Saturday, 12 August 2017
new stock of windscreens
lotus elan m100 brake upgrade for S2 wheels
305mm vented discs aluminium bells and mounting brackets as per kits for esprit elite excel and sunbeams kits come with pads hoses and bolts to mount the kits please call for more information
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
The 2017 Alan Healy Memorial Cadwell Park Stages, sponsored by TJS Self Drive
This was a well run event with no delays, even though there
was no shortage of work for the recovery crews between stages. The organisers
made the most of Cadwell’s dips, crests and fast sweeping bends. At times, the
Team Lotusbits Sunbeam was hitting the rev limiter in sixth, which is a speed
of 137 mph.
Apart from a minor brush with a first stage chicane, which
was an issue for most of the top competitors, there were no real problems over
the nine stages for Mike and Martin, with little for the service crew to attend
to during the service halts, except wheel changes and spanner checks.
Mike and Martin finished ninth overall and once again collected
the trophy for third in class.
The final championship points tally puts Mike in sixth
overall and Martin third equal on points, but losing out under the tie break
rules to finish fourth. Mike is fourth in the Michelin Cup for those drivers
who use that company’s tyres. Final class positions are first for Martin and
second for Mike.
Team Lotusbits are looking forward to a third running of
this popular and competitive championship starting in the Autumn.
The Alan Healy Memorial Rally
Cadwell Park
April 9th
So the final round had arrived of the Motorsport News
Circuit Championship for 2016/17 season and Team Lotusbits had arrived at the
stunning picturesque venue of Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.
With a couple of non-finishes on earlier rounds in the
season, Cathy and I came to Cadwell Park not under any real pressure, but just to go and have some fun and see where we could end
up.
As all ready mentioned the stunning picturesque venue of
Cadwell Park with its hilly undulating track was only enhanced by the hot sunny
weather and we set off from Service up to the Stage 1 start, hoping we were on
the right tyres for the conditions, it was warm but not as warm but was set to
get hotter during the day.
From the moment the lights went green the car felt good and
I could tell Cathy was enjoying the car and the car suited the conditions, the
grip was there and we could push on round the long sweeping corners and on the
brakes a bit later into the chicanes. Being
a nice day the public had turned up in there masses and at one point on the
stage we leave the fast flowing track and enter a public viewing section, of
twisty low speed corners, only just wide enough for one car to pass through,
here the car was doing what was requested by Cathy, all was good, in fact very
good we were 13th after the first stage.
Starting the second stage our first stage nervous had left
us and we were ready to push on and see if we could gain on that 13th
position, all was good for the first few corners, leaning on the tyres and
pushing the car and using every inch of available track out of corners, then as
we entered the spectator twisty section we had marshal’s waving to us to slow
down, Unbeknown to us the car in front of us clipped a tyre going through a
narrow gateway, causing his front right wheel to point 90 degrees to his left
front wheel and after trying to carry on up the stage found he couldn’t steer
and ended up blocking the way, we arrived behind the car with nowhere to go. It’s strange how seconds lost can feel like
minutes when the adrenaline is pumping and you are staring at the rear end of an
escort, by now we should of been half around the stage. We finally got free of the escort blockage
and powered on around the stage to the finish but looking at the times, we had
lost 20seconds and were now down 22nd Overall, one unhappy crew!
We set about making the time back over the next couple of
stages and with a change of tyres to a harder compound and a sneaky small
suspension change (unbeknown to Cathy) implemented by myself and our chief
Mechanic Keith, the car had less roll in the corners and more grip and by
dinner we had moved up to 16th.
With a change of direction for the afternoon, we were now heading
the correct way around the circuit, as if it was being used on a normal racing
day’s event, but this didn’t change anything in the style or commitment to
Cathy’s driving, if anything she was going quicker still chasing down cars and
passing a few in the process, this was no Sunday afternoon driver here!
