As my first outing of the year in the MSA British Championship approached, the final preparations to the car was completed and all was ready for the long trip down to Pembrey. A slight detour had been planned on this trip to pick up a set of panels which had been sourced a couple of week earlier. After a good run down, we arrived at the circuit just before 10 pm, I parked in my usual place and settled down for the night
Sunday morning dawned cloudy and damp, not the nicest conditions to prepare for scrutineering but it had to be done. All went without a hitch so after being scrutineered, and going through the formalities of signing on and the drivers briefing, it was time for practice. Practice went well, the new layout at Pembrey was in tip top condition, and the huge tyre bales that had caused problems at the BTRDA meeting had gone and been replaced with some new kerbing and neat tyre stacks. After practice the car was given a quick check over before heading down to the dummy grid for first runs. Due to a clerical error it seems I had been missed off the grid sheets for the first heats, so I was given a slot on the third row in grid slot number six. I decided that with nothing to lose I might as well take the joker on lap one. I followed Paige Bellerby and Alan Tapscott into the joker with the rest of the field taking the normal route. As I came around to start the second lap I noticed Vince Bristow going into the joker. I gave the throttle a little bit more than normal in the hope that I may get through before he came out onto the standard lap, unfortunately it was not quite enough and Vince pulled in front of me. That was how things stayed for the rest of the race, me following the ever sideways BMW all the way to the flag, claiming 5th place in my heat and 8th overall. When the grid sheets for heat two were published I found I was on the front row middle for my race, with Vince to my right on pole, but the man to watch out for was current Supernational Champion Tony Lynch in the superfast Ford Ka who was on row three. As the lights went to green I dropped the clutch and got a great start. I reached the first corner first, but as I turned right on the normal lap I saw Tony whizz past my left-hand side into the joker section. Once round onto the loose section we found that the track had been watered and was very slippery. The one disadvantage of leading is you don’t really know if any of the rest of the field had jokered. I decided to carry on the normal circuit for lap two, but to joker on the third. As I came out of the joker I saw Tony go through to take the lead and Michael Labedz follow him into second place in the new shape Fiesta. I noticed in my mirror that Vince had followed me so I was still in third place. We crossed the line for the penultimate time and started the final lap, Michael peeled off for his joker and I moved up into second place, holding this position for the rest of the race and ended up 7th fastest in heat two. After lunch break it was time for third heats and I was on pole position for my race. If I could hook up another good start I had chance of another good result, but this time the car to worry about was Todd Crooks in the R53 BMW Mini. The lights went green and I got another good start leading into the first corner, holding this position until I jokered on lap 3, where Vince took the standard lap and went into the lead. I was fairly certain he hadn’t done his joker so I set about trying to catch him. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and went a little wide on the last section of loose, losing momentum and allowing Todd through on the inside. We got to the end of the start/finish straight on the last lap and Todd held a tight line into the first corner causing me to brake earlier than I would have liked, allowing Michael to get alongside. As we rounded the lefthander at turn two almost three abreast Todd had the perfect line to approach the loose section, I was out of position and had to give way to Michael. I knew that if I was going to make any places back I would have to get a good run off the loose and maybe I would have chance around Honda and onto the finish straight. As I went to pull fifth gear I felt the stick go spongy and couldn’t get any gear at all. This allowed Vince to get past just before the flag. Momentum carried me over the line in fourth place, but dropping down to 10th on the overall standings. What had been a really fun race spoiled by a broken gear selector arm. I took the selector off and thanks to Duncan at TCM motorsport and his welding I managed to get it fixed in time to take my place on the semi-final grid. I took my place in grid slot 5 for my semi, with Tristan Ovenden, Guy Corner, and Mike Howlin making up the front row and Todd beside me on row two. The lights went green and we were off, Tristan heading off into the distance in the awesome V6 Renault Clio, and me slotting into third place behind Mikes 2.4 Millington engined mk6 Fiesta. All went well until I took the joker on lap 3. I braked as normal, but the tyres screeched and the car just pushed on. I came out of the joker wide and saw Todd go through on the normal lap. I tried to catch him up and things felt ok through the left-hand corner, but as I braked for the right hander before the loose once again there was a screech from the tyre and the car just didn’t want to turn. At that I presumed that I may have a puncture. I tried to control it as best I could but the car was becoming a real handful, and Kirk Twyman came past on the back loose section. As I rounded Honda, another right turn, the car left the circuit and headed toward the tyre banking. At this point I decided