, so all in all a good session. I was hoping for a sub 1.01 though if I’m honest.
After quail I looked at the tyres I’d used and thought that there was quite a lot of graining so I decided to spread the wear between the 2 sets of tyres I had with me and bolted on ‘set 2’ for race 1.

Race 1;

As there is no green flag lap we formed up on the grid and waited for the lights to go out. As before my gearchange into 2nd proved difficult loosing 3-4 places into the first corner, however undeterred I quickly started racing. The lead cars had pulled a slight gap on me at the end of lap 1 and knowing that the tyre grip levels are good almost instantly I decided to carry a lot of speed into turn 1 – Paddock to close the gap. As the track fell away the rear wheels broke traction and within a split second I was off the circuit onto the infield. After regaining control I rejoined the track in last position.
After playing catch up to the back of the field for a couple of laps I managed to slowly move up the order during the 15 lap race, eventually finishing in 23rd out of the 32 that started.
After the race I inspected the ‘set 1’ tyres I’d used I realized that they were of the harder compound and not the medium/soft ones that we should run on, the identifying marks had been removed which I hadn’t noticed. This explained why the tyres lacked grip and squealed for the first 5 laps of the race.

Race 2

Your grid position of race 2 is determined by your finishing position in race 1 so I started 23rd on the grid.
Another appalling start dropped me back to last just a few turns into the race, so once again found myself with some overtaking practise within this 28 car field. Whilst trying to take 22nd position on lap 14 of this 15 lap race I ran wide to avoid contact which dropped me back to P25 where I was placed when I took the chequered flag.