As I mentioned in the rather brief summary of Silverstone, it was quite a successful day but also frustrating.We went out in qualifying with the new discs, straight from HiSpec. I took it easy for the first couple of laps, let the brakes get hot and then cool and then put my foot down. Something like 7 of the laps in qualifying would have put me on pole in last years race and we were substantially under the lap record although I don't think I was driving brilliantly. Rather too many missed apex's and messy exits.
Once we came in from the session, we did a normal check over the car and were astounded to find the near side from discs to be cracked in two after just one session!. We checked the other side and found hairline cracks emanating from every mounting hole. Wow what Qualify Control.
We reverted the car back to running the original front disc on the near side and the spare from the rear (quite a bit smaller) on the off side, as per Donington and prep'd the car for the race.In the race, I wanted to be nice and easy on the brakes so that firstly I did not overheat the small front discs and secondly did not have any issues with the potential imbalance of running two different specification of disc. My start was not amazing and I arrive into turn 1 with Steve ahead on my left and Doug beside me on the right.
I held station, tentatively hit the brakes and slotted in behind Steve. Turn 2, both of us missed the apex. In my case I was trying to use engine braking up to the apex to save the brakes and this just helped the rear around a little more than I had expected. I was quite happy to sit behind Steve as I learnt new ways to drive the car with plenty of engine braking and to get a feel for the brakes but that was short lived when I had a good exit from the last corner on the start finish straight right at the time that Steve had a bad exit. 
By the time we reached the start / finish line we were side by side and I just slipped in front at the turn-in for the corner. From there I was able to steadily pull away without putting much strain on the car and ended the race with a decent margin. It was quite an interesting exercise and definitely concentrated your mind on carrying apex speed and maintaining pace even if you cant get the lines perfect due to a compromised entry to a corner. We even managed to get under the existing lap record, set by a Radical S
R4 2 years ago, all be it considerably slower than we managed in the qualify session. I may have over done the gently gently approach!Oulton Park
The car is now all ready for our next round at Oulton Park this coming Saturday.
At the Oulton Park trackday, we noticed a little liquid around the near side front but could not identify where it came from. Once the car had been sat in the garage for a couple of days it was obvious that the near side front brake caliper had a small leak. The internal seals had once again failed, good these HiSpec brakes! So last we fitted some new seals and made a few other alterations to the brakes to try to give them an easier time and minimise any potential issues with these.
The car is also in wet weather settings, ready for what is forecast to be a rather damp weekend.
As Hispec have been incapable to admitting there are a problem with the discs they supplied last time let along deliver any replacements, it was a fantastic to hear that Brian has found another spare pair of new front and rear discs that we can use this weekend.
As we lead up to the Oulton Park double header, here is a short in car lap of the Oulton circuit. I wonder if we will see if like this at the weekend or whether it will more closely resemble a pond!
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