Back to the scene of the crime

Back to Pembrey this weekend but with the 750 Motor Club and my RGB mates this time. I would have tested on the Friday as I really like the circuit and it’s good value but the circuit manager’s attentions last time I was here have put me off ever going there again. As it is for this weekend the 750MC and MSA officials will be in charge of the actual racing.

The Fury had been untouched since returning from Cadwell where it ran very well. The only issue was the bonnet impinging on the throttle bodies and causing an air leak at idle, also when Andy had balanced the throttle bodies it’s likely there was a small air leak so I wanted to rebalance them. One of the quirks of the Busa is that there isn’t a separate vacuum port on each throttle body so you need to disconnect a couple of the ones that are connected to the MAP sensor. At Cadwell this upset the ECU and caused it to stall. I do have a set of vacuum gauges but the rubber tubing on them turned out to be too big to fit on the vacuum ports so I had to abandon that plan.

It was quite strange leaving after 5pm but still arriving at the circuit before 6! Austen had saved me a space but we were on the grass which was pretty damp and quite uneven. Apparently the track had been dry during the afternoon but the rain really set in during the evening and it was pretty miserable. Saturday morning was pretty bright however and I got a few early laps in on the mountain bike. Some of the kerbs are truly ferocious and it’s well worth seeing them all up close so you know which ones you can use heavily and which ones to stay well clear of.

It seems the club had spare time in the programme so they offered us an additional untimed practice session so there were a few of us out for that. This went well, the car was behaving itself and once the tyres got up to temperature it was generally pretty grippy despite a few damp patches. It was easy to lock up at the hairpin and the exit was pretty squirrely. On lap 7 I got down to 1:05.14 seconds, just 4 hundredths outside my personal best from May. It took a few more laps to beat this again but I eventually got 4 laps in under 1:05 the fastest down to 1:04.43, so over half a second improvment on my PB already.

After refuelling and a quick spanner check we were ready for our qualy session at 11.55. It was still fine so as soon as the tyres were hot I could press on. From lap 5 I was putting in regular laps in the 1:04’s but not beating my morning’s time. Unfortunately the session was marred by a crash Lee Baverstock had been gaining on me in the mirrors and slipstreamed me down the straight and overtook me on the inside line just as we got into the braking area for Hatchett’s Hairpin. I hit my usual braking point and was just waiting for the weight to plant the fronts so I could lean hard on the brakes when Lee instead of keeping his inside line switched straight across in front of me leaving me no room at all. He was already on the brakes and his car started coming back towards me. I pushed harder on the brakes, my fronts locked up and I went into the back of him. It wasn’t desperately dramatic and we both carried on. I could see my coolant temp was fine and therefore knew the radiator must be OK so after a lap to be confident nothing else was wrong I pressed on again and indeed my last lap was 1:04.39 so a slight improvement on the morning session.

However as we came into the pit lane the Clerk of the Course called Lee and I over. He spoke to each of us individually then went off to check with his marshal’s report. I went over to speak to Lee but he walked away which surprised me somewhat. The Clerk came back and told me the marshal’s report agreed with my account then took me into the office and gave me a verbal warning! I couldn’t believe finding myself in there again and receiving what I thought was again a harsh penalty. Back at the motorhome I got my video onto the laptop to find that my recollection of the incident was pretty accurate. Obviously word had got round of the incident and reassuringly my rather more experienced friends agreed that I’d been pretty blameless and had had nowhere to go. I could see that I’d braked as normal and would have made the corner fine had Lee not pulled in front of me. Make your own mind up from the video. The damage wasn’t major but I was pretty annoyed that a fellow competitor had refused to speak to me and even more annoyed about the penalty.

I got the bonnet patched up (rivets and gaffer tape of course) and tried to get my head together for the race. I was 14th on the grid of 21 alongside Tony Gaunt with a couple of drivers behind me who are often a bit quicker than me including Austen and Phil Alcock, with Doug Carter directly in front of me. I got another of my flying starts and got past Andy Grant and Lee who had a bad start. I was alongside Doug Carter around the outside at the hairpin behind Al Boulton and Tim Hoverd. Al ran a bit wide and baulked me allowing Doug to go up the inside. Tim locked his brakes round the next right hander and the big plume of smoke put me off a bit so I backed out and subsequently lost a place to Andy Grant before the left hander at Debeni. I tucked in behind Andy and had Lee in my mirrors … great. Lee went past at the scene of the previous crime so I just braked very early and kept well back. This meant I lost a place to Tony Gaunt as well as Lee and had Austen right behind me, then just after Debeni either Adrian or Doug spun, Andy in front of me took to the grass and I followed him. By the time I got control of the car most of the field had streamed through and I was behind Judi. By the time I got past her the others had disappeared into the distance and it was a bit of a lonely race, I was slowly gaining on Ben and Austen but didn’t think I’d have enough laps to catch them. I didn’t and what was worse was I felt a vibration in the car on the last lap. At first I thought I might be imagining it (again) but when I accelerated towards the Esses the vibration was bad enough to blur my vision so I backed right off and nursed the car to the chequered flag.

As I came up pit lane the CoC was pulling Paul over as he had won but he then signalled me over. I really was confident I hadn’t done anything wrong this time but it wasn’t a good feeling. He initially said “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious” which didn’t do much to allay my anxieties but he then went on to say Lee had been back to see him again once he’d calmed down and accepted partial responsibility for the incident and had asked that my warning be rescinded which he had done. So I was a free man again. All very nice but it still left me wondering why he’d penalised me in the first place when he said he’d accepted that my account of the incident was accurate :-/

Back in the paddock we eventually tracked down the cause of the problem, the front prop yoke was cracked and looked like it would probably have let go very soon, probably when it got loaded up with the next series of hard downshifts at the hairpin. So, end of the weekend I thought. But I was of course wrong. I set about getting the prop off and Austen set off on a paddock prop hunt. Within 10 minutes he was back with a prop from Paul Nightingale at Spire Sportscars! I’ve never dismantled a prop but props and diffs are Austen’s dad’s business and clearly good old Austen has been paying attention as with the help of Andy Bates’ bench vice he had the yoke swapped over within half an hour. It was then a straightforward job slapping it all back together and we were on the beer by about 7pm

Sunday morning was again bright and I got 4 laps in on the mountain bike again before brekkies. Our race wasn’t till 4.20 so we had a lot of time to kill. Another project on my to do list has been setting up a TV aerial in the motorhome and I’d bought one on Friday morning so I spent a couple of hours connecting up the aerial socket that was already there and leaving a connector underneath the motorhome so I could just cable tie the aerial onto the bike rack and connect up. This worked nicely and at 1pm a few of us were ensconced in there watching the Hungarian Grand Prix. I’d already more or less got the car ready and after an hour or so of the race I lost interest and went back out to finish preparations. I also had time to start clearing up, packing the awning away etc. It was quite sunny and warm so were were all set hopefully for a good race. We were all sitting round chatting when they announced that the race before ours (a Stock Hatch heat) was cancelled and ours was the next race! So we all got changed quick and headed off to the assembly area.

