B’sRACING Ben Bonfield HSA sprint weekend Curborough Sprint October 2022 Oms Racing cars 2000m

It has arrived the 2000m hit the track for the first time in our hands. It was a great debut for the car and a steep learning curve. I’ve never used paddles before on a competition car. We learned a lot about the car. First things first though well done to the HSA - The Hillclimb & Sprint Association and the team at Curborough Sprint Course for putting on such a great event. Huge thanks to the orange army for looking after us over the weekend. Well done to Sam Walker for a great job this weekend. The weekend had challenges but they were dealt with by the team well.
The Saturday was the steepest learning curve and a lot was learned. Getting used to pulling up on throttle was no problem as we have a flat shifter on the Jedi going up the box but not an auto blipper for going down so it was odd just using the clutch for just the launch. I wasn’t sure wether I had got the setup right with the change to the radials but the car was hanging on really well and I was amazed at just how much grip there was on the Pirelli’s. I ended the day being just 0.4 away from my pb in the Jedi so a great result. It looks like the engine wasn’t what was we thought it was but ran well as the car was a good 5-10 mph down on the straights compared to where we were with the Jedi but it’s definitely positive with the potential the car has but I’ll take a 54.90 for a first time out in the car. The battle for 5th to 3rd was close being contested over 0.06 of a second. Well done to Ed Hollier on his FTD on the Saturday with a run in the 53s.
Sunday was a new day and a chance to get a bit more familiar with how the car behaved and I started to lean on it more in the corners. The weather was a little cooler on the Sunday and the grip wasn’t there as much but still dry and gave a good feel. A good final run put me into second in class on the figure of 8 course pulling off a 55.79 and 5th overall. Well done to Pete Goulding on his FTD
Well done to the HSA for putting on a great event and giving us all our runs for both days.
The Oms was certainly a very different beast, very physical to drive compared to the Jedi but stable and very agile with it. It felt great to drive and I’m looking forward to developing the engine and car. Looks like there will be two lists over the winter for developments as I’m already looking at areas of improvement for the Oms.
It was fantastic to see and catch up with friends at Curborough, it is one of the most enjoyable events I go to each year. All in all a great two days motorsport and I look forward to coming out again next weekend at Clay Pigeon for one last blast this year.
Photo credits: Max Hawkes and Neil Wayne Smith
Special thanks to: Kenton Watts, Lisa Hannah Martin, Benji Minton for the help with Sunday night, Monday morning.