The other Sunday I entered Round 5 of the Toyota Sprint Series held at Woodbridge, near Ipswich.

The main reason for entering was to see at what level I was, relative to the other competitors, bearing in mind that I had done some driver training and practice over the summer months.

The circuit was superb, a combination of technical turns, sweeping bends and long straights (1.75 miles in length).

I started well and put in a couple of solid runs before starting to play around with my suspension damping settings and tyre pressures.
I progressively got quicker, finding my optimum settings, and put in a tremendous lap - this put me 2nd in class and 4th overall.
Alas it was not to last...the very next run I overcooked it, doing some rally cross over the grass, which cost me a lot of time. Also, 2 other competitiors put in some outstanding laps. This left me 3rd in class, 6th overall and 1 run to go.
I lined up for the final run...set off, feeling confident, doing some really nice lines, then...yellow flags...run aborted. I was rather frustrated as I felt I was going well (historically my last run is my best). Anyway, not to worry, under these circumstances I get a re-run. Unfortunately it was not to be, a car had dumped oil on the circuit which ment that the session was terminated. This ment I ended up 3rd in class and 6th overall.
I have to say that I was extremely pleased with my performance, imo, I drove really really well and have improved from my last outing.

Results are here: http://toyotasprint.com/tss/images/stories/files/tss10rnd5resultssorted.pdf

Bear in mind that I run in Class A3 with a lighlty modified ST205 running about 280bhp at just over 1bar.

I was "only" 9/10 seconds off 1st and 2nd - the class A1 cars (running c600+bhp) - Fensport and Merlin International;
3rd was a Class A3 car prepared by Merlin International. Goodness knows what they are running but they have stretched the rules and regulations to the limit and are perecieved to have not entered into the spirit of things. Anyway, I was about 3 seconds behind.
4th was a Starlet Turbo running about 350bhp and prepared by Tuning Developments. I was 3 tenths behind.
5th was another Class A3 car - an MR 2 that is stripped, caged and worked on by Merlin International. They found over 2 seconds on there final lap!

Anyway, I thought that, due to my performance, I would have a chance at winning the hard charger award but, alas, it was not to be - it was presented to 2nd in Class A3

I wasn’t very happy by the fact that someone could walk away with 2 trophies – this is nothing new and happened a lot last season. My feeling is that if you drive well and win a class trophy that is an exceptional achievement in itself and deserves a class trophy. However, there are a lot of other competitors that drive exceptionally well and don’t win anything for their achievements. Oh yes! ...and before I get flamed as being a bad loser because I didn’t get a trophy, I could have entered the class above (Class A2) and won it thus picking up a trophy for 1st in class . So, it's not a question of trophies, it's a question of acknowledgement and a better distribution of that particular award.

Anyway, that's it for this year.

As far as next year is concerned, I'll have to see how things pan out – IMO changes need to be made to the Class A2/A3 rules and regulations, the overall Championship structure to level the playing field for all and the distribution of the hard charger award – ideas of which have been forwarded onto the organisers.
Cheers
Nige


EDIT: I should point out that I am one of the biggest supporters of the Toyota Sprint Series.
I run my 205 daily all stickered up and go to as many car shows as possible.
I was spotted at Rally Day.

_________________
Vice Chairman
1990 White UK Celica ST185 - Project DTM
1997 Cream BMW R1200C (as seen in James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies")
2005 Jaguar X-type 3.0 Sovereign AWD Automatic
Blood Bikes - https://www.freewheelers.org.uk/

Congratulations on your achievements Nige. It seems there is a lot of unrest in TSS at the moment. It would appear a major shake up is on the cards if it's going to continue to attract competitors.

Well I have given my 2p's worth of suggesting entry level no mods but the response was that its too difficult to scrutineer....... no wonder Merlin blitz Class A3. All credit to Duncan though. He has been good enough to share the technical detail of his mods which fall within the rules. It was ever thus in motorsport

_________________
Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

Thanks Dan.
I'm pretty pleased with myself...still room for improvement though.

It's actually quite surprising the extent of the unrest...only realised after being so out spoken, but then it takes someone to stand up and shout out albeit in the proper manner (which I didn't to start with ). I have subsequently apologised to those concerned and PM'd the organisers directly.
For the record, I outlined my frustrations, provided explanantions and then come up with some solutions.
I believe that there are changes/improvements in the pipeline for next season...but we'll have to wait and see the extent of them.

I remember the conversation you had Don.
It's a shame your comments were not taken on board

That's a fair comment re last season when Duncan was running, however, this season it is Barry Watling from Merlin that's blitzed A3.
To date I haven't seen any write ups on mods done.
I was told that Merlin have a "magic store" of parts available to them.

_________________
Vice Chairman
1990 White UK Celica ST185 - Project DTM
1997 Cream BMW R1200C (as seen in James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies")
2005 Jaguar X-type 3.0 Sovereign AWD Automatic
Blood Bikes - https://www.freewheelers.org.uk/