UKGPL Season 18 (2009) Historic Trophy (66) - Kyalami - Oct 13

[Dave Randall]

I don't think there was a single lap of that race that I didn't feel the need to keep on my toes for one reason or another.  Early on from starting 6th I passed Gerard on the grid and then up to 3rd on lap 2 as Jethro made his ambitious plunge on Mike at T1.  This mean't there were some quick cars behind and on lap 6 I lost the three places back, though chose not to fight as was in for the long haul on this one, having two DNF's this season already!  Managed to hold on to the three in front until lap 8 when Tim went wide and then Jethro appeared to let the excitement (or his Mum's nagging!) get to him and he lost it on the very next turn.  Tim also spun a lap later.  Soon after all this a flying Mike passed to have a go at Gerard in front who then also went off.  Tried to stay with Mike but apart from an impressive 360 deg spin and recovery from him through the esses, he easily had the pace to hold me off and gradually pulled away.  However, no time to relax as Gerard started putting some quick laps in behind and I believe posted the fastest lap on the last to take chunks out of my advantage, but somehow just managed to hold him off by about 0.5 sec at the flag to take a satisfying 4th.


Well done to Hristo, Ken and Mike and also to Gerard who had impressive speed for the restricted car he was in.

[Ken Murray]

Hristo has pretty much already described my race for me. I should maybe have shown more ambition earlier in the race and at least attempted a pass, but I was sure the straight line pace of the Lotus would have had Hristo easily tagging on behind me.

My mistake was taking advantage of Syd's rejoin too early. I was alongside Hristo as we hit the first kink and although I haven't watched the replay he must have stayed right on it round the outside. This meant as we headed down to T1 the Lotus edged back ahead, I should have just tucked up behind and tried a slingshot as we approached the turn. Instead I wasn't able to make a pass and although I harried Hristo round that last lap much more aggressively than I'd done all race I still wasn't able to push him in to any mistake (as if that's actually possible?).

Anyway being 0.26 behind the big H is as good as win in my book!!

[Al Heller]

Qualified 8th - 8th fastest race lap - running in 8th until the very last lap but inherited 7th as another beneficiary of Jethro's mum (Cheers Mrs W!) Pleased with that race as I feel like I'm beginning to make some progress with these tricky 66's. Still a bit tentative on cold tyres but once I got settled in I was able to (just about) stay in touch with Tim & Jethro ahead.. I confess I was rather hoping that their duelling would end in tears but no such luck. Managed to close right up on Tim towards the end after he had a slight wobble somewhere but then I had a quick spin at Clubhouse Bend which ended my feeble challenge. That Honda was like a rocket down the straight though.

Congratulations to H & the podium. Looking forward to the next round at Oulton - don't think we'll be getting so many finishers there..

[Ken Murray]

For me, the 66's are still the most difficult cars to drive (even more than the 67's) and i must be missing something setup wise to try and get these cars controllable. Still, i'll keep plugging away. 

What setups are you using? Are they yours or do you use ones from other drivers? I used a Steve Cloyd Mexico setup straight out of the box (well steering ratio and BB to my preference) for the Kyalami race. It worked perfectly, even the gearing fitted for all the corners. I find the 66's the easiest, or certainly the most enjoyable, with the best balance of power and handling (3litre cars anyway). Most of the Brabham variations are very well behaved and I found it fun balancing the BT19 on the throttle around Sunset.

[Clutch4]

Thanks for the advice Ken, i'll look up that set up on the Track Database.

I have a mixture of setups that are all downloaded from the database, but haven't found the time recently to really take a serious look at the 66's and work out what sort of setup variables work for me.

Cheers