Since we hadn’t been on track before on the day we had a green flag lap so we all got up to temperature and reformed on the grid where we were very quickly shown the 5 second board followed by the red lights. Another good start but I couldn’t really capitalise as I was behind Tony Gaunt but I still got ahead of Austen (who started ahead of me this time) and eventually got past Tony before the hairpin. For the first lap I had Lee in front of me and Tony behind but looking at he video Tony pulled off at the pit entry at the end of the lap leaving Colin Chapman chasing me. It stayed like this for a while, Lee got past Al Boulton and there was quite a gap to me then a small gap to Colin behind. My clutch pedal clattered to the bulkhead I think at the end of the first lap and I thought about abandoning but decided to press on. It meant I had to just bang the car down through the gears without the clutch so I stopped using 6th on the straight and hung on to 5th, the only problems were that it was reluctant to go from 3rd to 2nd for the hairpin and every time I changed down from 4th to 3rd at the Brooklands hairpin it was trying to step the back end out. Gradually I pulled away from Colin which surprised me somewhat, then even more surprisingly I started closing on Al who was all over the back of Doug Carter. Of course I’ve got more power than both Colin and Al but they usually have far more corner speed than me and generally leave me for dead. But not today!

After a few laps Duncan Marshall had a problem and pulled over just after the Woodlands kink and in avoiding him Doug and Al got slowed a bit allowing me to close right up. I was fairly amazed to be in their company, I don’t normally see them apart from the start and when they lap me! I could even still see Tim Hoverd a few seconds ahead. By now though I’d got used to having no clutch and was feeling more confident, determined even! I’d been experiencing turn in understeer on Saturday and had thought about altering the suspension a bit but chatting with Derek in the evening he suggested trying to turn in while I was still on the brakes and the front was therefore still heavily loaded. This worked very nicely giving me more speed particularly round Honda.

Not only did I stick with Al and Doug, I could see that Doug was braking earlier than me particularly at the Brooklands hairpin and at Honda. This I think was backing Al up a bit and I could then use my power to get a run at him down the straight. Eventually after a good exit from Honda I took a deep breath and pulled out alongside Al down the finish straight and got the inside line into the hairpin on the brakes. Of course he’s pretty wily and hung out wide while I was going into the hairpin on a very tight line and he retook the place on the run to the right hander at Spitfires. I was feeling determined by now though and was right up behind him again into Honda next time round and did the same manoeuvre. This time it stuck and I stayed ahead of him. By now Doug had got away a little bit but I gradually closed the gap and got right back behind him. I think Doug’s Genesis is more streamlined than the Fury so his ZX12 seemed to be giving him a little more speed than me but I was closing on him at Brooklands and Honda and managing to keep up round the crucial complex through Dibeni, Paddock and the Esses. We caught Judi to lap her and I was worried Doug would get away or that Al would get back past me but when Doug overtook her coming into Hatchett’s I stuck to him like glue and got through with him.

I saw the last lap board and throughout the lap was very close to Doug, I knew I was going faster then I was used to because I was very near the limiter in 3rd gear round the left handed Dibeni. I was really close out of the Brooklands hairpin and hoped I might be able to try to get past on the drag to Honda but Doug’s car was too fast and that wasn’t going to happen. I stayed really close and knew I could brake later than Doug into Honda so I pulled to the right and did get partly alongside him but the last thing I wanted to do after a whole race without making a mistake was overcook it and take us both out! So I crossed the line just behind him. I really couldn’t believe it, this was far and away the best racing I’d had and although I didn’t really know where I’d placed I was confident it was my highest finish.

Back in the paddock I found Al – I was feeling a bit guilty as the only reason I’d got past him was because I had more power. He was very magnanimous though and said he’d been pleased to see me going well. He was also well clear as the leading Class C car and was happy to let Doug and I in our Class A cars have a battle. He also commented that my car had looked very stable which was nice, certainly I was very happy with the balance of the car and I guess it must mean I was driving it OK too! I got the results sheet and found not only had I finished 9th but my fastest lap was 1:03.89 so another pretty big chunk off my PB – 1.2 seconds quicker than when I was at Pembrey in May.

Here’s my vid from Sunday’s race:

So, I’ve got a bonnet to repair and presumably a clutch slave that needs sorting out (again!) but I can’t really say it worries me, I’ve made huge progress this weekend and can’t wait to get back on track. I’ll be missing Silverstone in 3 weeks time as we’re off to Florida on hols so my next outing will be at Snetterton. There are only 2 more rounds for me then for this season apart from the Birkett and it seems strange that I’m finally getting to grips with racing the Fury when I’ve only got a few more races left in her then it will be more learning curves with the BDN. At least my driving might now do the BDN a bit more justice.

So why was I faster? Some might surmise it was greater familiarity with my local circuit but in fact I’ve driven Brands Hatch lots more times than I have Pembrey! The main thing I think is confidence – I’ve got used to both braking later and going into corners a bit faster, developed a greater appreciation of just how much cornering G the tyres will provide when up to temperature and I’ve also got used to the car moving round even in some of the higher speed corners. Derek’s tip on turning in helped along with Al’s observation that what he looks for in peoples’ videos is how early they get on the power out of a corner. I still have a long way to go but I’m seeing some light at the end of the tunnel

Cadwell Park

After the 270 mile trek across country from drizzly Wales I pitched up on Friday evening to a very warm sunny Cadwell. I had nothing to do other than sorting out some food and a bit of socialising. I resisted temptation to do the Allcomers races as I thought adding another 3 track sessions onto the existing qualy and race on Saturday would be asking for trouble. So I didn’t have scrutineering till after 10 meaning a very leisurely start to the day. Scrutineering was completely uneventful so I had plenty of time before qualy at 11.15.

It took me a couple of laps to get my head around the circuit but I never really got a fast lap in. Gary Goodyear overtook me in his ZX12 engined Fulcrum but then he slowed to give himself space for his fastest lap attempt. As soon as he’d done it he slowed down again and with only about 8 laps in a 15 minute session that was pretty much it. The bits I was getting most badly wrong were the bit between Charlies 1 and 2 and the entry to the Gooseneck so I made a mental note to do better in the race. My fastest lap was 1:41.79 which was a bit slower than last year but everyone reckoned they were going slower maybe because of the heat, it was near 30°.

Poor old Austen was having a terrible time with a misfire that had recurred during the Allcomers qualy session and he spent the rest of the day trying to fix that. By the close of play it was still a mystery.

The track is pretty narrow all the way round Cadwell including the starting grid, so we aren’t staggered like most other circuits, you start directly behind the car in front and there isn’t really room to get between cars. So although I got off the line cleanly I couldn’t make up anything at the start. Ben Butler has improved a lot and was ahead of me,and James Walker behind me but the main interest was the battle between Phil Alcock and Matt Rowe just ahead of Ben. There seemed to be a bit of paint swapping going on and lots of off-roading. I knew it was inevitable the James would get past me, his driving has come on no end the last couple of meetings, something’s obviously clicked there – nice to see as it gives me hope the same might happen to me! Indeed he did get through on the brakes into the Mountain on the second lap. My mirrors were then full of Geoff Mason’s Hayabusa Spire until he seemed to have a problem and dropped back a bit. A lap later I got a good exit from Barn and as Ben moved right to try to overtake Matt I went left and overtook them both which was nice I then had Matt Rowe’s yellow Fury behind me for a while until he dropped back I think with some power loss. I eventually reeled in Phil who seems to have the widest car in RGB! After a couple of failed attempts to get past him I eventually got a run on him out of Barn and went left of him. He did his usual trick of trying to squeeze me onto the grass but I held my line, kept my foot in and got past him. I thought we’d made contact but the bang I heard was apparently his undertray detaching itself again!

Phil’s undertray kept him back and the width of his car kept Ben and Matt behind him and I started to chase down Neil C-B in the BDN. This was going quite nicely and I think with another couple of laps I might have caught him. Grabbing 4th gear instead of 2nd in the middle of the Mountain on the last lap didn’t help the cause at all though!

