Monthly Archives: October 2010

Birkett 2010 Testing

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The long wait for the Birkett 6 Hour relay race was finally over and with my preoccupation with the BDN the Fury has been sitting in the garage where she was parked when I got back from Oulton. In fairness I knew of nothing that needed doing to the car other than refuelling and changing my race numbers.

The Birkett this year is being run on the Bridge GP Circuit which was the ‘old’ GP circuit until last year. I’ve never driven the GP circuit so before heading out for a qualy session with 50-odd other cars on track I thought some test sessions were in order. I’ve taken a leaf out of Dan Bromilow’s book and tried driving it on rFactor which has certainly helped me learn which way the corners go but there are limits to its usefulness.

With 2 days to go Rob Grant dropped out of the team with a leaking Muffett diff so we were down to 4 drivers. We were initially happy to have 5 as it meant a bit more driving time each, but going down to 4 means 90 minutes of driving each and leaves us a bit in the brown stuff if we have any mechanicals on the day.

It also makes fuel more of an issue. The car uses 0.6 litres of fuel a minute while racing, and on a fast, long circuit like Silverstone it may even be a tad more. With a 20 minute qualifying session and 90 minutes of racing that means I’ll need over 60 litres of fuel just on Saturday. So prior to loading up the tank was filled to the brim and then the 2 jerry cans I possess were filled. I was still going to need to get more while there though with 3 test sessions booked for Friday.

As David and ! left the house at 6am on Friday I reflected on the fact that apart from Pembrey this is about my most local circuit at ‘only’ 186 miles! Certainly it was an easy enough drive. It was breezy and cloudy but dry when we arrived and I had about an hour to sign on and get the car ready for the first session. We got out on time and to be honest it seemed much shorter than in rFactor, probably mostly because the FuryBusa has more power and more grip than on the rFactor Caterham! The track is wonderful, fabulous surface, all the kerb are usable unless you start to take liberties, the circuit’s wide and there’s loads of run off. It also flows very nicely, especially the Maggots/Becketts/Chapel section. Hangar Straight was straight into the wind so top speed wasn’t terribly high at about 130mph. I managed to beat my rFactor time by about 10 seconds managing a 2:14.82, Tim had only done a 2:13 so I was pretty pleased.

I got a bit quicker in the second session, getting down to 2:12.93 although there were lots of bits of the circuit where I knew I could go faster, especially Maggotts/Becketts/Chapel which is a left/right/left/right/left complex with the first left being taken flat in 5th and the last left flat accelerating throguh 3rd/4th gears. The last right turn is the most critical, exit speed being everything to give a good start down Hangar Straight. I never quite got Stowe right and found Club Corner quite tricky, a good exit from Vale meant a quick shift up to 4th for the right hander onto the new F1 pit straight but it was easy to overdo it and run wide onto the astroturf which is very squirrelly!

About 6 laps into the second session the car developed a misfire. It felt like it was running out of fuel but I knew it wasn’t. I went back to the pit garage and had a look under the bonnet. Number 2 spark plug cap wasn’t on completely securely so I got back in and went out again. It was fine for a lap and a half but then did the same. I couldn’t find anything obvious and we wondered if it might be the FIA master switch as they’re renowned to give trouble. I had a new one in the spares box so I swapped that over. The 3rd session we got red flagged was OK for about 4 laps and the car was fine. After the restart I was starting to feel optimistic but after 4 laps it did it again and was almost undriveable back to the pits. The lambda sesnor was reading 16.0 during the misfire which is horribly lean, suggesting a fuelling problem.

I checked out the low pressure fuel pump which seemed OK, and Andy Bates checked the injection fuel pressure which was a bit low but probably not enough to account for the problem. Then Andy spotted that the MAP (manifold air pressure) sensor was dangling in the breeze and had become disconnected from the loom! I got the car back together feeling reasonably optimistic that that had to be the problem, I was just surprised it ran as well as it did before the ECU spat its dummy out! We got the cars fuelled up and lined up in the rather crowded pit garage and retired for beers and barbecue in the increasingly strong wind.

The sump arrives

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After a fairly long break it was time to try to make some more progress. Things had stalled a bit recently partly as the sump was delayed and partly because I was away quite a lot. I’d made some slow progress on the seat covering all the bits where it was cut away for the harnesses etc. and on Saturday morning I eventually got it pretty much finished apart from a top coat of resin.

