Steve & Matt will be sharing the 1440cc Hayabusa powered SBD DJ Firehawk CT004

Carole will be driving her Hayabusa powered OMS CF08

Steve:
Saturday, Eastern Circuit – 4th in BSC R7: 64.17s, 5th in BSC R8: 62.98s
Sunday, Outer Circuit – 4th in BSC R9: 58.13s, 5th in BSC R10: 58.24s
Matt:
Saturday, Eastern Circuit – 6th in BSC R7: 65.42s, 4th in BSC R8: 61.82s (NR)
Sunday, Outer Circuit – 1st in BSC R9: 55.85s (NR), 4th in BSC R10: 56.79s
Carole:
Saturday, Eastern Circuit – 10th in BSC R7: 74.48s, 10th in BSC R8: 71.85s
Sunday, Outer Circuit – 8th in BSC R9: 64.70s, 9th in BSC R10: 63.26s

Report
Saturday:
After our wet Goodwood, it was nice to see a dry circuit even if every grassy area was like a bog. Steve went out first again, said the car wasn’t bad but it was sliding a bit at the rear more than we would like. Matt then went out on slightly warmer tyres and reported the same. The decision was made to disconnect the rear roll bar, this significantly improved the rear grip and both Steve and Matt preferred the way it felt, but the front end still wasn’t fantastic. Steve out qualified Matt and also managed to beat him in the 1st run off, which is good news as far as Steve is concerned because Blyton is a circuit that he cannot get to grips with. We were both a reasonable amount off the cars in front of us so during lunch, Steve made the decision to disconnect the front roll bar as well. Steve went first after lunch and thought the car was considerably better, unfortunately for Steve, Matt liked it even more. This got his confidence up and was able to put in a very fast qualifying time taking the record in the 2nd run off. Places were reversed with Matt finishing 4th and Steve 5th .

We opted to make some further changes for the 5th timed run, which doesn’t count towards our championship and put stiffer springs on the front, this improved the front end but worsened the rear. Alan Mugglestone suggested stronger rear springs, but we hadn’t got anything of a higher rate so Steve made the decision to put the stronger spring rates that we had on the rear, which effectively meant swapping the springs from front to rear.

We had been testing a new traction control strategy all day, which Steve Miles has also been running and this was having a good improvement. The traction was becoming more progressive and a significant advance in the launch to traction transition and we were producing the quickest 64ft times even on very old tyres.

Sunday:
Steve was first out again with the new set up, initially it wasn’t any warmer than it had been on the Saturday but the changes that had been done to the spring rates and ride height had made a massive difference to the car. The car was far more composed. Steve was more comfortable in it but felt corner entry and mid corner made him feel slightly uncomfortable where the exit was ok. Matt instantly loved the set up change and began to post some very fast times, even though the 1440cc doesn’t have as much power as the bigger capacity cars, the driveability and response of the engine coupled with the handling we already had meant the car was becoming very fast around the corners and although we were losing speed down the straight managed to win the 1st run off, Steve was still struggling to get some of the corners right ending up 4th. After lunch Steve went first, posted a reasonable time, unfortunately still no real gains on the corners he was struggling with. Matt qualified well again but come the run offs, Steve had a slight moment at Bunga Bunga which lost him nearly a second and Matt had a similar but slightly difference at the same place so we ended up 4th and 5th. Happy with the weekend for FTD on Sunday and a run off win.

We are getting the DJ prepped in the trailer and the Westfield for it’s first outing with Zoe since its full rebuild at Lydden this weekend.

Steve at Blyton Park

Matt at Blyton Park

Carole at Blyton Park

All photographs copyright to Kim Broughton