We had a very pleasant barbecue in the evening, the RGB tradition is to host a barbecue once a season for the marshals. I was up early the next morning to find Austen already up and about and tickering trying to sort out his misfire. He couldn’t start th engine till 8am though which stymied hima bit. During the morning I asked Andy Bates to balance my throttle bodies as the car was idling like a bag of spanners. Other than that she needed nothing doing. Our race was at 12.20 and as I arrived in assembly the rough idle was back. Andy Bates noticed it and spotted a loose rubber between throttle bodies and head so he ran off to find a replacement for the missong screw. This solved the problem … till we closed the bonnet which it seems is fouling the airbox and causing a slight leak.

We had a green flag lap followed by the usual regridding and start. This time I found some space and made up a few places. I ended up behind Neil C-B’s BDN with Phil Alcock behind me. After a couple of laps Phil disappeared suddenly just before the Gooseneck, it turned out later a coolant hose had come off causing him to spin. I let Tim Hoverd through after yet another awful start but then got stuck behind Doug Carter who was super quick down the straights but incredibly slow through Hall Bends, the Hairpin and Park, it turned out he had a rear wishbone problem. The trouble with this was that there was no way past him and it meant the guys behind could catch me even quicker. James Walker in the red Westfield got past Austen in the white Fury then he got stuck so there was a train of 4 of us with me trying to keep Austen behind me. It was really nice to see Austen out there after all his trials and tribulations but I wanted to finish ahead of him! On the last lap we came out of Barn to find a sideways BDN recovering from a spin but Neil managed to just keep his nose ahead of me at the line.

So, a successful weekend with only minor attention needed to sort out the bonnet/airbox problem. The next race is in 3 weeks at Pembrey, just 18 miles from home. I have no illusions about home advantage but at least I do know the circuit reasonably well.

So no improvement time wise but most people reckoned their times were down because of the heat. I had 2 good races but know I can do better. I’m getting a bit more confident carrying corner speed but am still braking too early a lot of the time. I also need to start putting up more of a fight when I’m getting harassed from behind.

Brands again

Well, here we are back at Brands again. Not complaining, it’s a fab circuit and the paddock’s good – plenty of room and lots of electrical hook ups. Pity about the M25 on the way here but hey ho.

Following exchanges of texts and a phone call with Austen on Thursday I ordered 3 rear tyres from Ears Motorsport, 2 for me and one for Austen. They duly arrived Friday morning while I was catching up on some sleep after an overnight shift. I’d already ordered a pair of fronts from Polley.

Saturday morning was cloudy, breezy and cool but stayed dry. Qualifying was good fun, my main goal was to try to go into Clearways a bit faster and let the car run out towards the outside kerb more, hopefully thereby gaining a bit more speed onto the straight. The car was again hopping round a bit over the ripples in the early part of Clearways but it was otherwise OK. FL was 54.21 which is slower than I’ve been before and I was very aware that I could easily go faster by concentrating on the Paddock Hill entry. I was 17th on the grid for race one with Phi Alcock and Adrian within 2 tenths ahead of me so I should have a good race against them. Neil in the BDN and Geoff Mason in his Busa engined Spire were just behind me although I’d passed both of them during qualy. After qualy the car needed nothing much doing at all which was nice

Brian and Rob Baldwin turned up, Rob had been hoping to race the BDN S3 in the Bikesports race but they hadn’t managed to get it ready in time. Ian and Brian have redesigned the bodywork to improve the aero and the new rear was fouling the exhaust. Pretty disappointing for all concerned. However they’d decided that I could have the chassis that’s almost completed and originally intended for Rob to take to Australia. So I can go and collect the chassis and aluminium panels in a couple of weeks time to make a start on my BDN.

As we left assembly it started to rain and just like at Snetterton it rained harder while we were all getting onto the grid. The lights went out and I promptly stalled I hit the starter button and got going pretty quickly having only lost one or two places but as I arrived at Paddock Hill the bonnet started to lift up. I’d clearly simply forgotten to do up all the latches. Cursing myself I raised my hand and coasted round while the rest of them streamed past me. 52mph was the magic number above which the bonnet lifted up. I dawdled round to pit lane and waved someone over to do up the latches for me then I was held at pit exit while a marshal went round and checked them all. Off I went again and on the way down towards Graham Hill I could see the leaders coming round Paddock Hill, thee was nobody in sight in front of me. Resigned to a lonely race I watched my mirrors and made sure I stayed out of the way of the leaders as they came round. I did eventually start to reel someone in and gradually caught up the battle between Judi, Ben and Neil. I went past Neil on the brakes into Druids then on the way out of Graham Hill Ben made his move on Judi, I wet right over to the left and went past both of them and was ahead by the time we got to Surtees. Towards the end I was reeling in Geoff Mason but didn’t quite get to him before the chequered flag.

As I went down the tunnel I noticed smoke coming off the right rear brake and by the time I got back into the paddock the car was grinding to a halt. Austen had a brief panic attack as my brake was on fire as I pulled up next to his bottle of barbeque gas As it is steel disks and asbestos pads don’t burn too well so it was a brief drama. We jacked the car up and got the wheel off to work out why it was seizing on. Releasing either bleed nipple released the brake but loosening the banjo holding the flexible hose on the caliper didn’t so we deduced something was going on within the caliper that was allowing it to pressurise. Ken (Austen’s dad) and I decided the handbrake mechanism was the likely culprit so we set about dissembling it. Adrian had previously told me Hi-Spec had told him that taking the handbrake bit apart was a bad move but we had no choice. It turned out the handbrake mechanism is an incredibly complex affair and apart from the lever operated cam isn’t mechanical at all but in fact operates a small hydraulic piston within the caliper. We spent several hours sussing out how it worked and what had gone wrong. As the handbrake is operated the piston pressurises the caliper and closes off the tiny passageway back out of the caliper.Eventually we decided a knackered O-ring was preventing the piston going back far enough to uncover this passageway and release the fluid back.

After a couple of failed attempts to come up with a fix we left out the tiny plunger and spring controlling the flow of fluid back and left the handbrake cable disconnected. By the time we were happy it was OK it was getting on for 10pm by which time I was well ready for a beer and some food.

Sunday was again breezy and cloudy but the forecast was OK. I got the car prepped and had a fairly leisurely morning since we weren’t racing till 12.45. Having been deeply ashamed of my performance off the line on Saturday I was determined to get a better start. I was in 16th place today on the left side of the grid which I preferred, not keen on being boxed in alongside the pit wall and on the inside at Paddock Hill. I got a great start this time and as is often the case gained a few places on the way to the first corner. I stayed round the outside round Druids allowing Austen and Colin to get past me then I tucked in behind Colin on the run down to Graham Hill. I jinked right to avoid a spinning Tim Hoverd on the left and chased Austen and Colin round the rest of the lap. I lost a bit of ground to them round Clearways and had Phil Alcock in my mirrors. Austen and Colin slowly edged away from me and for a few laps I had Phil hassling me from behind – he’s very experienced and a wily racer and he got past me round Druids after about 6 laps. I then had James Walker in the Westfield up my chuff but I knew he was almost a second a lap quicker than me so expected him to get past me which he duly did into Paddock Hill next time round. I know from previous battles that there are bits where Phil’s faster than me but other bits where I’m quicker. I confidently expected James to get past Phil but he didn’t and I was behind their battle for the rest of the race. Neil in the BDN was a little way back in my mirrors but never really threatened me. I finished in 13th place which I think is about my best result yet having started 16th in a grid of 23. I was really pleased to find I’d also improved my lap time with a new personal best of 53.87. I also wasn’t lapped which is another new experience, especially on a short circuit like Brands.