The sump arrived while I was away in Belfast working so when I got home I eagerly unwrapped it to have a look. First impression was that it looked really nicely made with very neat looking machining, nice chamfers on the edges etc. All the machining marks are enhanced in the photos but the surfaces are actually extremely smooth. It’s also pretty complex, one of the stated reasons for the delay was the machine shop having to invest in some additional tooling for some of the bits of machining.

There were 4 parts – the main sump pan, the stainless baffle plate, the oil pickup and the round ‘turret’ that sticks out below and acts as a sort of sump-within-a-sump. Hopefully the pics will make that clearer than it sounds.

 

The pickup is a modified Honda part cut and shut so that it’s an exact fit in the ZX10, the round sub-sump has lugs inside that securely locate the tulip on the end so it can’t rattle around. The sub-sump’s fixing holes are accurately machined symmetrically so the drain plug can be oriented whichever way round suits. In my case I’ll orientate it to the left and facing slightly rearwards.

 

So, it was time to make a start on getting the engine ready to install. With it sitting comfortably in the engine stand I was happily cleaning off the remnants of gasket/sealant from the lower crankcase mating surface when I accidentally knocked the little rubber moulding off the top of the oil pressure relief valve. I didn’t appreciate how bad a problem this actually was until an hour had gone by and I still hadn’t found it :( My friend Phil came round to help with the engine install and both of us looked for it for the best part of another 2 hours. We looked carefully with torches. We turned the engine the right way up and shook it. I turned the engine with a spanner on the alternator bolt and tried shaking it again. We cleared the garage floor and hunted everywhere in case it hadn’t fallen inside the crankcase. Eventually it was time for lunch and I gave up, a pretty frustrated bunny. The thought of having to dismantle the engine to find it was pretty daunting.

I wasn’t out in the garage again till Sunday morning. I tried taking the cam cover off in case it could get up the cam chain tunnel but it obviously couldn’t. I then spent another half hour tidying and sweeping the garage in the hope of finding it but I was pretty certain it was still in the engine. At 10 I went off to Machine Mart and bought a little inspection mirror. When I got back I turned the engine back upside down and started peering round behind the crankshaft in underneath the pistons etc. I tried to get the mirror in the corner where I thought the part had fallen but couldn’t get the mirror in. Mostly because a small rubber part was wedged in there … It was in a corner where I’d concentrated my search the day before so must have dropped down when I turned the engine over to remove the cam cover.

So, with that drama over I could get on with fitting the sump. On Andy Bates’ advice I’d got myself some Wurth RTV, he advises against using gaskets as he believes they tend to encourage the baffle plate to vibrate increasing the risk of it fracturing. So, a very thin layer of RTV on the crankcase then fit the baffle plate. Then a thin layer on the sump and plonk that on top making sure the oil pickup tulip is located correctly. A bit more sealant and a few more screws and the sub-sump was fitted.

We could then get on with the interesting bit and get the engine strapped to the hoist and get it into the engine bay. We initially tried the stud through the lower mounts but it would have meant elongating the upper hole in the mounts and there was less metal around this. Also the gap between sump and undertray was generous enough to give it a go a bit lower by fitting the upper mount and elongating the lower holes. I managed to scribe one of the spacers through the mount plate to give me an idea of where to elongate to and set to with the file. There was no way I could have drilled it since I was only elongating the hole by about 3.5mm and I haven’t got a milling machine. Yes, I know that’s a serious shortcoming and one that I ought to consider addressing at some stage.

With the holes elongated we got studs through both the mounts and could remove the straps and the hoist. As Brian and Ian predicted the front mounts need adjusting quite a bit, especially as I think I’ve now got the engine a little lower than Ian had planned. Phil and I had a good look and decided it wasn’t going to be a massive job to grind the tack welds off the end plates on the mounts, bolt them onto the engine and cut the tubes to fit then re-weld them.

 

We also assembled the other plates that hold the reverse motor in place. This was fairly straightforward as they are all a perfect fit and supplied with all the correct fasteners. They’ll all need to come out again but I now know where they all go and some of the reverse can be left assembled.

Now the engine was in position I could start to think about the plumbing. Once I’d got my head around where the swirl pot sits and how the coolant circuit flows I could measure up the tubes the various hoses go on to, plan some routes and work out what bends etc. I need to order. We worked out that the thermostat housing could be removed and rotated through 180° so the outlet is pointing to the left side instead of the right.

