Right, time for a final season update.
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A little later than planned, Ive been off in Iceland for a week doing this:
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Anyway, back to the Westfield.
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Cadwell Park was the last sprint of the season, and allowing for the end-of season awards do the Toyota guys were holding it was being run on a Saturday.
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Having already had a mid-week panic with the cracked manifold I was still feeling a bit disorganised and out-of-sorts when I headed up the M40, and a traffic-ridden 5-hour drive to the hotel didnt help much.
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Still, it was a lovely clear night when I turned up so I had high hopes for a dry days racing.
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I was woken up at 3am to the sound of rain crashing off the roof of the hotel lodge.
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Bugrit.
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So, off to Cadwell in the rain
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we arrived fairly early but the paddock was already quite full, and unloading the trailer on the rain-soaked grass wasnt much fun.
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I finally managed to get off and through to scrutineering, whereupon I measured 108dB on the noise test.
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xxxx.
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A bit of jiggery-pokery and we managed to get through with a barely-on-the-track-limit 105 and I was waved on my sheepish way, protesting cries of
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Ill get a new exhaust! meeting stony-faced expressions from the Cadwell scrutineers.
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Oops.
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We finally headed out onto the sighting laps, my first time at Cadwell, and it was still soaking wet.
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There was a lot of standing water along the start/finish straight, and even more along Park straight.
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Plus there were a lot of leaves on the track through the woodland section.
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My tyres? R888s that are almost on the wear limits.
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![Image](http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq14/benedwards64/temporary_zpsnauz1t57.jpg)
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![Image](http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq14/benedwards64/temporary_zpszskr13sj.jpg)
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Fortunately I had actually done a bit of homework this time round and had spent a fair amount of time learning the track on YouTube, and of course everyone else was in the same boat
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(almost literally!) as me.
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My first two runs I managed to keep pretty tidy, and when the timing sheets came out I was very surprised to see I was leading my class
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ahead of a Duratec-powered Westfield and a Caterham on wets.
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My confidence started to build
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(despite aquaplaning at 100mph down Park a couple of times!) as the track started to dry, but this meant the more powerful Duratec car could get his power down and he ended up knocking a couple of seconds off my time which I couldnt claw back.
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Still, I was happy with steady improvements in my times until the rain started again mid-afternoon, at which point I knew I couldnt beat my best time of 1:50.45.
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My last two runs of the day were me taking the opportunity to explore the limits of the car in the wet a bit more
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leading to a void run after over-steering over the kerb at Mansfield, and then on my final run carrying too much speed through the Gooseneck and cutting off the apex
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Still, youre not trying hard enough until you fall off, eh?
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![Image](http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq14/benedwards64/temporary_zpslyrl9lml.jpg)
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I ended up runner up in my class but down in 11th overall
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not my best result but given that the Westy struggles to get over 100mph on track
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(@ almost 7,000rpm in 4th) I tend to be less competitive on fast tracks.
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I was also very chuffed to be awarded overall class runner-up for the season as well
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![Image](http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq14/benedwards64/temporary_zpsgkyxd7f5.jpg)
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So thats it for sprinting until March
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(probably, depending on Javelins calendar next year).
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Ive enormously enjoyed my first foray into competitive motorsport and will definitely be running in the series next year.
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Ive got a few bits to keep me busy over winter though
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after cracking the manifold and, apparently, blowing all of the baffles out of the silencer its time to invest in a new system.
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It has always been a bit noisy
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(apparently you could hear me going round Cadwell from the main road
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) and it has got steadily worse this year, so ideally Ill be after a system that will see it comfortably under 100dB.
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On top of that I need to experiment with raising the gearing a bit
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the 13 track wheels I have are currently running 185/60/13 R888s all round and one pair are pretty low, so I might try a pair of 205/60/13s on the rear to raise the gearing slightly
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(this would match the overall diameter of my road wheels, so Ill try these on a track-day and see if an extra 5-10mph at the top end is enough).
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On the other hand I think my diff could do with a rebuild, so it may be worth biting the bullet and getting it rebuild with a different final drive.
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Some head-scratching to do there I think.
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Other than that it will get some routine servicing and another alignment check to make sure everythings in order, and hopefully well have some nice sunny winter days so I can get it out and about!