Headed up to Coventry for round two of the National Championships. Weather was on and off with rain for the Saturday qualifying. There was to be 4 rounds on the Saturday and one on the Sunday morning. The track was all dirt with a series of jumps and was very fast. We had two rounds of practice where we were testing tyres and shock setups. We got the car in a very good setup ready for qualifying. Looking at the lap times from practice it looked like Elliott was fastest with Lee Martin just a shade behind.

 

Qualifying

 

Qualifying went quite well with the track becoming quite bumpy and rough. Also we had to contend with a downpour of rain in between qualifying. We started round one qualifying on hole shot M4 as the track was a little wet and as it dried we decided to run our crossbows 2 in X3 compound and then we ended up on blockade X3 compound as the track was drying and becoming hard packed again but here were some nasty holes around the track. Throughout qualifying Elliott suffered a fair bit of traffic problems with back markers (as this was a very fast track with average 36 second laps - he was catching other drivers up very quickly) but it had cost him quite a bit of time. He was able to TQ two of the five rounds and get three second places. It was very very close in qualifying with Lee Martin. There were only seconds in it for the TQ spot and without the traffic problems I know we would have been on TQ.

 

Semi Final

 

Ending up second in qualifying put us on pole for the B Semi. We also added 10gram wheel weights to the front and rear of the car, which Elliott tested in the semi warm up and said it helped the car a lot landing off the jumps and through the bumpy section. Elliott led the pack away and was lapping within four minutes and took the win by well over a lap. He was using big blocks X3 compound which we were also testing for the 45 minute final. These tyres were very good through all the rutty bumpy sections and he was able to set some very fast lap times in the low 34's which I think were some of the fastest of the weekend and with some spectacular driving style over the big jump, which kept the spectators very happy and smiling.

 

Main A Final

 

With a hard fast driving from the semi final Elliott missed pole position for the Main A by 100th of a second from Lee Martin! Unfortunately on one of his fuel stops on the semi he got caught on some piping coming in for his fuel stop, which cost him 3 or 4 seconds. Without that I am sure he would have been on pole for the main final. Lee Martin led the pack away and within less than a lap Lee and Elliott had broken away from the pack and now were entering into a 2 man race in which they were both setting some fantastic lap times. After two laps Elliott took the lead and this was the trend that was to continue throughout most of the final with Lee and Elliott swapping places for the lead in between fuel stops. Unfortunately Elliott was due in for his third fuel stop but didn't quite make it and unfortunately ran out of fuel and had to be recovered quickly and get started and back out, which he drove very hard and was able to catch up to finish just behind third place. With a little bit more time he would have certainly got a podium finish but was happy with 4th place after having an engine stop. We ran the Novarossi Keepoff 7S which was producing some fantastic fuel mileage all weekend so it was a bit strange for us to run out of fuel on 8.5 minutes but looking at the way Elliott was driving, much harder to catch up and with the track gripping up, the fuel consumption must have dropped. Looking at lap times I am not surprised as he was able to put in the fastest lap of the weekend of 33.90 which was extremely fast. His MP9 TKI3 was outstanding all weekend. The car was faultless and got better and better as the weekend went on.

 

We now head (in 2 weeks) up to Wakefield for round 3 hopefully being able to come away with a TQ and win and also getting prepared for the European Championships in Reims at the beginning of July.

We would like to thank all the sponsors for the help and support for a great weekend, not quite the result we wanted but unfortunately that's racing! You do need also to have some luck on your side which hopefully will return for Elliott shortly as his driving is brilliant at the moment.

 

Regards

Chris and Elliott Boots