We had moved up to 15th with a couple of stages
to go and to be honest we didn’t really know where we could go much quicker, so
the last two stages we decided to drive it fast but don’t take any unnecessary
risks, which is just what we did and finished the day 15th Overall
and 7th in our class on the day.
Thanks again to all the Lotusbits Team for all the work they
have done over the year to get the cars ready so we can go and play on the
weekends and has resulted in the team due to be awarded various Driver and
Co-driver prizes at the Motorsport News Circuit Championship Awards night in
June. There may be a write up from this
evening, but it may be in the form of photos as I won’t be remembering much the
day after.... Hic- Hic!
Tuesday, 4 April 2017
The
Motordrive seats Lee Holland Memorial at Anglesey Circuit
on the 19th March, was the next round on the MSN championship. The circuit has to be the most
picturesque venue we visit, with views over the Irish Sea and beyond.
Cathy
and I generally have a good run here, so we were hoping again we wouldn't be
disappointed.
On
the Friday before the event there was a rally track day a day’s event where you
can do a bit of a shake down and test the car.
The tyres Cathy went out on during
the day were just not working and she was spending more time going sideways
than forwards, the life of the tyres had expired.
EXCELLENT!
New tyres for the rally.
Sunday
morning was overcast, drizzly and windy on go the new wets.
We
sat at the start with our normal first stage nerves eyeing up the competition.
The
great thing about rallying is that you compete against various makes of cars, today
we had MK2 Golf’s, MK2 Fiesta’s, Nova’s, Saxo’s, Peugeot 205’s all front wheel
drive, there was Paul Shead in his Mazda MX5 which is rear wheel drive, a very popular
weapon of choice are the MK1 and MK2 ford escorts which are also rear wheel
drive like ourselves. One driver that
Cathy likes to compare stage times against is Jade, another very quick female
driver, who was out playing in a 4 wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo and it was nice to
see her out again after a year out of the car.
It
was a good first stage but not right, we both felt we could go quicker the
tyres were not giving the performance we had hoped, maybe because they were new
and needed scrubbing in, either way up to 26th mixing it the escorts
but had also gone 9 seconds slower than Jade but only 4 seconds behind Paul in
his MX5.
SS2
was better but still felt we couldn't push on, the decision was made to come
off the wets and go to softs.
SS3
was better again but it was one of those days were we just couldn't put our finger
on the problem, but must be doing something right as we were now only 4 seconds
behind Jade in the Evo and still 4 seconds behind Paul who was going to by our
target for the day.
SS4
was much the same, but again felt we needed to change tyres to a harder
compound for the next stage, but unfortunately for Paul on that stage he had
mechanical issues and that was the end of his rally.
Queuing
up for SS5 after a long break whilst the juniors did there runs the sun was
starting to break through the clouds, good choice of tyres we thought. We then waited
and waited, there was a delay getting the stranded cars off from the previous
stage and the set up crew changing the layout for the next 2 stages.
Glad
we had put the medium compound tyres on “I said” It was at that point the welsh
gods must of heard me and sent in the next band of rain. Great, wrong tyres
again. With the strong winds it will
soon blow over, well the wind needed to be stronger than it was, so the
decision was made to do a late tyre change back onto the wets we had on for
stage 1. Unfortunately by the time the
light went green it had stopped raining and again we were fighting for grip,
but still better than staying on the mediums. We had lost time now running
around 20th which to be fair we were really happy with but looking
at the time we didn’t think we could hold onto that with some fast cars coming
up behind us after they had problems on previous stages like Peter Jackson in
his MK2 Escort, he had gone 51 seconds quicker than us and we were now around
10 seconds behind Jade.
By
the time we got to SS7 and SS8 the rain was torrential, on go the Michelin wets,
after all we had tried all the other tyres we had so didn’t want to leave these
out. The stages were good and we felt a
lot quicker, the car felt like it was cornering on rails. Finally we were on the correct tyres for the
conditions and the times were proving it, 11 seconds quicker than Jade but 22
seconds slower than Peter. On the last stage
Cathy moved us up from the high teens to finish the day 14th Overall,
holding on to our position just ahead of Peter by 5 seconds and 18 seconds
ahead of Jade. We had a fun rally and
enjoyed getting some air time over the Anglesey Yump.
