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he had a couple of dammed good races and beat a lot of supposidly "faster" cars, he was lucky to finish the second one as he had a rear bearing/seal give out
he got a 2nd in class at least once if not twice, which when you consider 1st went to richard brent is a great achivement
Absolutely right Graham, 2 second places. We have no chance of beating Richard Brent, YET, especially as he's a castle combe instructor in a damn quick car and we were'nt exactly running full power.
No doubt snappy racers will have got some pics of the second race where not only did Andy spin near the begining after out braking himself but after a first class battle to get back up through the field the rear oil seal/ bearing gave up and he went into full on 'james bond smokescreen' mode
Luckily we kept waving Andy on to try to finish the race and after last year when we lost a championship just from pitting due to white smoke (gearbox plug) Andy bravely pushed on, just hard enough to keep the next class d car at bay.
Well done to Andy, one of his best weekends driving ever, and also well done to Richard Brent who is just defying the laws of physics being right up the front with the big boys in his little pug
Sierra cosworth turbo race car QMN saloon car championship RETRO Motorsport
Was a bloody good couple of races to watch.A BIG Well Done must go to Andy as he did drive very well even when it was pouring out smoke.Great weekend had by all
well what can I say ... Fantastic and sensible drive in Race one, after getting a healthy lead over the 3rd place class D car and biting at the bumper of Steve Danns turbo Golf Andy backed off to save both car and Class D 2nd place 19th overall from a starting field of 41, with Richard Brent in a comfortable Class D lead Andy had no chance to close unless the ultra reliable Brent Pug had a problem.
To give you some idea of how good Richard is .. he was testing and instructing at Coombe the week leading up to the races. In a Mini he was lapping in the 1:24's 2 up in car, the same car with just the driver in did a fastest of 1:27 ... Like we say, Richards a bloody good driver in a fast car.. to the point where he is leading the overall championship
Race 2... ermm whoops, a spin meant Andy had to work... and he did, when he rejoined the circuit he was infront of a Renault 5 Turbo .. the driver of which later on said ....
"I saw Andy re-join and thought ' ohh i'll tag onto him and get him to lead me round' but he just pulled away, nothing i could do to catch him or stick with him"
Andy drove through the pack untill he was 2nd inclass and then the smoke appeared, with us on the pit wall trying to get a sniff of the smoke..
was it tyre smoke? ...damaged body or broken panhard ...
was it oil? ... engine/gearbox/diff
2nd time round after the smoke appeared and i waved Andy closer to the wall ... sniffed and its oil, also the closer visual gave us a clue that it was a halfshaft bearing seal gone or the bearing broken up, but as he was still charging at this point it lead me to belive its just the seal
Next time round and with all of us leaning out the wall telling him with various hand signals to carry on ... he soldiered on at a reduced pace.
This left us counting the minutes and 'ing that the Marshalls didnt black flag him.
The Flag dropped on another fine win for a 5th gear missing Rod Birley and we waited for what felt like ages for Andy to take the flag.
He came round a bit running a bit quicker than he had the last few laps as he thought the car creeping up in his mirrors was a Class D runner.. it wasnt,
After crossing the line Andy picked a safe place to park off the track, being sensible and not leaving oil on the circuit when he didnt have to.
We all went back to the pits to wait for him to be towed back.. he may have been towed but he got another brillient 2nd in class..
To sum up .. well done Andy, 2 brillient and sensible drivesdrives (ok one little cock up) which leave Andy in 2nd place in Class D in the championship but also 5th overall ...
Yes, Andy is 5th overall in a championship where half the field have more power, more money and less crap from people like me
Andy... well done, The team
PS, Andy also beat 3 Sierra Cosworths in Race 1 ..
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