Rounds 2 and 3 Videos from Brands Hatch

Race 1 in-car Video footage.

Race 2 in-car Video footage

2011 Rounds 2 and 3 - Brands Hatch

Rounds 2 and 3 for 2011 were held at Brands Hatch.

Between Mallory and Brands, we raised the rear spoiler and reclined it a little. The aim is to get a little more rear grip but without too much added drag.

A good qualify session, with a lap time of 50.68 giving us 3rd on the grid overall and first in class.

We qualified 0.6sec under the previous class lap record in 3rd place, 0.1 behind Paul and 0.7 behind John, both of which are in the Mid Engined class. My nearest competitor was Al in 5th with a lap time of 51.36.

I had a reasonable start but got blocked behind Tim Pell and Al went around the outside of me at the hairpin. It took me a few laps to get past Al, up the inside at Clearways when he had a little slide, and a few more to get on the back of Tim and Past.

His car has a ZX12 engine with more low down pulling power so it was a challenge to get close but I could brake later and run a faster corner entry.

Up front there was a race long battle between Paul and John.

I was able to pull away from Al and Tim but I had lost too much time on the leading pair so I had to settle for 3rd overall and a class win, 15 seconds behind 2nd, 6 seconds ahead of 4th and 7 seconds ahead of the next car in my class. Along with that we had an extra point for fastest lap, which also happened to be a new lap record of 50.89sec.

In the second race, we had a clear run to another class win. There was a single lap where I was able to keep in front of Paul but he passed on the main straight and I settled into keeping both John and Paul in my sights for most of the race. There was an almost race long battle between John and Paul again, only ended when John retired with bent suspension. Paul went onto win and I came in 2nd overall, 7 seconds behind and 12 seconds ahead of Al, my closest class F competitor. So we left Brands with 2x16points and another lap record :)

So we now lead the 2011 championship with 47 points, Paul is in second with 43 and John in third with 30. Austen, the second placed class F competitor has 28 points also.

2011- Round1 - Mallory

Our first round for 2011 was an unglamorous visit to Mallory Park.

The car was not substantially different to last year, with the exception of some tweaks to the rear setup and ride hight. The car felt good straight away, with sability through Gerrards and great traction out of the hairpin. In fact after a couple of laps, I was able to get full throttle in 1st out of the hairpin without any wheel spin.
Our qualify time was really good, a nice margin back to the next class F car of Duncan (0.52sec), not far behind the leading 3 mid engined cars and well under the previous lap record with an average speed of 100.89mph)

Our race came around at the end of the day when the rain had decided to make an appearance. I had thought it would dry out but it didnt which left us with a compromised setup which was not good enough for the wet conditions. We had too much roll stiffness which was a problem through the quick and long Gerrards corner which is where most the lap time comes from. From my bad start, I slotted into 6th place, just behind Paul. Matt had a problem with slowing into the Hairpin a few laps into the race leaving me following Paul and Gary.

I did manage to get past Paul for a short time but the car just did not have the grip level that he had and he was soon back past. Looking at his post race video, he had about half the effort that I required to keep the car on the track around Gerrards! (You can just about see the steering angle in the top photo!)

We had enough pace to keep with the two Contours in touch but my bad start meant I was out of touch with Duncan and without the pace to catch him up. In the latter stages of the race, Gary had a spin at the hairpin and Duncan hit the wall on the start finish straight. Thankfully I kept it in the track which meant I finished 3rd overall and first in class for some solid 15 points with which to start the season.

Pre-season testing

Our pre-season testing outing at Snetterton was to learn the new layout along with a shakedown and a test for some new suspension setups



The circuit is brilliant and as discussed with Jonathan Palmer afterwards, the new corum is a great corner to do brake bias setup. The shakedown test proved worthwhile as it highlighted a crack in a weld on the fuel tank that we had subsequently repaired. We went to test some suspension changes to work on improving traction so that we can start to compete with the mid engined class cars. We proved we could go quite far in that direction without intoducing too much understeer.

Following the test, we backed off the suspension setup a little to give more front bite and consistency as well as our first ever corner weight session with the Fury!

As we spent most of the winter repairing bodywork when we expected to be able to replace with new parts, the developments we had planned will now be released during the season,

From Dereks RGB Racing Blog

The default setup was ready for Mallory, followed by a slight tweak to the aero for Brands and Snetterton. We hope to have a second, more substantial, change to the aero and resulting suspension setup following that. Whether that can coincide with new rear bodywork and the weight reduction that will give us is yet unclear.