Here’s race 2:

So, yet again I was bringing home an intact Fury All I need to do before Cadwell in 3 weeks is sort out the rear brakes – either get new O-rings and seals for the Hi-Spec calipers or change them altogether. I still have the Sierra calipers I was originally supplied before the Hi-Spec handbrake calipers were available. They’re a bit heavier but they’re reliable and I’d have a functioning handbrake then!

Thoughts are now turning also to the BDN. I’ve been seeking plenty of advice from my fellow racers, Brian, also Andy Bates. I’m pretty much decided on sticking to 1000cc as I don’t think there’s enough benefit from the bigger engines to justify the extra weight and cost. Opinions vary unsurprisingly, Andy of course favours Honda but the 2005/6 Fireblade motors don’t produce as much power as the others and I’m not happy being a guinea pig with the 2008 motor. I like the Suzuki motor but there are some question marks over its strength, particularly with respect to rods and rod bolts. The Kawasaki ZX10 seems a reasonable option – good output, quite strong and relatively cheap. Andy can also supply a billet wet sump which is proven (Tony Gaunt’s been using his for a couple of years now). I’ll need to make my mind up soon.

Pembrey WRDA – Sunday

I woke up at stupid o’clock having not slept very well to a very grey wet morning exactly as forecast. I slapped copies of the video onto a flash drive and a CD and headed off to the circuit, picking up my rally driver friend Phil on the way. Once we’d got the covers of the car and got her under the awning I headed off to Race Control. The steward I’d spoken to was standing outside and he took me into the office. Phil Davies, the CoC (and circuit manager) wasn’t there – the steward didn’t say why and I didn’t ask. He first of all talked me through the 2 reports. The first stated that I’d overtaken the Clio under a yellow flag before the green flag after the hairpin. I said I fully accepted that but that the CoC had told me the flags were red. The second report was from the post on the start/finish line and stated that I’d overtaken the Escort between their post and the next post at Hatchett’s. I said I’d been told by the CoC that I’d overtaken after a red on Honda, also that I could show on video that my overtake was well before the finish line and that I’d slowed significantly by the line.

He said given that I hadn’t been given a copy of the paperwork he was prepared to present an appeal to the stewards if I wished even though it was obviously well outside the 30 minutes allowed. He also admitted that he personally would not have applied so harsh a penalty based on the reports. He said though that given there were 2 reports it was unlikely I’d escape penalty and that I may well just end up with a different penalty (e.g. up to £500 fine …). I’d also have to pay a £190 deposit. He reminded me that although he accepted I was upset about being disqualified from the race and receiving 4 points this penalty actually had no inherent material value and that unless I offended again would have no effect on me other than putting me at the back of the grid for the second race. I had to make my mind up pretty quickly and decided to walk away.

Time now to put it behnd me and get the car and my head ready for a wet race. I had the ignominy of being demoted to the back of the grid, just in front of me was the lovely Ginetta G50 of David Krayem who’d not managed to get out in qualy due to an engine problem. We got away behind the pace car for our formation lap, then we had a green flag lap – it was all a bit strange. Of course I’m on Yokohama A048s with extra cuts while the rest of the field (apart from Colin) is on full wets. The lights went out as we came round in grid formation and I hung back behind David Krayem who seemed to be having a misfire again. We were dropping back from the rest of the field but the red lights were still on so there was no way I was going to overtake him before the line given that I felt I was driving with a target on my back The lights went out, I hit the throttle and went flying past him only for him to outbrake me into the hairpin. He then misfired all the way round the next corner before moving over to let me through. By now the nearest car was 200 yards down the road. I eventually caught them up and got past I think 3 cars over the next few laps. It was really wet but on the softer settings I had more confidence in the car and was actually enjoying it. I was of course spending as much time watching the marshals posts as I was the track and the other cars. I came down the straight and saw the red lights and as I got towards the hairpin I saw Colin’s forlorn looking Fury not looking very well and the stack of tyres that normally live on the apex were right in the middle of the track and I had to drive round them. About this time I realised my clutch pedal wasn’t doing anything. I got back round to the grid where the car promptly stalled. I stuck my hand up and explained to the marshal that I had no clutch pedal expecting to get pushed off the grid but he just said they’d push start me for the restart! They eventually got us regridded and with 2 marshals poised behind me the pace car set off and as they got me rolling I dropped her into first gear and off we went. I was very keen to finish but had no wish to get involved in any close racing. After the 2 laps behind the pace car again we all hurtled down the straight and into the hairpin with very little visibility and of course I was having to contend with coming down the gears without a clutch. I came out of there dead last with the fire car practically trying to overtake me. Despite having no clutch pedal I managed to mug Kareem in front of me when he let the leaders through then we took the chequered flag.

Anyway, here’s a few bits from the wet race on Saturday morning. Let’s get my excuses in straight away – I’m on crap tyres for wet conditions, the others are on full wets, I’ve got no clutch pedal, I was spending as much time watching marshals posts as I was the track and I’m inherently crap, especially in the wet

Back in the paddock Phil and I set to work on the clutch. The uppermost of the 3 bolts holding the slave cylinder onto the engine had sheared off flush with the casing and drilling and extracting it was non-viable in the paddock so we fabricated a bracket which seemed to do the job fine. My FL was a low 1:18 according to my dash, although the results show 1:20.7, I’m pretty sure they’re just giving the times from the restart when I had no clutch. It was much wetter than when I did the 1:19 on Friday so I was pretty pleased with the time.

Phil and I got the car ready again. It was raining most of the day so we left her on the wets with wet settings. The races all started running early then as we were about to go to assembly the sun came out. I stiffened up the dampers a bit and let some air out of the tyres but left the wets on and left the ARB alone. Waiting in the assembly area we were waiting for the truck race to finish but one of them went into the barrier so they were red flagged and we had to wait ages while they rebuilt the barrier. It was now very sunny and warm so I adjusted the ARB and stiffened the dampers up a bit more. The rest of the guys were all on slicks. I was back in 10th on the grid after my performance in the 2nd race and was feeling more confident now I had a dry track and a clutch I hung on to the faster guys for much longer in this race and ended up in a great ding dong with Nick in the Clio after a brief tussle with Neil Watts. I managed to get past him at the hairpin and did get away from him but he closed up each time I caught a back marker and when I let the leaders through. The car was starting to feel a bit squirelly, stepping out almost evey time round Hatchetts Hairpin and I thought the tyres were going off. I saw the last lap board and was determined to keep Nick behind but he had a good run round the Esses and despite me holding a tight line into Brooklands hairpin he was right up the inside of me. I turned in and the car just started to go. I gave her opposite lock but she spun and all of a sudden Nick was past and I was facing the wrong way going backwards. I spun the wheel to get her round and knocked her down into first and set off again without anyone else getting past and took the chequered flag. I was disappointed with the spin but had had a great race. As I pulled into parc ferme the car stopped quite suddenly and it was obvious I had a brake binding. Smoke coming from the right rear brake was the clue and this was obviously the cause of the spin. I had a chat with Nick who said he could see the car wasn’t behaving and like me had thought it was just my tyres going off.