Next
stop Cadwell for the last round
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
The 2017 Motordrive Seats Lee Holland Memorial Trophy Rally
The seventh round of the MSVR Circuit Championship was at a
wind-swept Anglesey race circuit on Sunday 19th March. An event
organised by the Pendle District Motor and Garstang & Preston Motor Clubs,
with Mike Taylor and Martin Haggett planning to consolidate their position in
the championship overall and in class D1.
The circuit ran a novel and very welcome rally track day on
the preceding Friday, allowing Mike to sample some new parts of the circuit
that would be used on the rally and experiment with the amount of speed to
carry into the specially constructed “yump”. Unlike a typical circuit track day
run on a normal circuit, perhaps with some chicanes, Anglesey was set up in a
stage format with splits and merges, and changed during the day, including the
direction of travel. It is to be hoped that the concept spreads to other
circuits, as this could be an ideal introduction to the world of single venue
stage rallies, but with less expense than the real thing.
This extended test session wasn’t without its problems for
Mike and Martin, an electrical problem meant a tow in from the circuit, a
steering issue was resolved by a power steering pump change and some
particularly exciting runs over the yump bent the damper bolts in the rear
suspension. Thanks to Keith for changing the steering pump and spending
Saturday morning checking the car over and replacing the bent bolts.
The weather was always going to be a feature of this event,
with the wind never dropping all day. The Lotusbits pair made a steady start, finishing
the first stage in eleventh place. With the wind drying the track the slick
tyres went on to take advantage of this for the later morning stages.
Going into stage five, Mike changed to harder slick tyres,
not expecting to wait 30 minutes at the stage start, during which the first
rain started. Grip was a challenge throughout the stage, with rather more space
needed to slow the car down at the first split than was available. In the
excitement, a cone became stuck under the car, leading to a smell of burning
plastic for the rest of the stage. All this drama meant a loss of around 30
seconds, putting the pair down to twelfth overall.
As with Donington, it was other competitors who dropped down
the order or retired, broken transmissions, blown engines and a missed split
being typical problems. All this and a push by Mike on the next two stages
moved the team up to seventh going into the final stage. With the next crew
just three seconds behind, this meant Mike had to keep the pressure on, so more
crushed traffic cones, after the first run through the jump.
In three weeks, team Lotusbits will be in Lincolnshire at
Cadwell Park for the last round in the championship. Mike is still sixth
overall and Martin has moved up to third.
Tuesday, 7 March 2017
Imperial Commercials Volkswagen Donington Rally March 5th Round 6 – Motorsport News Championship
mike and martin car 16
The sixth round of the MSVR Circuit Championship was at the historic Donington circuit on Sunday, organised by the Dukeries Motor Club.
The weather was far from kind, producing varying levels of rain throughout the event. Apart from a brief excursion on to the grass at Coppice, the conditions didn’t trouble Mike Taylor. Quote of the day was, “these Michelin wets aren’t cheap, but they work really well”. OK these may not have been Mike’s exact words, but that was the gist of it.
It was other competitors who had the problems, championship leader Paul Swift wasn’t the only driver to hit trouble at the Melbourne hairpin, spinning off on stage one and being unable to re-join. Another high profile retirement was Alan Kirkaldy, who held a commanding overall lead until he had transmission problems on stage six.
Following the broken gear linkage at Snetterton, Team Lotusbits had beefed up the mechanism in the two weeks since that event. However, there were still problems with this component on stage three, with the car stuck in second gear for the final lap. This was easily fixed by the service crew during the subsequent service period.
Mike and Martin finished eleventh and collected the trophy for third in class. Without the gear shift problem, a top ten finish would have been within reach.
