Iconic cup 2017 R4 West London Andy Travis Race Report

The final round of the 2017 Iconic cup took us to WestLondon on the 18^th June. Although it has the nickname of ‘Wet London’ due to the fact is usually rains when a big event is at the track. We were greeted with the opposite for the weekend, it was in the middle of a heat wave. The ambient temperature was around 32degC, if not higher! Thankfully, I brought my gazebo, so was able to stay in the shade for the day

Practice

As I won the 3^rd round at Broxtowe & sealed the championship, I was under no pressure at this final event. However, I really enjoy West London, I consider it one of my favourite circuits in the country so I wanted to race as hard as I have all season. If I could get a win, it would be a clean sweep of the championship, will do nothing for the points but the kudos would be huge!!

We had an hour of open practice. With so many different cars & different speeds on the track at the same time. Trouble usually happens, so it’s best to take your time & not drive like a maniac. I went out quite late in the session, this was a wise move as only a few cars were on the track, and most were 4wd stock. I left the car with the same setup as Broxtowe, so just drove around & looked to change setup if needed.

As I had soft shock oil in the front, the front end was tucking in when I turned the car making it a handful but could still drive it around the circuit

I changed the front shock oil, reduced the overall camber & reduced the front toe angle & was ready to hit round 1

Qualifying

We had around 80 entrants for the day. This was set into 11 heats, I car seeded as car 1 in heat 11 due to my championship position.

I started round 1 with a confident pace. The car was circulating well, but was dropping off after a few laps. I put this down to additive prep. The grip was reducing & had a half spin towards the end of the run. It was enough to set TQ in round 1, but I suspected that time will be beaten later on

I felt the car was understeering due to the hit, I wondered if the front end was too soft. I went to a stiffer front spring & went for round 2

This proved to be the wrong choice as the car was under-steering even worse! As the car was pushing out, I clipped a kerb mid run, sending the car onto its roof. As the car was worse to drive & I lost a lot of time, I decided to pull over to save tyres. The 2 cars behind me did the same thing due to various reasons.

I swapped the springs back & used thicker damper oil all round to reduce the under steer for round 3

We set off & the car felt better. However, car 2 was a lot faster & had to let him pass during the run. He now set the TQ time, over a second faster than my round 1 time

For round 4, I changed my additive prep & fitted a bigger pinion gear as car 2 was much faster down the straight. My car was a lot better & was able to improve my time. I passed car 2 & knew my time would be quick. However, the time car 2 set in round 3 was very quick too. He out qualified me by 0.05 seconds over 5 minutes! It was nice to see the stock class is very close & didn’t feel bad that I qualified in 2^nd place with that time

Final

I have considered myself a better racer than a qualifier. I reset all the cambers, checked the car over & hoped to give car 1 a good run in the final

The start tone went we all pulled away cleanly. I felt I was faster than car 1, but I had to look for an error to make a clean pass. After a few laps, car 1 came onto the straight sideways & I got tangled with his spin. I recovered better than him & was able to continue the race. Unfortunately, car 5 got past us & I rejoined the race in 2nd place. I had to push hard to catch car 5. Once I got to the back him, I was in the same position where I had to force the lead car into an error.

After a couple of laps, he clipped a kerb & rolled the car, gifting me the lead. After that, I had a nice gap & had to concentrate on finishing the run in 1st place. Towards the end, I rolled the car in the same place as car 5, but landed on its wheels & lost a lot of time. I was still in the lead, so just pushed on to in the race. I crossed the line to claim victory with a few seconds gap from 2nd place

John Weston presenting the Championship trophy to me.

Although I qualified in 2nd place, I knew I had the pace to take the fight for the lead. It was a little scrappy, but nothing was unfair & no dirty driving was involved. This was the 4th win of the championship & had a clean sweep of finals.

All the championship winners. From left to right: Jakub Plechac (GT), Jason Petch (F1). John Weston (Iconic rc), Andy Travis (Stock), Adam Burgess (M chassis) and Aaron Birkin (FWD)

I am already looking towards the 2018 championship. I haven’t decided on what car/ class I will race as there will be some minor tweaks to the rules. I will await the final rules before I make a decision. Whatever happens, I suspect it will be another fun season!

Thanks to John Weston & Vanessa Andrews for the additional pictures