I’d finished 9th with a fastest lap of 1:05.07. I clearly had a bit of work to do with the car but over the weekend I’d done 7 track sessions with the only issues being the clutch bolt and the brake binding which for me means a pretty uneventful weekend mechanically speaking! Nothing had shaken off the car and I seemed to have the prop and drive shaft bolts tamed now. I’d also made a bit more progress getting used to pushing the car a bit harder and I suspect could have gone a bit faster with the normal tyres on rather than with the cut ‘wets’ especially without a brake binding. I’ve still got more work to do to get on terms with the RGB cars but I’d got within 2 tenths of Colin’s FL.

Here’s my on-board video of race 3. I think it’s probably my best race to date, both in terms of my lap times and the closeness of the racing. Brilliant fun!

I’d made some new friends but had some significant concerns about returning to Pembrey so am unlikely to race with them again and need to think carefully about what to do when RGB go there later this season. Definitely not a fan of the rolling starts.

Pembrey WRDA – Saturday

Saturday was dry and bright so when I got back to the circuit the first job was to swap the wheels back to the dry set and readjust the dampers and ARB. I decided to leave the dampers a little softer than they were originally to see how it felt. I was now out with the Welsh Sports and Saloons which was an eclectic mix from very nicely prepared Ginetta G50s through a variety of kitcars to a few tintops. Colin Chapman was the only other RGB car there, his Dad was also there in his Toyota engined Striker. It was much more fun in the dry but as usual I was taking a time to get up to speed. I was of course lapping quicker than Friday but my FL was 1:06.85. Colin managed a 1:04.9 in his Class C Fury. Prior to the weekend I’d set myself the target of matching Tim Hoverd’s time from 2006 when RGB were here last since he was then at a similar stage to me experience-wise but I failed to get down to his 1:05.91. Hey ho, still time yet. I was still 10th on a grid of 16.

I checked the car over but all she needed was fuel which was nice. It was still sunny and warm in the afternoon for our race. I’d been talking to the other guys who were a pretty friendly lot. They use rolling starts – you form up on the grid, have a green flag lap behind the pace car then he pulls in to pit lane and the race is supposed to start at the start line. They said to forget about that as the lead cars were likely to drop the hammer more or less as soon as they came off Honda Curve or as soon as they saw the red lights go out.

I had a good race and with about 3 laps to go was reeling in the pair of cars in front of me, a red Escort being chased by a yellow Renault Clio. It looked like the Escort’s tyres were going off as he was going round most of the corners sideways and the Clio was all over him and trying hard to get past him but without succeeeding. There’s always a risk chasing a ding dong like this that one or both of them bin it and you become part of their accident so I was concentrating hard on watching them carefully. I got a good exit from the hairpin and pulled out and overtook the Clio. I then backed off and waited behind the Escort round the Woodlands kink and then round Honda and got on the gas to try to overtake him down the straight. As I was passing him he hit the brakes and stiuck his hand up, I then spotted the red flags and backed off myself and made sure I didn’t pass the orange Ginetta we were both catching. I followed the Ginetta round and we went in.

I was initially pretty happy after what I thought had been a good race with a FL according to my dash of 1:05.6 so I’d achieved my target. I was enjoying a quiet beer with my friend Dylan and my son David when I was called to Race Control. The CoC told me he’d had reports from 2 marshals posts and said I’d overtaken twice under red flags. I had genuinely seen no flags at the hairpin as I was watching the 2 cars in front of me and had backed off as soon as I saw them on the finish straight. Neither of my overtakes had been the least bit lairy and flags notwithstanding I didn’t feel I’d endangered anyone. He left me in his office for a while then came back. Having thought about it while he was away I still couldn’t believe I’d passed a red flag at the station right next to the track after the hairpin and said so. He was adamant there was a red flag there and in fact said that red flags had been out for 45 seconds before I slowed down. He said he was excluding me from the result, submitting a written report to the MSA and giving me 4 points on my race licence. I was pretty gobsmacked but had to accept it.

I trudged back to the motorhome and both David and Dylan were pretty incredulous. They had been standing on the banking by the assembly area with a clear view of the marshals posts more or less opposite them and on Honda and were both adamant that there were definitely no red flags until after I’d gone round Honda. I remembered my video and downloaded it onto the laptop. Watching the video I could clearly see the yellow at the hairpin (looked stationary) followed by a clearly held green flag at the post on the right after it. There was nothing visible on the next post on the left or on the Honda Curve post. By now my feeling of shame was shifting a bit into something else. I spoke to Nick who was driving the Clio and confirmed the yellow and green flags but said when he went round Honda there was a red flag. He asked me exactly what was on the copy of the CoC’s report that he’d given me and I said I wasn’t given anything. On his advice I then went and found an MSA steward and said that I wasn’t sure that correct procedures had been followed and that I felt that I’d been penalised quite harshly for an offence that I felt was actually more serious than what I thought I’d actually done. I told him I could confirm my version with video. He agreed on the procedural issue and suggested I meet with with himself and the CoC at 9am the next morning.

I had been planning to stay at the circuit but the car needed nothing much doing and I really didn’t feel like sticking around socialising so I packed the motorhome and went home for a rather depressing evening and fairly sleepless night. Here’s some of the last lap of the race, I’ve deliberately started the clip 45 seconds before I reacted to the red flags (i.e. there are supposed to be red flags round the circuit throughout this clip). The yellow flag at the hairpin is at 21 seconds in, the green flag is on the right at 29 seconds, I can’t see any flags at the post on the left at 33 seconds although my view is somewhat obscured by the Escort. The Honda post is at about 39 seconds, having slomo’d this and blown it up I think I can maybe make out a red flag but given that I was just behind a rather sideways Escort am not surprised I didn’t notice it at the time – it’s a long way back from the circuit.

Pembrey Testing

I decided in the end with Pembrey being so close to home and being relatively cheap compared to most of the circuits we go to that I’d be a mug not to do a bit of testing. I booked the afternoon session for the relative bargain of £105. It was quite odd packing all the stuff in the motorhome then having just a 40 minute journey to the circuit. It had been raining on and off all morning but the forecast for the afternoon was better. When I got there I was given a parking plan only to find the bit I was supposed to park in was completely jam packed so I parked where I could find a space.

I got the car off the trainler and swapped the wheels for the ‘wets’. Of course they’re still fairly useless in the wet but probably aquaplane a bit less. I signed on then went and got changed. Of course the weather forecast was wrong and although it had looked brighter it was drizzling when we went out. I’ve done a couple of trackdays here before so do know my way round but it’s all different in the wet and of course testing is very different from a trackday. It was pretty slippery, especially exiting the Hatchets and Brooklands hairpins. The other cars were mostly Ginettas and it was clear their tyres cope with rain better than ours. I suvived the session without any major dramas although my fastest lap was only 1:21. Fastest lap times when RGB were last here in 2006 were 1:02 but of course that was in the dry. I was getting a bit more grip towards the end of the session and felt I could lean on the tyres a bit more – of course the more you push them the more the heat up and you get a bit more grip.

As usual in the wet I was soaked, the water all comes over the sidepod onto your right arm and leg. I’d forgotten what it was like to have ‘Fury Foot’ – a bit like trench foot but wetter. While I’d put a bit more air in the tyres than normal I’d left the suspension alone and I decided to soften everything off. So as well as checking nothing was falling off (which it wasn’t) I took 6 clicks off all 4 dampers and softened off the ARB as much as it would go. The oil leak was sorted – having an floor in the engine bay makes it very easy to see if you’ve got a leak or not.

