Right, sorry for the slow update.
Sunday was my first time at Kendrew Barracks
(aka RAF Cottesmore) and as such the only true airfield round of the series Id be able to make.
My very first experience of sprinting was at Woodbridge airfield a couple of years back, and it was so much fun Ive been doing it ever since.
Its a bit less glamorous than some of the circuits we visit, and tales of an abrasive surface seem to have put a few people off so we were left with a mere 36 competitors.
This turned out to be a Very Good Thing
not only did it mean we could rattle through all of the timed runs before the rain set in early afternoon, it also meant more championship points available for those who attended
One of the areas we struggled with at Anglesey
(over and above the xxxx Tein coilovers) was heavy shoulder wear on the outside front tyre.
To combat this
(and also because Pete had just fitted the new BC coilovers) Pete sorted a geo setting with a bit more camber
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We arrived early and got through scrutineering before swapping over to the track wheels and generally setting up for the day.
Note the ever trusty Subaru support car in the background
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The layout was very well thought out, with a good mix of technical corners, fast sweeping corners and a nice stretch down the main runway
(we were seeing 122mph on the speedo, which I was pretty pleased with!) followed by a heavy braking zone into a tight right-left and some nice sweeping turns to the finish.
I drew the short straw and didnt drive the sighting lap
(were now sans passenger seat, so I jumped in with a fellow competitor in his Civic Type R), so my first drive was the initial practice run.
It was a great track, with varying grip levels as the surfaces changed, but it takes me a while to learn new layouots so I was on the backfoot most of the morning.
This was compounded on my third run when I overcooked and spun out, stalling and setting off the EML at the same time! Fortunately we were able to borrow an OBD reader and clear the fault
(cam position sensor, I think from the stall) and the car felt OK again afterwards.
Pete was also experiencing his fair share of frustrations, with wo void runs for eating cones and a stoppage to move some additional crumple-zone in front of a concrete platform which by rights shouldnt have been anywhere the racing line
Still, we were dialling into the new suspension setup and the times were generally creeping down.
A few track-side pics show how much flatter the cornering is compared to before
this was still on a fairly soft setting for a bumpy track, and still on stock ARBs:
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By run four I was 0.3s behind Pete, and unbelievably we were running 1st and 2nd in class.
Much to his frustration I managed to edge another
.4s off his time on run 5, and come the final run we both agreed not to tell each other our final times.
In the end we both pushed too hard
Pete with a void run
(cones!) and me with a messy lap that was a second off the pace.
Still, we were both absolutely made up to be awarded 1st and 2nd in class, a first win for the bargain bucket RX8.
Cheesy photo time!
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As expected we wore a good mm or two off the R888Rs, but more importantly the wear was even across all four tyres so were happy weve got the alignment right.
The RX8 felt a lot more balanced and playful with the new setup
hopefully itll translate well to Cadwell, which
(given its late October) will probably be wet
I managed to get a couple of videos edited down as well.
This is my fastest run, followed by my void run
(with the spin).
This was pretty terrible all the way through really
I forgot to turn off the traction control at the start which had me out of sorts for the rest of the lap, and when the back end came around on me later on I completely failed to react properly and ended up tankslapping the other way with my foot jammed on the brakes.
Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking either
!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtp4u63YtE&t=2s
And heres Petes run, with his two cone-eating void runs afterwards.
Suffice to say, we had a lot of fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UvJHCkYlBk&t=15s
Next up is Cadwell Park, the last event of the season, followed by a winter of tinkering while we decide where to go next.
We already have a roll-cage lined up which is pretty high on the list to be sorted, along with a front splitter of some description to offset the BGW a little.
Otherwise, who knows!
So Pete's driving back past where JAE was last weekend? Surely it would've been easier to have left it parked in a field in the showground for a week? 