Seat and dampers

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On Sunday I was mostly knackered after working overnight. On the plus side though I did get to see the Japanese GP qualy live at 2am and the race live at 7am followed by the MotoGP when I got home. Then I made more progress with the seat. I hacked the additional foam I’d stuck on into shape then added a bit more to fill some more voids in the backrest. After an hour or so with the surform and some coarse sandpaper I was reasonably happy with it – here’s a shot of it in the car. It still wasn’t perfect but I decided it was every bit as good as I would accept if I was just covering it with gaffer tape so I decided to get on with the GRP rather than faffing about with filler etc. which would only add weight. Prior to this I opened up the channel in the base where the chassis tube crosses diagonally otherwise it won’t fit once it has a layer of GRP on it.

It was a toss up whether to use chopped strand mat or woven fabric but the CSM won mostly because I didn’t have enough fabric! Also it should give a better finish as the weave would show through with the fabric. I managed to get the entire seating area surface with an overlap round the edges done before I ran out of resin. It was a bit tricky round the edges but I’m pretty happy with the result. There are the odd spiky bits to sand down but it’s turned out somewhat better than I expected, in particular it hasn’t really emphasised the defects in the foam like I thought it might.

On Monday I ordered more supplies from CFS – more resin, some lightweight CSM and some CSM tissue as well as some black pigment and topcoat. And more foam mix to maker the passenger seat. I also ordered the 6″ springs from Rally Design.

On Tuesday the stuff from Rally Design arrived so I spent an hour out in the garage fitting the springs to the dampers and getting the dampers on the car. It required a bit of dismantling to get them in then I could torque up all the bolts holding the bellcranks etc. Here’s a pic of the front dampers fitted.

 

At the rear Ian had warned that the damper body might impinge on the diff mount and I can see where it’s very close (where the damper body disappears into the mount at the very far right of the damper in the shot here) but it doesn’t seem to actually impinge. I’ll need to have another look when the suspension’s compressed a bit.

Engine

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With the Fury intact and requiring no major remedial work prior to the Birkett I had some time to move on with the BDN build. I bought a nice Machine Mart engine stand some time ago but hadn’t used it yet, so I made up some brackets to bolt the engine onto it using the rear mounts. With the mount bolted on David and I lifted the engine onto the stand. This made it much easier to work on and move around the garage, particularly since you can just turn it over to work on the sump. The engine has been languishing in a big plastic box since I got it and it’s the first chance I’ve had to have a proper look at it. I had seen that it was superficially very clean and shiny but I think Malc steam cleans them, now I could see all of it it’s clear it’s very low mileage, all the fasteners are pristine and the exhaust ports are very clean with almost no carbon, very similar to the Hayabusa engine I’m currently using when I got that.

The first thing I did was to fit the sprocket and reverse gear. The sprocket is the same number of teeth (17) as the original but is for a 530 chain rather than the bike’s standard 525. Brian has somehow managed to drill and tap the hardened sprocket to bolt the reverse gear onto it via 3 bolts. Once I’d torqued up the sprocket nut and bent the tab washer over I bolted the gear onto it using some threadlock. I then lockwired the bolts – Brian had already drilled the heads to take the wire.

 

Next up was to remove the original oil/water cooler to fit the oil cooler take-off adapter that I got from Andy Bates. The O ring was swapped from the original part then the adapter was bolted onto the oil filter housing. I then took the clutch cover off and stuck my set of heavy duty springs in there.

I rotated the engine so it was upside down and removed the sump ready to fit my billet sump. Unfortunately although Andy reckons the sumps themselves are done the laser cut baffle plates aren’t so I wasn’t able to collect them at Oulton as planned, he assures me I’ll have the sump during the next week.

I made a start on familiarising myself with the engine mounts. Ian has now done a PDF with sequential fitting instructions and a 3D drawing showing where everything goes. It’s actually a lot simpler than it initially looks. Still seems strange not to have welded tubular structures there though! Unlike the Fury I can’t assemble everything then simply drop the engine in as there isn’t space, I’ll need to get the engine in position and build the mounts around it. I don’t want to do this yet firstly because the engine doesn’t have its sump on yet and secondly because I want to get the chassis off the trestles it’s currently on and get it a bit nearer to the ground, experience tells me it’s best to do that before the car gains too much weight!