The weather brightened up a bit. Then started raining again just as we went out for the second session. It was still very wet with poor visibility but I was delighted to find that I could really feel a difference in the car. I could definitely feel that it was softer, with more feel for what was going on and was a bit more progressive. Of course it was still all over the place on the power out of the hairpins but that was quite good fun rather than being alarming. The Ginettas were still quicker than me but I managed to narrow the gap a bit and could stick with them for a bit longer. I didn’t get any very clear laps and only improved my lap time a little bit to a shorter 1:21 but more importantly I’d gained a bit more confidence.

Back in the paddock my spanner check revealed no problems and all the car needed was fuel. I had some new neighbours, both were driving 250 karts and one had a very swanky motorhome with ‘European Champion’ blazoned all over it. He reckoned his FL round here in the dry was 55 seconds!! Although there were still a few spots of rain the final session was definitely a bit less wet. There was nowehre near a dry line but visibility was better. I was now quicker than the slower Ginettas and the couple of Westfields altohugh the latter were sporting novice crosses. I discovered I had quite a lot more power than the Ginettas (who are all on control engines) and even when the faster ones passed me on bends I had to hold back behind them down the straights. We did have a brief red flag when 2 Ginettas simultaneously decided to do a bit of farming but we got back out again for a few laps. By now I really was enjoying myself, reflected in lap times in the low 1:19s.

I gave the car a bit of a clean up, swapped back to my dry set of wheels and went through my spanner check again finding nothing awry. I packed everything up and headed home for the evening. The forecast’s better for tomorrow, dry and sunny and quite a bit warmer. Still no idea what I’m racing against as I haven’t seen any kind of start sheet.

Power Curve

Not much to report. Main thing the car needs is a good clean from the spray on the M4 on the way home from Brands

I thought I’d post up the torque/power curves from PDQ. The power is a little disappointing, I think it should be making a bit more power than it is. I can’t think of any good reasons why it isn’t though. Comparing it with Tim Hoverd’s CBR1000 I’ve actually got less power than him (145 v 149bhp) but the torque curve tells a different story. The Busa peaks at 90 ft-lbs but I’ve got over 75 from 4k upwards with a nice fat spread up to 9k. Tim’s peaks at 76 but doesn’t get above 50 until about 5k. This explains why my car’s so easy to get off the line, and why I can use less gears but have no power advantage at the top end.

One of the things I didn’t get round to over the winter was sticking a floor on the engine bay. Derek reminded me of this at Brands, asking why the car wasn’t trying to take off down the straight. I suspect the answer may well be that it is but I don’t have the sensitivity to feel it! After all I drove it round Snett on 3 wheels just thinking something was a bit odd :-/ So I’ve measured her up and ordered some aluminium. I could get it locally but it’s a pain transporting it and would need the motorhome plus an hour’s return journey. It’s actually cheaper to buy online which negates the £10 delivery charge so that was a bit of a no brainer.

One other thing is a public apology, to Dave Dawson who designed and built Paul Rogers’ Contour which is currently mopping up Class A without appearing to break sweat. In my musings about the Fury’s replacement I stated the Contour isn’t available as a kit, this was based on a discussion I had with Dave at Mallory last Autumn. He assures me it is very much available in kit form or indeed as a rolling chassis or turnkey car.

Super Sunday at Brands

How bizarre it was to be in the paddock at Brands in warm late afternoon sunshine with the Fury parked under the awning and not to have a mountain to climb. She needed fuel and my routine spanner check but so far as I was aware there were no mechanical issues. So I got her fuelled and did a bit of checking then spent a very pleasant evening with the RGB crowd. I was parked up next to Austen who had come with his Dad and son. His 2 mates had arrived and we all had a few beers and a lads’ barbecue – all meat with no sign of any veg. There was a rumour there was a bit of salad floating about but I managed to avoid that. We did go up to the bar later but frankly I was too shattered to drink much and was glad when it was bed-time.

Austen was briefly in the dog house having been accused of punting Colin off at Paddock Hill but after about a dozen of us had piled into his bus and watched his video all seemed to agree that he wasn’t at fault. The bottom line seemed to be that 3 abreast round Paddock Hill is generally not recommended and is always likely to end in tears.

The rain woke me in the early hours but when I got up at 7.30 the paddock was mostly dry again. The only work I found to do on the car was tightening the bolts holding the right hand drive shaft onto the diff. At about 9.30 it tipped down with rain again but after that it stayed mostly breezy and cloudy but dry and the tarmac in the paddock was pretty dry by late morning. Our race was at 12.30 and the only adjustment I made to the car was to soften all the dampers by 2 clicks to see if it reduced the hopping motion across the ripples going into Clearways. By the time we were called to the assembly area it had brightened up again.

It was a bit lonely at the back of the grid – James Johnson had gone home with a broken gearbox, Judi’s engine had overheated after the Allcomers race and she’d gone, Rob Grant wasn’t feeling well and had withdrawn so it was just Phil Alcock behind me. After the green flag lap I got yet another good start when the lights went out but it was pretty busy down the grid as there were a couple of stallers and people were swerving round them.

It was all pretty busy round Paddock Hill and on the way up to Druids Jamie Robinson decided he wanted my place and sort of barged me across. It was either go onto the grass to avoid him or back off and let him have the place so I did the latter. As we came out of Druids there was some sort of fluid coming from the back of his Genesis that made a bit of a mess of my visor. Around Graham Hill and Jamie seemed to have a problem and I went past him again. Neil Constable-Berry seemed to be having an issue in his new BDN so I went past him between Surtees and McLaren but had to stay a bit wide as Jamie was coming back up the inside. He went round me then cut across and went into pit lane trailing a load of smoke and obviously leaving something on the circuit as I lost traction briefly and had to correct. This little episode with the 2 of them cost me loads of time and by the time I was on the straight there was a huge gap ahead of me.

Lee Baverstock went past on the straight (he’d been one of the stallers) then I was pretty much on my own for quite a while. Neil had gone into pitlane and came out in front of me next time round and held me up again until I got past him on the Cooper Straight. He had an intermittent engine problem. By then the next car was just a speck in the distance. Eventually I hauled in Ben Butler in the Westfield and after being a bit tentative round Paddock Hill and Druids got past him on the exit from Graham Hill. There was oil or something on the racing line at both Druids and Clearways, presumably from the Robinson Genesis which wasn’t helping confidence. I was on my own again until Paul Rogers followed by John Cutmore lapped me then with just over a lap to go I was reeling in Paul Rickers. I was fairly close behind him when we took the chequered flag.

So another pretty successful and hugely enjoyable race and a perfectly healthy Fury to drive back into the paddock. Poor old Austen was in the dock again, this time called to see the Clerk of the Course about an incident at Paddock Hill that left Matt Rowe beachd in the gravel. He got away with that one too. His car by now was a bit of a mess with tyre marks on both sides of the bonnet and a wonky headlight that had been recovered from the track following the previous day’s incident.

So that was it. I’d started 26th again and finished 16th this time. I was going home with an intact car and lots of things to think about with respect to my driving which was a nice change from wondering how I’d get the car fixed for the next meeting. The next RGB race is at Brands in June but I’m doing the Welsh Saloon and Sports Car race at Pembrey in 3 weeks time.

A Sunny Brands Saturday

Saturday morning saw a very early start – signing on at 7.30 then scrutineering at 7.45. No issues there so I took the car back to the paddock and got ready for the Allcomers qualifying at 9am. It was still pretty cool but a gloriously sunny day with a good forecast.