There’s just two weeks to the next round at the picturesque, if somewhat more distant venue of the Anglesey Race Circuit. With just two events to go, Mike is sixth in the championship and fourth in class, whilst Martin is fourth overall and second in class.
The sixth round of the MSVR Circuit Championship was at the historic Donington circuit on Sunday, organised by the Dukeries Motor Club.
The weather was far from kind, producing varying levels of rain throughout the event. Apart from a brief excursion on to the grass at Coppice, the conditions didn’t trouble Mike Taylor. Quote of the day was, “these Michelin wets aren’t cheap, but they work really well”. OK these may not have been Mike’s exact words, but that was the gist of it.
It was other competitors who had the problems, championship leader Paul Swift wasn’t the only driver to hit trouble at the Melbourne hairpin, spinning off on stage one and being unable to re-join. Another high profile retirement was Alan Kirkaldy, who held a commanding overall lead until he had transmission problems on stage six.
Following the broken gear linkage at Snetterton, Team Lotusbits had beefed up the mechanism in the two weeks since that event. However, there were still problems with this component on stage three, with the car stuck in second gear for the final lap. This was easily fixed by the service crew during the subsequent service period.
Mike and Martin finished eleventh and collected the trophy for third in class. Without the gear shift problem, a top ten finish would have been within reach.
Cathy
& Colin Car 41
Arriving at Donington
on Sunday morning only 10 minutes from locking my front door makes a nice
change to some of the venues we visit over the rallying season and with the
weather looking like it was going to be wet we were glad we had a pit garage.
Our start time was approaching and we had to make a decision
on tyres because unfortunately the rain had arrived, wets obviously but do we
go for our tried and tested Michelins, which were worn or some newer untested
Wets which had more tread? Donington
tends to be a very slippery circuit when it rains, due to it being right on the
flight path of East Midlands Airport and water and aviation fuel doesn’t seem
to mix. The decision was made to go on
the newer tyres to cut through the standing water.
Heading into the Craner curves backwards was when Cathy and
I realised that we should have played safe and gone for the Michelins! It was
so slippery and out the corner of my eye at one point I am sure I saw Torvill and
Dean practicing their latest routine!
Cathy just couldn’t get any grip and we were losing time and with
another couple of half spins the end of the stage couldn’t come quick enough.
For the casual observer rallying must look like 2 people in
a car charging around a course all day having fun, which basically that is what
Cathy and I do, but behind the scenes we have a fantastic crew and as we headed
up to stage 2 start, if it wasn’t for Keith, Dave, James and Brett it would of
been the end of our days fun, as it was at this point the car decided it had a
water phobia and emptied its entire cooling system over the road. Cathy and I feared the worst that the day was
over before it had really started, but a phone call was made and through the
spray and mist of the Donington paddock came the crew, it was like a scene from
a Marvel super hero film!
“Fixed” came the call
from Chief Super Hero after approximately 15mins, and we joined the back of the
queue for stage 2 start.
Heading onto the stage, instantly we had more grip from the Michelins
and as it had stop pouring down, we were now on the perfect tyres and with time
to make up, we were soon catching and passing a lot of slower cars. Cathy
was getting more confident using the handbrake where she could and later on the
brakes into corners and chicanes, all was going well and until going into the
last couple of corners, just after passing 2 cars we out braked ourselves and
went straight on, no damage done, finished the stage and despite our off we
were 2 minutes quicker than the stage before.
Starting stage 3 we were around the low 60s...So we set
about improving on that, again catching and passing cars this was better only 2
corners to go to the finish (9 Right into 9 Left flying finish) but again the
car decided otherwise and spun, again no damage done.
Starting stage 4. We were around the low 50s...So we set
about improving on that, again catching and passing cars this was better only 2
corners to go to the finish (9 Right into 9 Left flying finish) but again the
car decided otherwise and spun, again no damage done. (Yes we did the same again!)