to call it a day and pulled off back into the paddock. As the grids were produced for the final I knew I would not have made it, but I found to my surprise that I had qualified as first reserve. So, I changed the wheel and headed down to the dummy grid just in case someone didn’t make it. Sadly, Tony Lynch had some problems and couldn’t take his place on the final grid, even though he had qualified on the front row, so I pulled onto the empty slot at the back of the grid. I had no plan for the race I was just going to play it by ear and see what happened. As it turns out it didn’t really matter. The race started and we all moved away, but as I went for third gear the hastily repaired gear selector gave up the ghost and I was unable to find any gears. I pulled up in a safe place and it was game over. I felt I could have made up another place or two had I been able to continue, but if you had given me 8th overall at the start of the day I would have grabbed it with both hands. The excitement wasn’t quite all over as I still had to load up. I managed to find a gear, not sure if it was second or third, but at least it was a gear. So taking a wide loop, I aimed for the trailer but had to abort my first attempt as I was not lined up properly. Luckily Jordine who had been helping me realised I wasn’t going to make it and jumped out of the way. Attempt two was more successful and I even managed to stop the car before it shot off the front of the trailer. Time to head off home, get a new gear selector, and prepare for rounds 4 & 5 at Mondello Park in Ireland on the 22nd & 23rd of July. After having attracted the biggest Rallycross entry of the year, the final round at Croft on November 5th was set to be a good day. The organisers and marshalls, including Craig, Kerry, Bill, Kath and John had worked hard to get every aspect, but there was one thing which they couldn’t control – the weather.
With a frequently changing forecast on the run-up to the event which promised either rain or snow, I knew it wouldn’t be an easy event, but as the rain began to pour on Sunday morning with David commenting that it was worst conditions he’d raced in over the last 12 years, the nerves began to build. This was only enhanced by the looming presentation of mums memorial trophy, ‘The Spirit of Rallycross’ award in the lunch-break to the most deserving person; Malcolm Forbes. With the weather dampening spirits, literally, the day got off to a sorry start as David didn’t start heat one whilst he worked to have the tyres cut to suit the weather, and the 2000cc FWD of mine died on the dummy grid. Two push starts later, and we’re off! This is until the battery dies for a third time when switching the wipers on. By the time heat two came around, we were both ready for our races with any issues ironed out. David was first, whilst I watched and waited from the dummy grids. Despite the weather he worked his way from the back of the grid to 5th position setting a fastest lap time of 1:00.109; amazingly only 8 seconds slower than his quicker lap times at Croft just two weeks previous in almost perfect conditions. I started on the third row of the grid for the 2nd heat, and didn’t quite get the start right resulting in chasing the field from the back right from the go! A couple of spins meant that I finished the race in 7th position, with a fastest lap time of 1:14.331 – some 14.2 seconds slower than David! The third heats took an unexpected turn for the worse. David and I started this heat alongside each other on the front row of the grid, and to my surprise my start was actually ok and the others didn’t seem to get by too quickly. David was flying away ahead of me, as I tried to keep focused on what I was doing. Coming onto the second set of loose on the first lap, I missed a change into third gear and a few cars (that I didn’t realise were behind me) overtook on the inside. Determined to catch up, I flew down and into the corner, when a little too much speed and water on the track sent me spinning into the Armco – queue a race stop and a trip to the medical centre. The restart saw David spin after the finish and end up stuck on the grass. Luckily, after being given the fit to race, David and I waited in anticipation for the B final as the rain continued to pour. David started a couple of rows in front of me, and as with heat 2, my start wasn’t quite what it should have been. With extra nerves following the previous race, I headed into the first corner with caution only to be met by David sideways across the track. Some quick thinking meant that I managed to avoid him and continued with the race. In no time at all, David had caught up and was past! Coming around again however, I met David sideways across the track for a second time and managed to avoid him. Again, he caught up and was heading past on the second set of loose when he went a little wide after his car jumped out of fifth gear, which allowed me to get through in front of him on to the last lap and this way the way it stayed across the finish line! The final result was 2nd and 3rd in class – a fantastic achievement given the testing conditions. A big thank you to David for lending me the car, Stuart and Peter for fixing them and keeping us going and to all the marshalls who stood out in the horrid weather allowing us to have a bit of fun. Once again it was time to dust off the front wheel drive car and give it a run out. A little more development work had been done, quite a few kilos had been shed, and it was sporting a brand new bonnet scoop, so it would be interesting to see if the improvements had been successful when we compared the times with those from our last visit to Blyton Park.
