2024 Speed Championship Round 7
Guy Staudt | Published on 9/1/2024
Report Llandow Sprint - August 17, 2024
This year the speed series had its first ever event at Llandow circuit in Wales, a family owned track located 20 miles west of Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan near the country town of Cowbridge. The location boasts a restaurant ( The Cafe), open 7 days a week and offering excellent food; track days and general testing days are offered.
The organizing club was the Bristol Pegasus Motor club. The event has been running since 2002 and attracts an interesting mix of cars from road going saloons through to single seat racing cars. Competitors received 1 practice run and three timed competitive runs around a 1 and ¾ lap course. The length of the circuit being 1,450 meters. The total length of one sprint run being 2,537 meters, quite a nice distance. The course is quite challenging with 2 longer straights, Runway Straight and Hanger Straight both having heavy braking at their ends leading to Bus Stop (a tricky double right hander) and Devil’s Elbow after Runway Straight and to Jack’s Curve (a triple chicane) and Glue-pot at the end of Hangar Straight. The names for the 2 straights (110 mph+) are clearly linked to Llandow circuit being on the site of a former WWII airfield!
The weather was not great, mostly clouds with little sunshine but luckily only a few drops of rain with the circuit staying dry all day.
Two AMOC competitors were present, Mark Chandler (DB7 i6) and Guy Staudt (Vantage V8 S). Mark lives only 60 miles away but was new to the circuit. Guy had booked a general testing day, the day before the event and shared his driving lines with Mark.
Mark took a very cautious practice run at 100.47s, while Guy took advantage of his test day and clocked a 92.96s run. On timed run 1, Mark took a very (too) direct line through the triple chicane after Hangar Straight leading to him being disqualified by the marshals while Guy recorded a 91.45s run.
During the lunch break, both drivers decided to walk the circuit and discuss different driving lines rather than enjoying a hot dish at The Cafe. This very professional approach led to both drivers having their best times of the day on their timed run 2!
The final results for the AMOC drivers were:
Guy Staudt ( Vantage V8 S) 91.21s
Mark Chandler ( DB7i6) 93.98s
Next round: Hethel sprint on Sunday , September 8.
Report by Guy Staudt