On Monday evening I got the chassis lowered down onto axle stands courtesy of some help from David and the engine hoist, it’s still relatively light and one person can fairly easily lift one end of the chassis. Once I’d got the stands as low as they’d go it was time to look at getting the straps on the engine to hoist it into the chassis. With the Fury it’s fairly easy as I leave the top engine mounts bolted onto the engine and they provide a nice secure fixing for the straps but with the ZX10 there are no such mounts so I had to find a way to loop them around the engine securely. Without a sump on it the engine was dripping a tiny bit of oil now it was turned the right way up but not much so I manoeuvred it into the engine bay. Initially I was worried the oil filter and cooler take off was going to foul the fuel tank but once I got a length of threaded bar through the top mount I could tip the engine forward to line up the bottom mount and all was well.

There were however two problems. One was that while I couldn’t get a 12mm bolt or stud through the engine lugs a 10mm was quite loose. The other was that although the front mounts appear to be an accurate fit there’s a small bolt on the engine that sticks out and prevents the right hand one from meeting up with its bush. I also initially thought that there was quite a bit of a gap between the engine mount plates and the engine lugs. A chat with Brian sorted that as he pointed out that the right hand engine lugs have threaded bushes and so are adjustable.

I turned down a bit of steel bar to find out what size the engine mounting holes were and had to get it down to 10.9mm to get it to fit in the holes in the engine lugs which is a bit of a pain. The mounting plates are drilled for 12mm bolts/studs so I got a lenght of high tensile threaded bar from Swansea Fasteners who surprised me by also stocking 12mm aerotight/philidas nuts, even though we reckon nylocs should cope with the heat OK it seemed a better bet to use an all metal locking nut. The next step was to drill out the engine lugs to 12mm. This turned out to be easier than expected but then revealed another problem in that the holes in the main engine mounting plates which are water jet cut from 6mm aluminium are about 3mm too close together. It’s easy to see why it’s so difficult getting the measurements right because the mounting lugs aren’t actually in the same plane fore/aft which is why Brian supplies a series of accurately machined bushes to get the sprocket lined up straight on the diff. It’s also possible it’s a mistake by the water jet cutter. After a phone call to Brian we decided to wait till I have the sump pan so we can work out which hole needs to be moved – we need to make sure the bottom of the sump is both clear of the undertray and is parallel to it.

The day before I was heading off to Oulton the diff arrived from Quaife. The QDF7R is their ubiquitous diff for chain driven cars and is very compact. It’s also a pretty tight fit in the large bearings that support it on each side, so I heated the bearing centres up a bit with the heat gun before tapping them on with a block of wood and the rubber mallett. Here’s a pic of the diff installed in the car, once I’ve got the chain on I can set about making sure it’s exactly square with the vernier calipers. I’m hoping the amount of adjustment allowed will be enough to cope with the different sized sprockets without having to remove links from the chain.

On Wednesday the dampers arrived from Quantum Racing. These are very beautiful and very light, 774g each according to my kitchen scales. They weren’t exactly cheap but at £1250 including VAT they weren’t vastly more expensive than cheap ones and appear to be very high quality. They’re gas filled which allows them to be mounted horizontally. They’re also custom built to the specs provided by Ian which included the sprung and unsprung mass, the motion ratio and the natural frequency for both fronts and rear corners. I was very keen to get them fitted to the car but the springs need compressing to get them on and I don’t want to risk damaging the finish on the dampers by manhandling them on with my usual armamentarium of woodworking vice and tie-down straps so I’ve ordered some motorcycle sized spring compressors from EBay and will wait for those.

On Friday work was interrupted by golf followed by a trip to Blaenafon to collect the spare engine from Tim Cheney .Tim’s changed his plans yet again and had a spare ZX10 engine he’d bought that he was happy to pass on for a very reasonable price. It’s a 2006 but I think they’re mechanically identical to the 2007 so should be a direct transplant for mine if need be. I decided it was worth the investment to have a spare for next season. It’s not as pristine an example as mine but is supposedly low mileage and should be fine.

No sign of the sump on Friday so I moved on to something else. It’s unseasonably warm for October at about 22° so I decided to get on with making the seat. I cut up some cardboard to blank in the cockpit – if you don’t do this the foam expands out and once it’s set you can’t get it out. I want to make the squab a bit longer and more supportive than in the Fury so I mixed up about a litre of the foam and slapped it in a wheelie bin liner and once it was foaming up sat in it. Here it is at the end of that stage.