Race day morning dawned bright and clear so it looked like it was going to be a good days racing. The fact that it was a round of the MSA British Championship meant that there would be some exotic vehicles to watch in between my runs, with the likes of Lolas Dallaras and Van Diemens all on the entry list. Signing on, scrutineering and sound check all went without a hitch, and we had had a sighting lap when I was chauffeured around by Stephanie Wadge in her road car, so it was soon time to line up for the first practice run. The opening target for the day was the time of 182.67, which Jordine set as her quickest time at the last sprint back in June. I put some brand new Avon slicks on the front so I was feeling confident. As I lined up at the start I planned to do a nice steady run, trying not to push too hard. All went without a problem and as I came off the circuit I noticed I had posted a time of 182.50, just seventeen hundredths quicker. It was a start but I had hoped for a little more with the work that had been done. For the second practice run I decided not to change anything but to push a bit harder, and see what could be achieved on the thirteen inch slicks. All was going well although the gearing wasn’t ideal for the wheels I had chosen. As I took the wide line around The Ump for the second lap I was pushing quite hard but it was then I felt a problem. The steering jerked and there was a definite vibration, experience told me a wheel had come loose. I had a decision to make, was I going to carry on or pull up. I decided to carry on, but at a reduced speed. By the time I had got to the finishing line the vibration was quite bad and I had slowed down significantly. I wasn’t sure whether there was any point looking at my time, but as it was right in front of me I had no option. I was surprised to see that it was actually over half a second quicker at 181.97. What could it have been without the problem? Once I got back to my place in the paddock my thought that I may have had a loose wheel was confirmed when Duncan Longmate came over with two wheel nuts that had parted company with the car as I crossed the finish line. It’s a good job the track wasn’t any longer! Before going out for the first timed run I decided to change the front wheels and put a new set of wheel nuts on. Although there was potential in using the thirteen inch rims the gearing wasn’t quite right, and the studs had been damaged a little due to the loose wheel, so putting a different rim on would give a better hold and put my mind at ease that the problem wouldn’t reoccur. I bolted on the fifteen inch wheels with Kumho tyres and set off for the start line. When the light went green I was off. It was immediately obvious the although I didn’t have as much grip the gearing was far better, and went round in a time of 175.80. That was more like it. After refueling, a check of the wheel nuts, a reducing the tyre pressure slightly I set off for second runs. I had a trouble free run and set a time of 174.88, almost a second quicker this time, but there were a couple of places where I had been untidy, so there was still potential for a quicker time. It wasn’t clear if we would get a third run as The British Championship competitors were having their top ten shootout, but it was good to see the awesome single seaters blast their way around Blyton Park, the quickest guys posting sub 112 second times. After they had finished there was time for the rest of us to get another run, so after a check around it was time to go to the sprint startline for the last time this year. The light went green and it was a quick clean run and I posted my quickest time of the day, knocking over a second off once again, crossing the finish line in 173.68. After loading up and getting out of the racesuit we went to the presentation, where I was surprised to receive a trophy for first in class, but the best prize was that almost ten seconds had been knocked off the time from the last meeting because of the work that we had done. Now it is time to get the car back in the workshop, lose a little more weight, fit a bigger air filter, and a better gearbox. Then it will be all ready for its next trip back to Blyton Park for the rallycross on October 16th. With the August bank holiday weekend fast approaching it was time to put the finishing touches to the RWD ready for the long trip down to Lydden Hill for the traditional Bank Holiday Monday meeting. Peter had sorted out the clutch problem that plagued the last outing at Pembrey, and also discovered why the exhaust gasses were finding their way into the car, and solved that problem too.
