Steve: 2nd Overall – 98.45s YouTube Video

Carole: 2nd in Class

Steve’s Report: We had carried out a lot of changes to the Westfield since I have last drove it and Zoe said it was much easier to drive but she had had a handling issue, which I had managed to sort before Abingdon. We had hoped Abingdon would be dry but it wasn’t to be, so we had to run the car all day on wets and we were using 4 year old Michelin tyres. I took it very gentle on 1st practice and couldn’t believe how well-mannered the car was. I kept using more and more of the engine power, which the car was now able to deliver to the road. I had been tuning the engine torque delivery to feel more like a normally aspirated engine and it was definitely very easy to drive.

Unfortunately each run got progressively wetter as I began to feel more comfortable in the car. I didn’t realise how quick the Westfield was going until I looked at the times, after the first timed run when we realised I was 2nd overall 98.45s, just over ½ second behind Will Nichols in his ex-works Subaru World rally car, so it just showed how much of an improvement the car had gained over last year. I had one run left to see if I could get FTD, unfortunately the weather got even worse and there was now standing water on the circuit so I decided to go for it anyway and the car delivered all the power to the road. I was on 2/100th off my fastest time on a drier track (98.47s) and was fastest on that run overall but not quick enough. I had a fantastic day, had forgotten how much fun it was to drive the Westfield and looking forward to going back in September with some Pirelli wets just in case.

The event ran extremely smoothly even with the wet conditions and thanks to all the all the marshals, officials and Sutton & Cheam Motor Club.