While out in the evening I had a message from Ian – it seems the 7″ springs I’ve got are correct for the Spax dampers on the original spec sheet but they’re using 6″ springs on their Quantums. That explains the compression required. So I’ll need to order some more springs from Rally Design – I spoke to Brian on Saturday afternoon and he said to let me know what the loss was and he’d refund it.

On Saturday I made a bit more progress on the seat. After 4 stages of rebagging it and adding more foam I ended up with this. Yes, it does look pretty awful, but then they always do. By the time I’d spent an hour or so hacking away at it with my saw it was looking much more like a seat and I was pretty pleased with it. Another hour saw the cutouts done for the harnesses, for now I’m using the spare passenger harness from the Fury. By mid-afternoon the seat was ready for covering. I then became overcome with indecision, the plan all along had been to do the usual trick of covering it with gaffer tape but I was tempted by the idea of covering it with GRP. A check of Dan’s blog confirmed that that was what he’d done. I had a chat with Brian who had used tape on theirs but agreed that it’s a bit of a PITA as the edges start to curl then the glue gets onto your overalls etc. He was worried about the resin eating the foam but I have a feeling polyurethane foam is OK although it will eat polystyrene foam quite happily. We decided it was probably worth the effort to get a more resilient seat. Doing this means I’ll need to get a much better finish on the foam, they always end up with loads of defects and holes etc. So I’ll think about that tomorrow.

The ups and downs of Oulton Park

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I was looking forward to Oulton Park, it’s probably my favourite circuit. I used to go there on my bike with my mates as a teenager to watch Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts, Randy Mamola, Ron Haslam etc. in the Transatlantic Trophy. The circuit’s set in beautiful Cheshire parkland and is the longest one we do at 2.69 miles and is very swoopy a little like Cadwell but a bit wider.

On Friday morning the Fury got some new oil and a filter, a new exhaust mount bobbin and I sorted out the reverse. Once the motorhome was loaded I headed off up the A49 rather than braving the perils of the M5 and M6 on a Friday afternoon. Austen had been testing and had save me a pitch, after unloading the car and waiting for my brother Andy to arrive we headed off with the gang to The Alvanley Arms for food. Despite there being about 26 of us they looked afer us very well and we had an excellent meal.

Friday had been very wet but Friday morning was clear and fairly bright. With slightly thick heads Andy and I cycled round the circuit before breakfast. Scrutineering was at 9.50, qualy at 10.50 so we had plenty of time. Quite a few of the RGBers were doing the All Comers race as well so they were out early for their qualy, I’d decided against as 5 sessions in one day was too much and I don’t want to wreck the car when I’m about to try to sell it. The track was still quite greasy for their qualy and it was red flagged when Adrian dropped his Genesis into the gravel at Druids. By the time we went out the track was mostly dry altohugh it was still a bit damp at the entry to Old Hall and Druids. My fastest previous lap here was 1:59.57 in the All Comers last September and I was quite hopeful that I’d beat that with my new found pace. I started to have trouble with clutch slip, initially I thought it was just me being clumsy resting my foot on the clutch pedal which is suprisingly easy to do but it got progressively worse until by lap 6 the car was almost undrivable so I limped back to the paddock in 2nd gear.

I was hoping it was something to do with the slave mechanism again but my nice new brackets and lockwired bolts were all intact and all seemed well that end. So Andy and I decided it was likely to be the clutch itself and set about getting the cover off to have a look. After both of us burning our hands on what was a very hot engine we got to the clutch and started undoing the bolts holding the driven plate on and the problem was obvious when Andy couldn’t undo a bolt as the plate was just turning. We got the first plate out to find it looking decidedly second hand. I couldn’t remember exactly when I’d replaced the plates, I knew it was after Mallory and on checking the blog it was actually last October. So not unreasonable really, a full season’s racing. One of the factors is probably the slipper clutch which means the clutch slips slightly every time I bang it down through the gears into corners. I can’t heel and toe in the Fury which makes this wear the clutch quite a bit. The only other Busa engined car in RGB this weekend was Jim Fowley and he didn’t have any spare plates so it seemed game over. Andy and I slapped the clutch cover back on to make it oil tight to transport her home. I was pretty gutted to be missing the last races of the season but consoled myself that at least it was a simple fix rather than another front end rebuild or similar! While we were doing this someone came over and said Danny Keenan of MK SPortscars was currently out in the All Comers race in a Busa engined car and it might be worth seeing if he had any spares.