After the lunch break the stage layout went the other way
around the circuit so there was no chance of us spinning at the same corner
again, Stage 5 and 6 were much the same catching and passing cars, we were
making good progress back up the field.
As we started Stage 7 we were up to around 40th,
we were both in the grove and enjoying the day, then came the save of the day,
I gave a rather late call to Cathy as we exited a single chicane doing a speed
that was fine if were carrying on around the circuit... but Oh no! We should be
going into a hairpin right, 100 yards after the chicane. I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth quick
enough. B.B.BRAKE!!! HAIRPIN RIGHT!!!
All the days handbrake practice came into use at this point as we spun
gracefully and pointed the direction we should of been going, from the outside
I recon it looked as though we were of meant to do that but I can assure you in
the car It wasn’t as graceful! But again no damage done.
1 stage to go and the decision was made that we had more to
lose than gain so we took it relatively steady after all we didn’t want to spin
out now after all the fun and games we had all day.
Finished 34th overall.
Thanks again to the team Lotusbits.
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
“Is the bomb hole flat?”
Halfway through the championship and team lotusbits heads to Snetterton for the next round of the Motorsport News Championship, Cathy and I were hoping for a good result here to get our season back on track(excuse the pun) after a poor start to the season.
Seeded 49th it wasn’t the best starting position but Snetterton has lots of space to overtake so wasn’t a big concern. We were both keen to get the first stage done and under our belts to settle the nerves and see what the car could do.
Now Cathy and I tend to measure how well we have done on each stage by how far behind the sister car we are of Mike and Martin we are, so can you imagine the surprise and excitement when we found that we were 3 seconds quicker! Unfortunately it was soon brought to our attention that Mike had been a little heavy right footed into a corner and had a spin. Regardless of that I can honestly say that is the smoothest and most committed first stage I have seen Cathy do for a long time.
12 seconds quicker on stage 2 compared to the same layout as stage 1, the day was getting better.
Where we could go quicker, brake a little later here, smoother here we thought but we reckoned the most time we could gain was through a corner called the ‘bomb hole’, a sweeping fast left hander , could it be taken flat?. So mid stage 3, I give the call 9 left onto track into FLAT sweeping left through bomb hole, we are defiantly going quicker on the approach, the line is good, yes here we go. Then there’s a slight lift and a comment of ‘ I can’t do it’ came back from Cathy. Never mind we still had carried more speed through and set another good stage time.
Stage 4 is the same layout as 3, bit of a tight twisty few corners to start then back onto track, but this time through the twisty bit I felt we are pushing on here, Cathy’s going for it , brilliant! I Thought, I gave the same calls as before, we are now entering the bomb hole , Line is good, speed is good, will she lift? Will she lift? Will she lift? Yes 3 times I said that to myself as we screamed through and out the other side................
......................Now if only they had made Snetterton track 2 foot wider, we ran out off track and onto the mud, Cathy controlled it well and got it back under control for the next corner and at this point I
realised why we had been going quicker as the MK1 escort came past us under braking for the corner. Even with our little excursion we went 1 second quicker than the stage before.
Unfortunately stage 5 was going to be our last stage of the day , not long after the start we heard a sound that to say the least wasn’t good, The differential had let go and was clattering around, Cathy backed off and the decision was made to finish the stage early and come back to service before any other damage was done to the car and see if the crew could do anything, but deep down we both knew the day was over. So Cathy and I decided the only right thing to do in situations like this we to go to the bar !.
Despite the result we had a great day and we weren’t disappointed with our pace running in the mid 20s before we retired.
Thanks to the crew :
Keith, Dave, James, Louise and Harriet
Oh and is the ‘bomb hole flat?’..........NO
Next round Donington March 5th
Seeded 49th it wasn’t the best starting position but Snetterton has lots of space to overtake so wasn’t a big concern. We were both keen to get the first stage done and under our belts to settle the nerves and see what the car could do.
