S.T.C.C ROUND 3 RESULTS AND RACE REPORT.

Round 3 Brookland






2008 Corally/STCC Round 3: Brookland.....
situated in the heart of the Romney Marshes in Kent, the Brookland
track was, I think a surprise, for a lot of people, even though they
had been warned about how large it was! This was a track to really
stretch the legs of the cars, and a frequent call around the pits was
heard of people looking to beg, buy or borrow pinions and spurs, even
though we shortened the track by cutting out the top loop! Ratio's of
high 3's and low 4's were heard around the TC2 and TC3 pilots, while
middle 6's was the order of the day for most of the TC1's. The secret
to fast lap times were good lines, holding the highest speeds possible
through the big sweeper and navigating the complex of 5 tight corners
through the infield with their high kerbs, one wheel off the line and
because the cars were traveling so fast you could easily end up 20-30
feet away in the wrong area of the track. I think most people really
had a cracking and thoroughly enjoyable race day, the grip was good,
the cars were rapid, and the racing was damm fast and exiting to watch,
with the lead positions often swapping between the top cars multiple
times each lap. The food from the onsite cafe was even served to your
covered mains powered pit area.......what more could you want! And from
all the people that commented to me, they want this track in the
calendar next year. Many thanks to all the drivers for such a great
weekend, to Brookland for having such a great track and especially to
Andy and Aaron for their huge effort in control and scrutineering. STCC
will also have it's own car race numbers from the next meeting on for
the rest of 2008.


Full meeting Results and Club Championship Tables Update

Meeting Gallery

TC1 A-final winners


3rd: Mark Trinder 1st: Jason Moggridge 2nd: Dave Ringsall

A
complete race report, with tech sheets, is being prepared by 'Joe90'
and will be published as soon as he has completed it. Thanks again to
Andy for his amazing work the Individual and Club Championship tables
are now updated. The MacDonald gallery is also now online. Thanks again
to all involved.
- Mike Smith

Well as you can see from the very quickly posted results above the STCC goes from strength to strength this year with very slick organisation and adding a new track such as Brooklands is a positive thing.

Me, Rich and Matt took the trip down to Brooklands on the Sunday morning leaving at 6.15am and we arrived at the track at about 7.15am after a brisk drive down the M20. We were greated with a dry track fourtunatley but there was a nip in the air, but then it was early and did warm up a bit later reaching about 13 degrees and sunny, so all were happy. We were reserved a place in the wonderful pits by the Wodson Mafia lol. The pits were under cover and had mains so we were really being spoiled. Add to that the biggest sausage/ bacon/ burgers and teas you have ever seen what a venue.

There was open practice which was good as you didn't have to wait for a time slot which is an annoying thing. Rich was doing the TC3 class which was 27T/13.5 BL and I was doing 19T/10.5 BL. Matt was just along for the ride and to see one of the countries biggest and best tracks so was our pit man for the day and what a great job he did with tyre warmers, shells and putting the cars down and picking them up, thanks Matt it was most appreciated.

Both me and Rich went out for practice with one ways fitted in our cars which were proving to be more than a handful as with the huge length of the long straight it was difficult to judge how much speed you were carrying into the corner. Added to that the greasy surface and shade from the trees along the straight it was a make or break entry into this corner which lined you up for 2-3 corners after , get these wright and you were on for a hot lap. The rest of the track was all about power and how much you had as it was mostly sweeping bends so if you could carry good speed though them you had a big grin on your face.

After R1 the one-ways were out as you had to come off of the power far to soon at the end of the straight and could not brake so Rich went for a diff and I went for a spool, what a difference Rich went 2 laps quicker and I went a lap quicker. As for gearing this was the most talk I had ever heard about gearing in one day, ebveryone had their own views and ideas. Most TC2 drivers were using the Nosram Spec 10.5 on a starting ratio of 4.8 which is 0.3 lower than what used at WLRC which has a long straight but not this long. As the day went on there was talk of some being on 4.0 (are they mad we thought) so we all graduly went up a tooth or two round by round , final by final until I was on 4.33 which was the best gearing I found. Unfortunatley this was in Leg 2 of the finals and the car was flying, I did a time which would have been near to the A final if not in it, oh well thats racing. I finished 3rd in the D overal but not bad for my first outdoors race of the season.

I think in heinsight Saturday practice would have been a very good idea as quite a few who did practice seemed to hit the tracking running as to us who started at a snails pace, well leason learnt.

Roll on WLRC in a few weeks time, payback time at what has become my home track, where's my 52 tooth pinion gone.......

Well what a plonker I am Rodney, just found out I was calculating my gear ratio with the wrong internal gear ratio lol.
So instead of being on 4.33 I was actually on 4.78 what a plum.
Now I know why the bigger boys were quicker, heinsight, a wonderful thing, if, but, maybe. Even I get things wrong SOMETIMES.

Malcolm Hall's Mirage Sponsored Hotbodies Cyclone. Pole in the C Final. How big is that grid slot? Gives you a good idea of how big the track was.