We arrived at the track on Saturday and saw that the club had worked very hard in providing a flat dirt track that looked super fast with some nice jumps. We then went to find our hotel that was near the seaside city of Portsmouth to finish off our car set up. Once done, the team went off to get some food. The following morning we got to the track and set about to get ready to practice.
Jon was in the first of the top heats and he found the car was well balanced, very good on the jumps with a bit to much bite from the clutch. For round 1 we changed the clutch to 1.0mm springs and this pretty much sorted out the car. Jon was beat in the heat by Graham Allsop, but both of these two set the target time for the rest to beat. Unfortunately for us, the dusty track was cleaning up all the time and consequently the track got quicker and easier to drive. Neil Cragg from the last run of the round TQ'ed the round with Jon placed in 7th.
Round 2 was looking very good for Jon until a top shock bolt snapped when catching a crashed car going over a jump. Jon finished the last 3 laps ok with the broken shock, but lost around 8 seconds in total and what would have been good target time. Going into the last round Jon still needed a good run to make the main final. Jon drove well to post the fastest time so far, some 6 seconds quicker than any previous time. It was a shame for us that Neil Cragg beat Jon's time by only 1/10th of a second as he again made the most of the ever improving track surface, but we knew we had great track speed and tyres that would last longer.
(click to enlarge)
After the normal preparation we were ready for the final, but we had an engine problem during warm up which meant the throttle idle speed was going to be too high for the race. From 5th on the gird Jon was up to 3rd and on lap 2 up to 1st and looking fast. A crash in the middle of the track cost Jon lots of time and he fell back down the order. The high idle speed was affecting how the car jumped and Jon had to adjust his driving to compensate. At 10 minutes and several mistakes later it was not looking so great back in 6th place, but Jon kept at it, trying hard on every lap. At 20 minutes gone, 2 of the leaders had problems and our good fuel stops had brought the top 3 closer. Also the XTR compound tyres were now working better than the other racers on the softer tyre and Jon was pulling them in. At 4 minutes to go Jon passed David Crompton for 2nd place and was only 7 seconds behind the leader Neil Cragg. With 1 minute to go, Cragg's pit crew decided to have a safety splash of fuel and as Cragg left the pits, Jon went by. On the last lap Jon went deep into a corner and run wide onto the dust. Cragg past Jon and went into the final jump section. Both cleared the jumps with no problem and Jon managed to commit to the final corner and found a way past on the inside line. They banged wheels and crossed the line with Jon just in front. It was a great race, but the end result did mean that Neil Cragg had done enough to win the national championship. We now go to Slough to try and win again and secure 2nd place in the overall standings.