We got out onto the track and I started finding my way round again. Paddock Hill Bend is simply amazing, flat out in 5th gear, completely blind entry, hit the brakes and start to turn in then the earth starts to fall away from you. As usual my problem is a lack of bravery – I always slow down too early then find I’m at the apex with loads in reserve. The trouble is you (or at least I) can’t just tune it all out instantly, I have to gradually brake a bit later and carry a bit more speed round there. The Surtees/McLaren/Clearways complex is very difficult to get right and that wasn’t happening for me in the first session. On the plus side the car was behaving impeccably, nicely balanced with just a touch of understeer going into Clearways which seems to be the norm. Just as I was starting to gain a bit of confidence we were red flagged because of a car in the gravel at Paddock Hill and we only got 3 or 4 laps in after that. My fastest lap was a rather disappointing 55.47, just over a second slower than my fastest lap of last year (54.27). This put me 8th on the grid of 14 cars for the race.

Back in the paddock I went through my checklist. I seem to have cracked it on the transmission bolt front, all the prop, diff and driveshaft bolts were still tight with all the paint marks intact. So I stuck some fuel in her and gave her a bit of a polish. The bodywork’s pretty manky now but she needs to look her best for the TV cameras

RGB qualifying was fairly uneventful but with a lot more traffic with 29 of us out on what’s only a 1.2 mile circuit. I got a bit more feel for the circuit but only managed a slight improvement to 55.18. The car was still fine and again needed only fuel to get her ready for the Allcomers race at 1.30.

I got a good start in the Allcomers and was going fairly well. I didn’t really defend against Austen on the run up to Druids on the first lap, I know he’s faster than me and really didn’t want him hassling me from behind. Once he got through I hang on for quite a few laps and was stil lable to see the leading few cars. After a few laps Austen spun at the exit to Graham Hill Bend. I half expected to see him in my mirrors but I spotted him coming into Paddock Hill as I was coming down into Graham Hill and as the race went by I was getting away from him slightly. There were a couple of hatches and a Locost and I lapped all of them. David Wale retired what he thought was a possible mechanical problem (although the consensus afterwards was that it was most likely a Mallock in his ear!) so I finished 6th feeling much happier with myself. Fastest lap was 54.18 so over a second improvement and a new PB.

It was a gloriously warm and sunny day and I had plenty of time sitting round in the paddock as yet again the car needed nothing doing to her. The RGB race was at 3.45 and it was still very warm. I was 26th of 29 cars although James Johnson in his Hayabusa Fury who qualified 27th had withdrawn with a gearbox problem. At the start I had another flyer and was heading for the gap between Jim Fowley and Rob Grant in front of me but thought better of it as they squeezed together so I held back. Phil Alcock stormed through from behind me and pulled ahead of them. I’d got past Dan Bromilow in the stealth Fury and Ben Butler in John Cutmore’s old car and I had Ben alongside me round Paddock Hill.

Paddock Hill has to be just about the most exciting first corner you can get for a race start. While you have to keep a very close eye on the cars immediately around you it pays to also be aware of what’s happening a bit further up the track. There was a coming together and I caught sight of poor old Colin Chapman beached in the vast acreage of gravel on the outside. The rest of us all made it round and after a bit of a scrum round Druids followed by Graham Hill Bend we were into single file and the race started to settle down. In front of me was Jim Fowley in his ‘Busa engined Fury and I was tucked right up behind him along the straight. Jim’s a fairly new RGBer but his car seems to work quite well and he and I are generally pretty evenly matched. My weak spot appeared to be Clearways where I seemed to lose ground every time – on the entry the car was always skipping across the ripples and any loss in exit speed then costs you all the way down the main straight. I did feel I was stronger on the exit of Graham Hill onto the John Cooper straight and into Surtees/McLaren and on something like the 3rd lap Jim made a mistake on Graham Hill missing the apex and I closed up and got on the power alongside and overtook him along the straight with the inside line into Surtees. I made it round there nicely and kept it tidy round Clearways to open up a little gap.

Next ahead of me was Rob Grant in his dark blue Fury. I was a good way behind him and as we came round Paddock Hill there was a dust cloud from where Richard Wise had just parked the AB Performance Sabre. A lap later and we had to avoid Tony Gaunt who was parked sideways having spun coming out of Graham Hill. By this time I’d gained on Rob and was starting to think about where I might try to get past him. I got a good run out of Clearways and got alongside him along the straight. I’ve learned from previous mistakes and made sure I pulled onto his right so I had the inside line for Paddock Hill. Rob demonstrated quite inappropriate trust by sticking on the outside of me all the way round Paddock Hill – I’d slowed more than usual as I was coming in from the wrong line, I also had to keep a tight exit as I didn’t want to push Rob into the gravel. I knew I’d have the inside line again for Druids and came out of that with Rob right behind me.

Phil Alcock in his turquoise Pulsar was now about 100 yards ahead of me chasing Paul Rickers in Paul Rogers’ old Phoenix. I slowly closed down on Phil over the next few laps then got on the throttle nice and early out of Graham Hill and was close behind him along the straight. I then lost concentration a bit and turned in a bit too late into Surtees and ran wide onto the marbles. Rather than spin I let the car go onto the grass and cut across the right hander, the grass was hard and dry and didn’t seem much less grippy than the tarmac so I made it safely back on in time for Clearways although Phil was a good way up the road by now and Rob a bit bigger in the mirrors again. I spent the next 3 laps hauling him back in again. Paul Rogers then lapped me on the way into Druids and I tried to make the most of it when Phil stayed out wide round Graham Hill to let him through. I was then right behind Phil all along the straight and although I pulled to the left a bit I knew there was no way the wily old fox would let me have the inside line. I stuck with him round Surtees/McLaren and he tooka very defensive line into Paddock Hill. I was right behind him the whole lap, with Rob close behind me. I was determined to get Clearways right this time and I did seem to get a better exit than Phil and as we got onto the straight closed in on him. Phil of course kept a tight line so I went up his left and was just getting alongside him when I saw the chequered flag. The results had me 5 hundredths of a second behind him.

So all in all I was pretty pleased, despite being very slow in qualifying I’d had a pretty good Allcomers race but the RGB race was the most enjoyable I’ve had to date. What’s more in a single day I’d done 2 qualy sessions and 2 races and done no more to the Fury than refill the petrol tank and a bit of polishing! Clearly threatening to sell her has bucked her ideas up.

Here’s some edited footage of the RGB race. I know, I know, I’m braking too early for Paddock Hill, ditto sometimes at Druids and am scrubbing off too much speed for Clearways. On the plus side most of the time I think I’m doing better at Graham Hill and Surtees and I’m more confident at getting past people when I catch them. I started 26th and finished 15th – granted quite a few of those gained places were through attrition but I did manage to do some overtaking.

Mallory Park 4th April 2010

After a pleasant meal out in a local pub with some of the RGB crowd David and I settled down for the night in the motorhome. It was pretty cold and raining quite heavily. The motorhome has a really good thermostatically controlled heater that burns diesel from the main tank to blow warm air costing almost nothing to run. More of a problem though was the rain hammering on the roof especially since you’re sleeping only a few inches from it. Turned out the next morning Tim Hoverd had resorted to his racing earplugs in the middle of the night!

