Goodwood sprint (yesterday 27/4)

[Sgt Pepper]

It was good to catch up with Lynn & Chris, Mike Sankey & Chris Moss who were competing and Shaun and Gill who popped along to watch. It was bl%dy cold to start but as least it stayed dry contrary to the weather reports.

 

Not sure who won but Mike was leading the class at one stage......

 

This year the format was changed. Gone was the old system of lining up as a grid of 5, instead we lined up in single file in the pit lane and we started at the end of the pit lane, completed 1.8 laps and finished on the exit to Woodcote before slowing down and entering the paddock at the start of the pit lane. Cars were generally sent out in batches of 4.

 

Things didn't run too smoothly in the morning for practice and T1 as 3 or 4 cars kept tripping the drive by meters and were subsequently excluded. One guy told me he managed 107db and with super-trapp was 101.5db (drive by limit 101db). I understand that Goodwood is now self-governing on the noise front and are very strict and as a result of too many incidents in a short spcae of time the track was closed for 20 minutes at one stage. Coupled with a few mechanical breakdowns on circuit this meant that there were far too many periods of non-activity ☹️. However, although the afternoon session ran smoothly and we ended up in total with 3 timed runs, this was probably due to lack of numbers (I reckon there were no more than 2/3 of the usual number of entrants). Sadly, for whatever reason they haven't been able to attract the numbers to replace the club's attendance.

 

I didn't get to the awards ceremony, but there was a notice saying that before they started there would be a minute's silence for Sandra.

 

Although I enjoyed myself I think a 'double-lapper' of 4.4 miles in total is too long really and there were a few instances of cars being caught on the 2nd lap. In the past I also recall that we were 'graded' on the grid according to our times. This didn't appear to happen this year and also there seemed a more relaxed approach to making your way to the start which resulted in cars of varying speeds mixed together with the result that some cars were sent of in smaller batches. In fact at one stage I was behind 2 'veteran' cars and they were sent out as a pair.

 

I guess a new format will always lead to teething problems, but overall I'm not sure whether I would enter again with this format.......

 

 

[Shaun_E]

Nice to catch up with you Chris - we had a relaxing day just watching and chatting with everyone. I was glad I brought my winter coat with me though - it was a bit chilly.

Chris H-H won, Mike 2nd and Lynn 3rd in the class with all the Caterhams. Lynn got fastest lady too.

Will be out in the garage today to finish off the little bits on the car ready for a shakedown next week and the season openers in Wales 😬