It was a very early start from Kinver to get to Llandow, in the Vale of Glamorgan South Wales, in time for scrutineering but probably easier, in retrospect, than going down the night before and camping.
Last year I concentrated on hillclimbs but this year I thought I’d do a few more sprints and I’m glad I did as I’ve enjoyed the challenge at both Llandow and Pembrey of longer faster circuits.
The event (round 23 of the HSA Championship) was organised by the British Automobile Racing Club (Wales) and, as at Pembrey, I was entered in a class called ‘Road Going Lotus Elise and Elise Derived Cars’ rather than the more usual ‘Roadgoing up to Two Litre’ class. I was happy to improve my times throughout the day (best of 89.42) but I was no match for Elen Worthington or of course Simon Hutchings in his turbocharged VX220. However, I was also slightly disappointed not to have beaten Andy Mitchelmore’s HSA record of 89.05, though so was he! I think for me to improve on circuits I need more circuit time so may look at some ‘Lotus on Track’ track days when this season is over. Doing four timed runs at a Sprint when you don’t know the circuit just isn’t enough time to learn the best lines and braking points.
I’ll post some more photos on the HSA Facebook page in due course.
After Llandow we loaded the Elise onto the trailer and headed west to Llys-y-Fran near Haverfordwest. But that’s another story.