So, we had some lunch and once the All Comers came in I went over to the opposite corner of the paddock to find Danny. I tentatively asked if he had any spare Busa clutch plates and he burrowed into his spares and handed me an entire second hand clutch! He said to take the plates and he’d come over and collect the basket later. I dash back and dragged Andy out of ther motorhome and we set about replacing the plates. Although it was the outermost plate that was seriously nadgered we decided it best to replace the whole lot. Getting the old plates out was tricky and it was clear I was going to miss the first race but we plodded on and got it back together. I drove the car round the paddock to check all was well which it was and we had an hour to spare before the second RGB race.

I’d been so busy sorting the car out that I had no idea of my qualifying times or where I was on the grid. It turned out I’d managed a 2:00.04 putting me 13th on the grid. I was confident I could go quicker, the front end had been sliding round Druids in the morning and the entry to Old Hall was still damp so I’d been very tentative there. The grid was a bit sparse, entries had been a bit low to start with but Phil Alcock was out with a badly damaged car as someone had run into the back of him in the All Comers, Jim Fowley had suffered the Fury chocolate upright syndrome in the first RGB race and Matt Green was out with a broken diff in his Spire. Clearly the slipping clutch had affected my lap time in the morning as I was fairly well back on the grid with Colin and Austen well ahead of me and Doug Carter and Colin immediately in front of me. Despite qualifying behind me Adrian had lapped in 1:58 in the first race and I expected him and I to have a bit of a battle. The weather was still OK although there seemed to be rain in the air. We were held on the grid for quite a while as there was oil on the circuit from Knickerbrook to Druids and I started to worry about it raining.

Anyway, it didn’t and they eventually got us on our way. I got a little too much wheelspin but soon got her hooked up and got past Colin and almost alongside Tim Hoverd going into Old Hall and was behind Doug on the run going down towards Cascades. Colin sneaked up the inside as everyone in front of me was a bit cautious going into Cascades and we then all settled down onto the first lap. The line of cement dust from Knickerbrook was awful throwing up huge clouds of dust as we went round first time and I backed off very very early for Druids which is treacherous at the best of times. As usual I was pretty cautious on my cold tyres but the clutch was working fine and I gradually came up to pace. For the first couple of laps Adrian was snapping at my heels on the way into the Shell Oils Hairpin but I was opening up the gap on the rest of the lap. By the time I got my act into gear Colin and Doug were well down the road but I gradually reeled them in as Doug and Colin caught Austen. Doug got past Austen shortly followed by Colin and I was right behind Austen. I knew I must be going quite well as I could still see Tim Hoverd ahead of them.

With a couple of laps to go Austen ran a tad wide at the exit from Cascades and dropped a wheel onto the grass and began a graceful pirhouette. I rapidly decided he wasn’t going to come back onto my line and kept my foot in without changing line. I closed the gap up to Colin nd tried to stay as close as I could. I was still losing ground at Druids although I was getting a bit more confident there. On the exit to Deer’s Leap I started to gain a bit on Colin and was getting closer to him as we passed the 1 lap to go board. I stuck my nose up the inside going into Old Hall but it wasn’t really a serious look and I tucked in behind him again down to Cascades. I got a good run over the hill towards Knickerbrook and had a look up the righ hand side but Colin moved across. I could have tried to barge my way up but knew there was no way I’d outbrake him and really didn’t want to risk taking us both out! I nearly binned it out of Knickerbrook but collected the car and tried to close the resuting gap. I passed the chequered flag just behind Colin. I was bouncing again, after having mentally given up earleir in the day I’d had a great race and the car had been great. I had no idea of my lap times or what place I was in.

In the paddock Andy reckoned he’d timed me at 1:56 which I was confident wasn’t right. I checked my dash which said best lap was 3:50 meaning the DigiDash had barfed somehow. It sometimes does that when there’s more than one infra-red beacon. I’d expected to improve on my previous PB by hopefully a couple of seconds so had set the Dash lap blank to 1:56 (it ignores any beacons it sees before this time hopefully avoiding the multiple beacon problem. The results sheet told me what had happened, my fastest lap was actually a 1:55.75 and I’d finished 9th. So a 5 second improvement on my PB! To cap it all I was 3rd in class so I actually got a mention and some applause in our presentation for the first ever time. OK, so there had been some attrition but it’s still a great way to end the RGB season. And the car’s in one piece!

A big thanks to Danny Keenan from MK for being so generous and making it posible for me to actually get out there. Here’s the video.