All that was left to do was load up and set off on the 360-mile journey, but with news of a collapsed bridge on the M20 and the resulting travel chaos there was a sense of foreboding as we left, not knowing how long it would take us to get there. As it happened we needn’t have worried as the road was reopened and the traffic had eased by the time we got there, so at 10.30pm after an uneventful trip we arrived at the circuit, parked up next to the Todd Crooks Motorsport Team, and settled down for the night. Race day morning dawned bright and clear, and after the formalities of signing on and scrutineering it was time for a bite of breakfast before heading out for practice. As I hadn’t raced at Lydden for a couple of years I wasn’t sure in what condition I would find the track, but I was pleasantly surprised. A couple of new bits of tarmac on the entry to Chessons & Paddock, and the regrading of the loose around Chessons meant the surface was smoother than I had known it for a long time. Also the joker section was more open than the last time I was there, so on the whole it was a thumbs up for the track, and the car seemed to be handling well so I was looking forward to the racing. I was in the second of the Supernational heats, on the second row with the ex Michael Boak Audi TT, now in the hands of Brian Jukes, and the RWD Renault Clio V6 of Steve Cozens in front of me. The start light procedure for the British Championship is, as soon as the lights come on you go, so as soon as I saw the red light I dropped the clutch and went, although part of me was thinking, I thought the lights should have been green, was that a jump start? Those thoughts soon disappeared as Brian and Steve had also gone, I went around the outside of Brain and slotted in behind the Clio as we went around Chessons Drift, but as we exited the loose section the superior grip of the TT meant that Brian passed me going down the Dover Slope. We started to climb Hairy Hill and spotted the red flag from the marshals post. It had been a jump start, so we made our way back around to the start grid ready for a restart. Whether I had fewer revs than I should have, or whether the warm tyres had more grip than I expected I am not sure, but suffice to say I made a mess of the restart and bogged down when the lights flashed on. As everyone came passed me I decided to take the joker early and see if I could catch them up. As I came back onto the main circuit I was in last place but I could see Phil Chicken and Alan Tapscott ahead of me, so I set about trying to close the gap. I was making some progress but as we went around Chessons on the second lap I could see brake lights ahead of me, and all of a sudden I spotted Stuart Emery’s stranded Peugeot 206 across the track in front of me. I threw my car into a spin to avoid making contact with Stuart, and once I had stopped I gathered myself up and set off at a steady pace, fully expecting tosee a red flag because of the dangerous position of the stranded 206. However I soon saw the leaders at full speed heading down Hairy Hill, so I hit the throttle and got back up to speed, by now half a lap down. As I went round Chessons on the third lap I saw the green TT of Jukes had joined Emery’s 206, so we now had two cars stranded at the same place, still no red flag so I kept on in hot pursuit, on exiting The Devils Elbow and climbing Hairy Hill I spotted the C2 of Phil Chicken also stopped, but by now the red flags were out the race was stopped and we were all directed back to the paddock. By now the car was very warm and I would have liked the chance to cool the radiator down, but we were called straight back around for a complete rerun of the heat. Once I was down on the dummy grid we were told there was going to be a couple of races before us, so I set about looking for some water to pour over the radiator to try to cool it down. Thankfully Rob Gibson came to my rescue with a drum of cold water which he poured on the radiator and intercooler bringing the temperature right down. For the third time we were back on the startline for the first heat, and once again the engine revs rose as we anticipated the start lights. As the lights flashed green I dropped the clutch. This time I got a good start and followed the blisteringly quick Clio into Chessons for the first lap. As I approached The Devils Elbow I could hear the Super 1600 Vauxhall Corsa of Paul Coney close behind, and I braked a bit later than I should have going a little wide and losing the rear of the car on the marbles almost spinning, but the front of the Corsa clipped my front corner as he went through and overtook me. Once I had the fiesta back under control I followed up the hill, but going round North Bend there seemed to be a misfire, it cleared so I carried on and decided to take my joker lap this time round and see where I came out with two laps to go. As I went around North Bend the next time the misfire reappeared, but this time worse and the engine stalled, so I coasted down the hill to the dummy grid thinking I had run out of fuel. After getting back to the paddock it was clear that although the tank was low, it was still quite a way from running out, and after filling it the car was behaving normally, so after a clean of the windows and a check around it was soon time to head back down to the dummy grid for second runs. Once again I was on the second row of the grid with Gary Dixon, Mike Howlin and Vince Bristow on the front, and Stuart Emery and Paul Maybourne behind. This time when the lights came on it was a clean getaway first time with Vince, Stuart