Mallory Park Plum Pudding 26 December 2011

On the 26th december traditionally known as boxing day, it was time for the 38th running of the plum pudding at mallory park, a rather fun days racing that seems to atract a large number of spectators every year.

As this was a fun race the format was slgihtly different, there was practice in the morning of 20mins but this wouldn’t be mixed in with qualifying as there was no time keepers this ment that race 1 would be ran with the grid positions decided on the order the entries were received, and race 2 would be the reverse of the 1st race result.

Practice
This race meeting was really a testday for us as we had fitted a new racing clutch to the car, in the practice session the new clutch performed really well and I was surprised at how quick the gear changes could now be done.

Race 1 Grid 11 Result 5th / 1st in class
I started 11th on the grid, which was behind the other 2 mr2s and most of the mx5s who were all in my class (which I wasn’t aware existed at the time!) after the warm up lap it was time to get the 15 minute race underway, as the lights went out I got a good jump but perhaps a little bit too good as the various cars in front of me were slow to get away and this resulted in me lifting off and loosing the ground I made up off the line.
As the race went on I picked off the cars infront 1 by one not taking any risks as it was just for fun, until I got behind the Fletcher Hornet mk4 of Ian Fletcher who I seemed to match the pace of for a few laps until he upped his pace and started to vanish into the distance but the race wasn’t over there was still lots to do on the track as I needed to keep my eyes open for the Radical which was flying round the track, and make safe overtakes when lapping some of the slower vehicles.
I eventually wound up 5th on the road which I was very pleased about, in the paddock not long after the race I got called up to race control, where I found out I won my class, as I didn’t know there were classes in this event it was quite a nice surprise!

Race 2 Grid 9 Result 10th / 4th in class
With the grid being the result of the 1st race reversed I needed to do all the work again, thankfully though people that didn’t finish got put to the back of the grid so it wasn’t too bad, on the down side I had the radical on my bum for the start and considering it lapped me twice in the 1st race I was a bit worried about having my mr2 merged with a radical at the 1st corner.
With this in my mind I decided to take the safe bet and let the fast cars through on the 1st lap this ment I just had to focus in front which I prefured. Working my way past the other 2 mr2s and all but 1 mr2 I was 2nd in class and closing in on the mx5 that was 1st in class sadly though the fletcher hornet mk2 of Ian Smythe was inbetween us, how ever I was closing in on him pretty quickly and eventually we ended up doing almost a whole lap side by side starting at the esses, going into gerrards I was a bit later on the brakes and thought I had the move done and dusted until I slipped a little wide and I saw Ian on the inside my me, this left me on the outside on the water which the back end of my car didn’t like and sent me into a spin. Thankfully I didn’t hit anything and I got back on the track right behind the mr2 of Tim Herron who I quickly got on the back of but sadly there was no time left in the race to make the pass, Even without the spin I don’t think I would have caught up and passed the eventual class winner so it wasn’t a big loss but I was really good fun!

Review

All in all a very good day, which produced a great result and was a lot of fun whilst doing so! The new clutch looks like a promising upgrade and theres still more work to be done over the winter to get the car in tip top shape ready for the new season, fingers crossed for a good one!

(onboard video to follow shortly!)