Now Cathy and I tend to measure how well we have done on each stage by how far behind the sister car we are of Mike and Martin we are, so can you imagine the surprise and excitement when we found that we were 3 seconds quicker! Unfortunately it was soon brought to our attention that Mike had been a little heavy right footed into a corner and had a spin. Regardless of that I can honestly say that is the smoothest and most committed first stage I have seen Cathy do for a long time.
12 seconds quicker on stage 2 compared to the same layout as stage 1, the day was getting better.
Where we could go quicker, brake a little later here, smoother here we thought but we reckoned the most time we could gain was through a corner called the ‘bomb hole’, a sweeping fast left hander , could it be taken flat?. So mid stage 3, I give the call 9 left onto track into FLAT sweeping left through bomb hole, we are defiantly going quicker on the approach, the line is good, yes here we go. Then there’s a slight lift and a comment of ‘ I can’t do it’ came back from Cathy. Never mind we still had carried more speed through and set another good stage time.
Stage 4 is the same layout as 3, bit of a tight twisty few corners to start then back onto track, but this time through the twisty bit I felt we are pushing on here, Cathy’s going for it , brilliant! I Thought, I gave the same calls as before, we are now entering the bomb hole , Line is good, speed is good, will she lift? Will she lift? Will she lift? Yes 3 times I said that to myself as we screamed through and out the other side................
......................Now if only they had made Snetterton track 2 foot wider, we ran out off track and onto the mud, Cathy controlled it well and got it back under control for the next corner and at this point I
realised why we had been going quicker as the MK1 escort came past us under braking for the corner. Even with our little excursion we went 1 second quicker than the stage before.
Unfortunately stage 5 was going to be our last stage of the day , not long after the start we heard a sound that to say the least wasn’t good, The differential had let go and was clattering around, Cathy backed off and the decision was made to finish the stage early and come back to service before any other damage was done to the car and see if the crew could do anything, but deep down we both knew the day was over. So Cathy and I decided the only right thing to do in situations like this we to go to the bar !.
Despite the result we had a great day and we weren’t disappointed with our pace running in the mid 20s before we retired.
Thanks to the crew :
Keith, Dave, James, Louise and Harriet
Oh and is the ‘bomb hole flat?’..........NO
Next round Donington March 5th
2017 Snetterton Stages Rally supported by G.& B. Finch Ltd, Hylton Gott and Rix Engineering
On Sunday a near full entry of 83 cars enjoyed the unseasonably good weather conditions at Snetterton race circuit just South of Norwich. This area having strong connections to team Lotusbits, due to the nearby Lotus factory at Hethel.
These events are very competitive and anyone chasing a good result cannot afford to be too cautious. Mike was pushing from the start of the very first stage, expecting rather more grip than was available in the first high speed corner on the main circuit. This meant the car spun off on to the grass , losing around 30 seconds and placing Mike and Martin a disappointing 33rd overall.
At a venue such as Snetterton, the organisers have to make sure that the competitors do not exceed the permitted 75 mph maximum average speed. Their method of achieving this was to build chicanes from old tyres, with three of these just on the Bentley Straight. The combination of frequent braking from high speed and the smooth surface encouraged Mike to change the damper settings, making the car more stable under braking. This and some determined driving saw the team recover to 11th overall going into the final pair of stages, which would run in darkness for the later competitors.
The pressure of rapid down changes proved too much for the gear linkage at the approach to the final chicane on stage 7, with this key component breaking and leaving the car stuck in first gear. Fortunately this was only a mile from the stage finish, but lost around another 30 seconds. It was also fortunate that some inspired work under pressure by the service crew meant that the car was completely fixed within the permitted service time. A competitive run through the final stage resulted in a final positon of 13th overall.
The team are looking forward to the next event in the MSVR championship at Donington in just under two weeks’ time.