myself and Paul taking the joker on the first lap. All was going well and I was hanging onto the coat tails of Stuarts 206 when the Fiesta of Howlin came out of the joker lap and started fighting for the lead with Bristow’s BMW. On the next lap Gary Dixon’s Astra popped out of the joker lap just in front of Stuart and the battle was on. Could I pick up a few places if those in front started falling over each other? Sadly I was not to find out as the mysterious misfire returned and I lost touch with the pack. Fortunately, it was not as bad as it had been on first runs and I managed to make the finish line, and also keep Maybourne’s Renault Clio behind me, and most importantly I had a qualifying time in the bag. It was now the lunchbreak, so I used this time to try to get to the problem of the misfire. I narrowed it down to fuel starvation, but why was it happening? After much thought I decided that it was most likely to be fuel vaporization due to the fact it was a very hot day and the car was getting very warm. With that in mind I tried to cool the fuel cell, swirl pot and pipes as much as possible before the third heats. For third runs I was on the front row alongside Gary Dixon’s Astra. The lights went green and we were off. As we went into Chessons Gary had his nose in front, but I kept my foot hard on the throttle until the last moment and just sneaked in front by the apex of the corner. I was in the lead with Gary right behind me, but I didn’t know how many of the others had taken the joker. As we rounded North Bend for the first time I went a little bit sideways allowing Gary Simpson in his BMW E36 to get the drop on me going down the hill, he had obviously got past the other Gary at some point going up the hill. We held this position for another lap, and we both decided to take the joker on lap three, but where would we be when we rejoined the main circuit again. As it happened we had both come out in the same position as we went in, managing to keep Dixon back in third place, and that is how it stayed for the final lap. Apart from one small cough at the top of Hairy Hill on the last lap the misfire seemed to have gone away, so that was an extra bonus. Once I had refueled, checked over the car, and cooled down the fuel cell, it was time to head down to the dummy grid for the semi finals. I had qualified 5th for semi number 2, and with the top four going through to the final everything was to play for. Once the lights had gone green and we had set off it was obvious that the two cars in front of me, Mike Howlin in the RWD Mk6 Fiesta, and Alan Tapscott in his RWD Vauxhall Corsa were going for the joker lap, so I decided to keep on the main circuit and slotted inbetween leader Steve Cozens and Stuart Emery. As we reached the top of the hill I got a nudge from an understeering Emery sending me into a 360 degree spin (pictures of which are in gallery). When the car was pointing in the right direction again I carried on, but unfortunately I had dropped back into last place. I was determined to try to catch up. My eagerness to get on to the back of the field led me to push too hard and start over-driving, I was making mistakes and getting no nearer, but I still kept pushing. That was until a puff of steam from under the bonnet told me there was a problem, and a sudden gush of water into the passenger footwell confirmed that thought. It seems a water pipe had blown off and all the coolant had gone. In order to look after the engine the only course open to me was to retire from the race and bring my meeting to a close. It had been another cracking day at the home of rallycross, and I was relatively pleased with the car, and my performance, especially when I checked the times from my last visit to Lydden, and I had knocked 10 seconds a lap off my previous times. It was now time to head home and get the car ready for its next outing at Pembrey in September. You can find a gallery of pictures at the bottom of this blog post
2015 was destined to be a season of highs and lows, but ultimately it turned out to be quite successful in the end. Autosport International Show January 8-11th 2015 The year began early in January as the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship had been invited to appear in the Live Action Arena at the Autosport International Show, so the car had to be pristine if it was to appear in front of tens of thousands of spectators, and help showcase our sport to the general motorsport fans. Over the winter a new gearbox had been fitted, upgrading the old BMW e36 one to a stronger e46 version. The car was checked with a fine toothed comb front to back. The panels had been removed, stripped down and refitted, and when we were happy with it all it had a full respray. Two days before the show all was finished, and the car looked immaculate. The morning of day one arrived and we all turned up bright and early, signed on, were scrutineered, and given our instructions for the next four days. There were eleven other drivers and we were split into three groups of four, with two groups going out each performance. We had two practice runs to check the timings, and then it was time for the first public show of the four days. Having been a regular visitor to the Autosport International Show and the The Live Action Arena it was a very surreal experience to see things from the other side of the curtain. As the show progressed we all fell into our routine, and everything went smoothly over all four days. When we were not out in the show we spent most of our time talking to the visitors who had back stage passes, giving out posters and signing autographs. The feedback we got was amazing. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the show, and were keen to see Rallycross out on the circuits. By the time the final show finished on Sunday evening we were all exhausted, but had had an unforgettable experience, and all hoped we would be invited back again at some point in the future. Mechanical woes (part 1.) As the car had performed well at the Autosport International we thought that the pre-event check over would be just a formality before my first meeting of the year, which was to be the third round of The British Championship at Pembrey on May 10th. Indeed everything did seem to be fine, until we tried to get a gear, and there appeared to be no clutch whatsoever. After investigation it seemed that the clutch cylinder had come apart inside the gearbox. Unfortunately it couldn’t be fixed in time for the first event and so I had to withdraw. Coventry Motofest or Mechanical woes (part 2.) May 30th/31st 2015 The BTRDA had been asked if any of their drivers would like to take part in a brand new event; Coventry Motofest 2015. The Motofest had been run for the first time in 2014, but in 2015 they had been given permission to run cars on a closed section of the Coventry ring road. The organisers had hoped to do this as a competitive sprint, but permission wasn’t given in time so cars were to do non-competitive demonstration runs. The chance to legally break the speed limit on public roads, but more importantly give the car a proper test, and also the driver a chance to blow the cobwebs away, was too good to miss. The morning of Motofest came and it was an early start as we had to be at the access point between 11:00 and 12:30. Unknown to me there was quite a bit of chaos at the access point, so when I hit a traffic jam half a mile away at 11.45 I wasn’t too worried. As time ticked by and I hadn’t moved for twenty minutes I started to become concerned. Things started to move with ten minutes to go, but unfortunately I reached the access point five minutes late. A very zealous official refused me entry even though I had the correct paperwork. I decided to try to go around the open section of the ring road and see if I could get in at the other end of the closed section. A very helpful official at the end spotted me in a queue of traffic, moved some cones and waved me in. Once in I met up with the rest of the guys, signed on and was briefed as to what was going on. My plan was to have one quiet run today and be a bit more aggressive the following day. As I approached the start area I could see the closed bridges and slip roads were lined with hundreds of people. The show off in me took over and thoughts of a quiet run completely went out of my head. Once I was given the go-ahead it was a full speed start down towards the underpass, as I came out of the other side I could see even more people, so a change down, blip of the throttle and it was sideways around the roundabout and off down the course. Once I got to the far end it was a hairpin turn and back down the other side of the duel carriageway, with every opportunity to put the car sideways taken. I crossed the finish line and was very happy with the way the car had run, so it was back to the van with time left to enjoy the rest of the show ahead of a few good runs on the Sunday. Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, so after breakfast it was back to the car and I was looking forward to a good test session. Unfortunately on arriving back at the transporter I noticed a puddle of what looked like clutch fluid under the car. On investigation it was clutch fluid and once again I couldn’t get any gears, it seems that the problem hadn’t been fixed after all, and with the next event only a week away it was going to be a busy time in the workshop. BTRDA rounds 2&3 Pembrey June 6th/7th 2015 With only five days between the Motofest and the BTRDA Pembrey meeting it was straight to work on the car to try to get to the bottom of the clutch problem. Peter (who looks after the car) checked the gearbox and clutch assembly, and it appeared that the cylinder had come apart again. He couldn’t work out why it was doing this as it had been no problem in the past. All we could put it down to was the fact the new clutch plates he had fitted at the start of the year were a few millimetres thicker so more adjustment was needed to keep it intact. Once repaired and readjusted, we went for a few test runs up and down the drive and all seemed to be ok, so we loaded up and I set off for Pembrey. Saturday morning started bright and fine at 07.30 with signing on and scrutineering. Once those formalities were completed it was time to check the track to see if anything had changed since my last visit. Everything looked as I expected, so it was off to the drivers briefing, and then out for practice. Happily everything seemed to be working perfectly, so I was ready for my first competitive outing of the year. As there were nineteen Super Modifieds entered we were split into three groups; my group for the first heats looked pretty quick, with three of the Irish drivers including Tommy Grahams spectacular mkII Escort. We lined up on the grid and my plan was to take it steady for this race as it was a two day meeting and I just wanted to make sure the car and I were up to speed. The lights went out and sure enough Tommy Graham and Gordon Lynch were off the line like a rocket. I slotted in behind Todd Crooks and Peter McGarry, and spent most of the race watching them battle, ready to pounce