We were scrutineering for the Allcomers race at 8am so I had to be up early. I’d taken the seat and harnesses out of the car for the journey up having correctly predicted that the car would be full of dirty water from the spray on the journey up. So I got the cover off her, mopped the worst of the water out and refitted the seat and harnesses. It was breezy, pretty cloudy but had been dry since about 4am (or so Tim reckoned!). Scutineering was uneventful and pretty soon we were in assembly for the Allcomers qualifying. Again there was an eclectic mix of cars, the 2 Nissan 370′s driven by the Playstation cpmetition winners were out and there was a very pretty KTM X-Box that we hadn’t seen before. I’d noticed loading the car onto the trailer on Saturday that the clutch was feeling decidedly beefier and had a rather sharper bite point so I was stalling it more.

The circuit was still pretty wet – no standing water to speak of but no real dry line. Despite looking quite damp Gerrards actually seemed OK, but the Esses were a different matter. The braking zone I think looked worse than it actually was but it was pretty slippery in the actual complex itself. Within a couple of laps someone had gone off depositing mud on the racing line of the right hander and despite taking it pretty easy I felt my back end stepping out going round the left hander that follows it. It wasn’t long before we had a Locost parked sideways across the apex of the hairpin and after driving round it twice under waved yellows the session was red flagged. After a bit of a mix up about where were were supposed to go I ended up at the very back in the pit lane for the restart. It turned out not to be a problem and I had a bit of clear space although not much pace. My fastest lap here previously was a 54.22 and my best in this session was 57.58. The clutch was definitely better with no sign of slip at all.

As I came in at the end of the session the car sounded a bit noisy and there was a bit of popping and banging from the exhaust which suggested the manifold was cracked again. A quick inspection with Austen and we decided it was just the silencer, so I repacked that. It was improved but still not right. We then spotted that there was a crack in the manifold. By now there was only 40 minutes to go till the RGB qualy session. Tim Gray had his welder with him and kindly agreed to weld it for me so decided to go out and just do enough laps to get onto the RGB grid, come in early and get the manifold off.

The track was dry for the RGB qualy and I went much better. The car was feeling good and I started to push a little bit harder. I knew from the earlier qualy that my lap timer seemed to be coming up with quite different times form the official timer and wondered if there was more than one infra-red beacon out there, so I had no idea of my actual lap times. It turned out I managed 53.08 which is over a second improvement since my last visit, so not too bad, but plenty more to come. I was still being pretty conservative round the Esses, braking far too early for the hairpin (you know you’re braking too early when you’re easing off the pedal towards the apex!), was still lifting a bit at the Devil’s elbow. I did feel I was going better round Gerrards and had gone in quite fast a couple of times resulting in a slightly unsettled car. I just need to get better at doing that and getting it back together again without slowing down. I didn’t stay out long and after 3 or 4 decent laps came in and whipped the manifold off.

Tim welded it up, I slapped it back on and I had the car refuelled and ready to go with plenty of time to spare before the Allcomers race. We had a drivers’ briefing at 12.45 which was essentially the chief steward warning us that he thought many drivers didn’t give Mallory the respect it deserved, reminding us that although it’s not a long circuit it’s quite fast and has little run off so excursions off the tarmac usually result in a lot of damage and frequently in medical team involvement. Having already seen the inside of the medical centre there it wasn’t exactly the kind of briefing to give you positive thoughts immediately before a race! So after that we all lined up for the race. We all got away cleanly and I was getting up to what I thought was quite a good pace. I was hauling in one of the hatches to lap him as I came out of Gerrards and was thinking of outbraking him into the Esses. As I hit the brakes the car suddenly slewed across to the right. Thinking I might have been a bit clumsy with the right foot I backed off the brake with no improvement. I was now on the grass heading at some speed (entry to the Esses is about 120mph) short-cutting the right hander realising I was a passenger and that I faced the risk of either collecting the hatch as I hit the track again or of hurtling straight across the track and into the barriers. Not good. So I kept off the brakes to try to keep the car straight and steeled myself to time my braking as soon as I was on tarmac again. This worked and indeed the car spun completely round to the right as soon as I got over the kerb and ended up half on and half off the track. It was obvious from the way I lost control and the way it had stopped that something serious was wrong with the car so I didn’t bother trying to move it, hit the kill switch, unclipped my harness and leapt out and over the barrier. I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure whether it was something broken on the suspension, a catastrophic brake failure or even if the engine had seized. I was pretty gutted.

The race was red flagged of course and I managed to get the car into neutral but we still couldn’t move it, it seemed the right front wheel was locked. The recovery truck came along with the steward who said he wanted the car to the scrutineering bay. The same bay they took it to last year when my throttle had jammed open

Once there it took only a minute or so to discover the cause – one of the bolts holding my right upper rocker arm had come out so the suspension had just collapsed and the wheel was jammed against the bonnet. The scrutineer said they might need to issue instructions that all these needed to be loctited and lock-wired. I explained that I have an extensive check list of all the bolts that tend to vibrate loose but that these had never caused a problem previously. We were then allowed to take the car back to the paddock. I had the driver deposit it on the trailer in case we couldn’t fix it as it would be difficult to push it on with a locked wheel. I wasn’t sure if there was any other damage – there was mud plastered all over the front of the car from my little trip across the grass. Right then I wanted to get it on the trailer, pack up and go home.

Back in the paddock it seemed that the only problem was the missing bolt, Andy Bates’ comment was “Well there’s about zero chance we won’t get that fixed for the next race”. This turned out to be true, Tim Hoverd parked next to me had a spare (3/8″ UNF) and although we had a bit of faffing about with some silly spacer to convert a 1/2″ hole into 3/8″ (thanks again Tim Gray!) we got it fixed, I washed the worst of the mud off and refitted the bonnet. I decided it might be a good move to pop back round to the scrutineers in case they wanted to look at the car. They were a bit surprised to see me but seemed quite pleased. One of them had a look at what we’d done and discussed solutions to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I think it had been a good move going back, having had them poring over the car at Snett I thought it better to be open with them and co-operate. Not a good move to get into their bad books methinks.

I have to admit that although I was very pleased we’d got the car fixed I was really not feeling desperately enthusiastic about the RGB race. I had no idea if the incident had affected the front geometry and suspected I must have a rather less than round front right tyre after locking up at 100mph+. So my game plan was to stay out of trouble and bring the car home in one piece. On the drive round from pit lane to the grid the car felt fine, no funny noises, no vibration and the steering felt fine. So when the red lights went out I had my usual flying start. On the way into Gerrards I was right with the main pack. Phil Alcock was outside me going round Gerrards and I decided to slot in behind him rather than mount any challenge on the run to the Esses. He got past Matt Green’s Spire at the hairpin and I tried to hang on to Matt for a while. As he got away from me James Fowley in the other Busa engined Fury caught me and I really wasn’t feeling the least bit competitive. I was being a wuss round Gerrards and braking very early for the Esses. So he got past me without any bother up the inside into the Esses. Paul Rickers then came up behind with the same result. The only bit where I was trying was that I tried to get my braking as late as I could for the hairpin. After that I was on my own till the leaders lapped me. I let them through without any bother and was frankly glad to see the chequered flag.

Having got the car sorted again and managing to complete the race was pretty important, it at least means the car goes home in one piece and when I go to Brands I know it’s driving OK. Despite really not trying I’d managed a 52.39, so almost another second off my fastest lap. That was actually quite heartening and I’m confident there’s at least another second there without trying too hard. I was also pleased about the clutch, the springs have made a big difference and I now know I don’t need to fork out for a new set of plates. I do have some video, I’ll get that up when I can. Sadly no vid of the spin as hitting the kill switch loses the file and there’s some splodge on the lens during the RGB race.

So, three weeks to Brands and it’s a double header. Mallory’s about my least favourite circuit but Brands I like, so I’m looking forward to that.