These events are very competitive and anyone chasing a good result cannot afford to be too cautious. Mike was pushing from the start of the very first stage, expecting rather more grip than was available in the first high speed corner on the main circuit. This meant the car spun off on to the grass , losing around 30 seconds and placing Mike and Martin a disappointing 33rd overall.
At a venue such as Snetterton, the organisers have to make sure that the competitors do not exceed the permitted 75 mph maximum average speed. Their method of achieving this was to build chicanes from old tyres, with three of these just on the Bentley Straight. The combination of frequent braking from high speed and the smooth surface encouraged Mike to change the damper settings, making the car more stable under braking. This and some determined driving saw the team recover to 11th overall going into the final pair of stages, which would run in darkness for the later competitors.
The pressure of rapid down changes proved too much for the gear linkage at the approach to the final chicane on stage 7, with this key component breaking and leaving the car stuck in first gear. Fortunately this was only a mile from the stage finish, but lost around another 30 seconds. It was also fortunate that some inspired work under pressure by the service crew meant that the car was completely fixed within the permitted service time. A competitive run through the final stage resulted in a final positon of 13th overall.
The team are looking forward to the next event in the MSVR championship at Donington in just under two weeks’ time.
MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Stages
MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Stages
In the depths of January, Team Lotusbits travelled to the famous Kent circuit for the fourth round of the MSVR Circuit Championship, hoping to make up for the disappointment of a rare non-finish before Christmas at Rockingham.
Chelmsford Motor Club made imaginative use of the rally stage and Indy circuit to construct some challenging stages. These incorporated some particularly unforgiving barriers, which caused the retirement of a number of front runners, but didn’t hinder Mike and Martin in their Lotus Sunbeam.
The freezing cold overnight conditions resulted in ice on parts of the circuit that never cleared from the rally stage section. Previous knowledge of the rally stage and the inspired choice of full wet tyres for the first three stages were put to good use. The pair finished fifth overall and picked up the award for first in class. Their best result yet at this level and just four seconds away from fourth.
The only problem of the day came when the hairpin at the end of the pit lane was taken just a little too tight whilst chasing a Citroen DS, who was fighting for a class award. This caused nothing worse than a dent to the co-driver’s door. May be we shouldn’t have told team mate Cathy earlier in the day that, “bunching isn’t a problem at the front of the field”.
In the depths of January, Team Lotusbits travelled to the famous Kent circuit for the fourth round of the MSVR Circuit Championship, hoping to make up for the disappointment of a rare non-finish before Christmas at Rockingham.
Chelmsford Motor Club made imaginative use of the rally stage and Indy circuit to construct some challenging stages. These incorporated some particularly unforgiving barriers, which caused the retirement of a number of front runners, but didn’t hinder Mike and Martin in their Lotus Sunbeam.
The freezing cold overnight conditions resulted in ice on parts of the circuit that never cleared from the rally stage section. Previous knowledge of the rally stage and the inspired choice of full wet tyres for the first three stages were put to good use. The pair finished fifth overall and picked up the award for first in class. Their best result yet at this level and just four seconds away from fourth.
The only problem of the day came when the hairpin at the end of the pit lane was taken just a little too tight whilst chasing a Citroen DS, who was fighting for a class award. This caused nothing worse than a dent to the co-driver’s door. May be we shouldn’t have told team mate Cathy earlier in the day that, “bunching isn’t a problem at the front of the field”.
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
Motorsport News circuit rally result Brands hatch 21 January 2017
Mike Taylor and Martin Hagget car 11
1st in class 5th overall
 |
| colour matched gaff tape slippery conditions all day |
Mike Taylor and Martin Hagget car 11
1st in class 5th overall
 |
Cathy sewart and Colin stephens car 38
4th in class 28th overall
|
Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Lotusbits at autosport show 2017
 |
Cathy,S car all setup at the show stand 6830 British Women drivers club |
 |
| Cathy and mike will be attending the show at various times over the four days or you can call in at the workshop which will be open as usual on saturday |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)