if either of them made a mistake. They both managed to keep it clean and tidy however, so I finished fifth in the race. It was as I had thought a very quick heat, and the time I posted was good enough for eighth overall. I was very happy with that considering I hadn’t been pushing very hard, and was looking forward to improving on it in the second set of heats. I pulled onto the grid for my second heat full of confidence, but I realised I would have a lot of work to do as I was on the back row, and the dust was going to be a problem. As it turned out that was to be the least of my problems. I spent the first couple of laps tussling with Marc Griffen who was also in a rear wheel drive Fiesta, his being a zetec engined mkI version. As we approached the first hairpin for the third time I was slightly ahead but on the outside, I wanted to give him plenty of room so I went a bit too far into the corner and ended up going on to a dirty section of the circuit lost traction and slid into a crash barrier. The engine was still running so I went for reverse gear and tried to continue, unfortunately I couldn’t engage any gear and my race was over. Once back in the paddock it was lunch break, so hopefully there would be time to fix the problem before third heats. On first investigation it didn’t look good, it seemed the clutch problem I had been having all year was back again. Paul Hodgson from the Keith Rylands team came over to see if he could help, and as Keith was also out for the weekend with terminal engine problems they said they would give me a hand to see if we could get the car going for the next day. When nothing we tried seemed to work it was decided that the gearbox had to come out. Once we had done this the root of the whole problem became obvious. The threads on the adjuster screw had been getting progressively more and more worn and the screw had been moving with the vibrations and causing the cylinder to overreach itself, the impact with the barrier had been the last straw and the adjuster threads were now almost worn away. That was it, game over for the weekend. On the positive side, however, we had finally got to the bottom of the clutch problem, and we knew how to fix it! After a disastrous first meeting, it was back into the workshop to investigate the problems with the clutch. The last two meetings from the 2013 race season had been at Croft which had been very muddy – perhaps this could have caused the problem.
Once the gearbox had been removed, and the clutch taken out the problem was obvious. Some of the loose surface from Croft had found its way into the workings of the clutch forcing it open, and not allowing it to release. Once the clutch had been dismantled half an egg cupful of dirt was revealed – this had caused all the problems. With that sorted, and everything put back together, it was time to work out how to stop the problem happening in the future; the car is very much a hy-bred, with a Mitsubishi engine bolted to a BMW gearbox there are quite a few gaps between the two. Hence a plate had to be fabricated to stop the problem reoccurring. That done, the car was all ready for my next outing - round three of the British Championship at Knockhill on May 11th. Hopefully that will be more successful than Blyton. Huge thanks go out to the top mechanic and ace fabricator Peter Singleton for all the work on the car. It was an early start for the first meeting of the season. 4:45 on a crisp late winter morning and it was time to leave.
I was feeling quite confident, and raring to go. The car was ready after the winter break, and so was I. Dawn had broken by the time I arrived at Blyton for the first round of the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship. I found a space and unloaded the car. Once I had signed on it was time to be scrutineered, always the most nerve-racking time of the day for me. I need not have worried though - there were no problems and the car sailed through. As it was the first meeting of the season the obligatory championship stickers were to put on. Luckily, a couple of friends had stopped off to see if I needed a hand, and as I had to go to the drivers briefing I left it in their hands. Thanks very much Robert Adcock and Paul Hodgson. With the formalities over it was time for noise check, and practice. I joined the queue and started moving down the line. Why was this taking so much time, what was that noise, is the clutch slipping a bit, the engine is starting to get hot, do I switch it off, if I do will it start again. For goodness sake people, hurry up. These are the thoughts that go through my head every time I join the practice queue. Normally they all disappear as soon as I get on the track, but this morning something was different. I moved out onto the circuit and accelerated away but something felt wrong, it didn’t pull away as it should. When I went for a gear change it was definite, the clutch was slipping. I decided to carry on and see if the problem cleared. After a lap and a half it was definitely worse, and as a new clutch would relieve me of £500 I decided to go back to the paddock and investigate before I did any damage. Once back to the paddock Paul and Rob were there immediately. Paul never goes anywhere without his overalls, and before you could blink he was in them and under the car. Unfortunately all his efforts were to avail. The more we tried the worse it got. Eventually we had to admit defeat. My first meeting of the year was over before it had begun. |
AuthorDavid Ewin Archives
November 2018
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