Elliott Boots TQ's and Wins the Montpellier GP!
Reported by Team Boots.
So this weekend it was time to get back to Nitro, and off to France we went. We arrived on the Thursday evening, loaded the bags into the hire car and popped to the track to setup our pit area. The track was looking great and we were looking forward to running the next day.
Friday 13th: Practice
The format for the day was to be 4 rounds of practice at 7mins in length for the first 3 and 5mins for the last.
Practice 2: We changed the front diff from the LSD to a standard diff with 5k oil. We also went from the Orange rear spring to blue, as we had noticed the car suffering a little from collapsing mid corner during the first run. The changes made the car even better and had the desired result that we wanted.
Practice 3: For this run we made one change only, which was to run the wing lower and further forward, to help give the car more rotation that the track required. The change helped the car, and made it easier to carry more corner speed through due to the easier rear rotation.
Practice 4: Once again it would be only a small change we would make. Mounting a Proline Trifecta lexan wing, to give even more rotation to the rear. Something which the track demanded. The change was very good and gave us a car we felt very comfortable with for the next car: Qualifying
Saturday 14th: Qualifying
Feeling good about how the car had felt in practice we were feeling confident going into today. Knowing that getting a clear track would be key here to getting the fastest time.
Round 1: The track was in great shape and everyone was looking comfortable with the track now. We set off and had what looked like a clear track ahead. Posting good laps times through the run, we suffered with a little traffic towards the end of the run which was slow to clear, ending up 3rd in round. A good positive start to qualifying.
Round 2: This round would be a repeat of the firsts round with traffic unfortunately causing a little issue while leading the heat. Taking time to clear it would mean a little loss of time. We once again took 3rd overall.
Round 3: The weather had now taken a turn, and started raining during the round in the early heats. Fortunately by the time our heat came around the track conditions were not as bad as some of the other heats had suffered. We raised the car 1mm front and bad, at the mud sticking to the car would way it down and loose a little ride height due to this. We set off, and straight away we had the quickest car on track, posting fastest laps and ending up 1st overall for the round.
We knew we would be top 3 overall with the results we had in all the rounds, and when we looked at the timings we had taken TQ overall! Tied on points with Battle, but having the best count back score. Feeling really positive about the car and the mains that lay ahead the next day. But things didn't go as expected........
Sunday 15th: Mains Day
We awoke in the morning, opened the curtains and were greeted by a dull, damp and wet morning. We could see a lot of standing puddles in the car park when we jumped into the car to head to the track.
Upon arriving at the track the crew were preparing the track with sawdust to soak up the rain from the night.
All involved did a great job to get the track sorted and they were able to get the racing underway. We readied the car for the mains then sat watching some of the lower mains.
That's when it happened......... RAIN! And lots of it. The downpour resulted in the track becoming more of a lake than a race track, the organisers pausing the racing after the quarter finals to see what the weather would do. After the hour wait, a drivers meeting was called to see what the drivers would like to do. The outcome in the end was to call the meeting on the results of qualifying.
Due to this we would take the Win for the meeting. A great result although we would have rather been able to race the mains.
Our REDS R5T Team Editon V3.0 working perfectly all weekend.
As always a big Thanks to all sponsors who make it possible.
We are now on our way to America for The Dirt Nitro Challenge. Come see us trackside if your there.
Thanks all,
Team Boots
