Debut outing for the new D8

Things didnt quite go to plan for my first outing with the new buggy.

I set out for Adur off road club on a cold, but sunny, day full of expectation and anticipation. When I arrived I was greeted by a really good turn out of 30 to 40 buggy drivers. I guess a combination of some sunshine and a last opportunity to run on the track before some major refurbishment and a completely new layout tempted people to come out and blow away the winter cobwebs.

I am bound to be sooo much quicker with this great new car right? ... Wrong!   

It didn't take any more than one heat for me to realise I had a difficult day ahead!

Heat 1:  Feeling my way around with a newly run in engine, an inexpensive STS, only for it to cut out on me at around 3 minutes. Never mind, the car was not handling so well anyway so back to the pits to investigate.

Heat 2:  I changed the rear roll bar and added a little camber to try and improve matters on the handling front with only limited success. Pointless anyway as I had the exact same engine problem in this heat.. Doh!

Heat 3:  OK .. New glow plug and a change tyres for the last gasp effort. Car was much improved but still difficult to drive consistently. Nevertheless I was going much better and ran a full heat only to find my transponder had failed to register one of my laps ..... C final for me then.

C Final:  Apart from a little trouble with back markers I had a fairly good, if unspectacular, run managing to take the win and bump into the B final.

B Final:  I managed a decent start and was running fairly consistently near the front until around 15 minute mark. At this point I started to have some radio trouble, costing me valuable time, eventually coming home in a reasonable 4th place behind my buddy, and rival, James Rumble. (Thanks to Gary B for the sterling pit work.)

So what did I learn? ...  Well, that I have a lot to learn!

OK then, time to pilfer a set up from a team driver, fit an RX booster and pack up the car for a trip to Slough this Sunday with renewed optimism.

Stay tuned.