With suspension that can travel it's full range, anti-roll bars that do not foul anything, replaced rod end bearings and a decent setup that works in conjunction wih the aero setup, we now have a fury that has some good pace. If only we can get the excess weight out!

2011Update 1

A quick update before some full reports on our start to the 2011 RGB season.

Car for this year is a development of the fisher fury we started with last year. During 2010 we were able to develop the car from the rear of the grid to one capable of ending the year with 2 class wins and a new Oulton Park lap record.

This year, with a simplified class structure of those with the engine at the front (class F) and those that are mid or rear engined (class R), we will be racing the front engined cars, mostly with similar 1ltr engines. Our engine is a 2005 Honda cbr1000rr, well tried and tested with good torque but about 10 to 15hp down on the new bread of 1ltr engines that are being used by the majority of the field.

Our focus for the year is to continue to develop the pace of the car, specifically by focusing on weight reduction and improved aero and see how close we can get to the pace of the leading class R cars.

Mallory - Final round for 2009

Not very much to report for Mallory.

We had a good qualify session despite the wet conditions. The revised front splitter worked well, the car being more stable than the last time we came here and requiring much less effort to extract performance..

I had a good start and a good run into the first corner then disaster.

No drive and lots of smoke!

I pulled over and coasted to pit entrance to find the clutch basket had exploded. I spent the next 15mins watching the rest of the race from the pits with both John and Paul getting past a slowing Steve to go on and finish in that order. Steve came in at the end with his brakes binding and smoke pouring out but because he finished and I did not, he gets the 2009 Class A championship.

Congratulations to John for the race win and the Class B championship.

Silverstone and Snetterton Rounds

Silverstone

At Silverstone we had the addition of a small new front splitter and the bikesports race had been opened up to include RGB which gave us a good opportunity to do some setup testing. I used the Bikesports qualify session to get used to the track and check the balance of the car ready for the RGB qualify which netted us Pole. For the Bikesports race itself, we added some rake to the car to give better front end grip and I played around with the front ARB a little to get a good balance ready for the RGB race. I also had a little bit of fun running with the leading bikesports drivers and then backed off to save the car and so that I did not get in the way of their race.

For the RGB race itself, starting from pole, I managed an average get away from the line, keeping in front of Paul who was second on the grid but dropped behind the ever fast starting Steve as he came up the inside. Steve entered the first turn a little too hot and I was able to get a better exit and past him before turn 2.

I thought I was a little hot entering second turn myself, only to see Paul coming flying past the entry to the corner behind me. Further back in the pack there was a coming together of a number of cars which brought out the red flags. On the re-start it was obvious the this had included David in the BDN S2 which was a big disappointment as he had been showing good pace. The restart was better and I had a clean run for the first lap in the lead. As I came around for the end of the second lap, I could see that Paul had pulled off before he had past the start/finish line for the first time. After a handful of laps I could see a decent lap back to Steve in 2nd place, put in a quick spurt to try for a lap record and then settled into looking after the car, keeping it smooth and seeing if the new additions to the car were making much difference.

The rest of the race was uneventful, returning yet another race win with fastest lap and a new lap record.

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Snetterton

For Snetterton we had a newly designed front splitter.

The data logging showed that we were not getting an increase in front downforce from the splitter design at Silverstone. It would seem that the improved front end grip at Silverstone was resulting from the rake increase we dialed in. This makes sense as its only the first corner at Silverstone that is at any decent speed and I needed to pitch the car in whilst the weight was on the front and the increased rake enabled the weight to stay there long enough for me to get to the apex and hit the power. All of the other corners are either slow or entered under braking and therefore hiding any lift from the front body design.

Again we used the Bikesports race to do some setup with the new front splitter, mainly to test a reduction in rake. We had a good battle until the 3rd place Bikesports driver was taking a few too many risks for me to want to stay close. I then dropped back and pulled in early so we were ready for the RGB Race.

In the race itself, which was televised, I had a good start, lead into the first corner and concentrated on a good first lap to pull out a lead. By the end of the back straight, Paul had passed Steve for second place and from then on all I could see if Paul behind. The gap back to Paul gradually increased from around 2 seconds on lap 3 to nearly 5 by lap 10. We then came up to lap Phil who was dropping oil.

As I came down towards Russels behind a Neil Palmer, we both slid on the oil, with Neil missed the chicane and went over the grass.

I lifted to let Neil re-join the track ahead of me to reduce the risk of being hit, letting Paul reduce the gap down to less than 2 seconds. The last lap was uneventful and I crossed the line for another win, fastest lap and lap record.

The new BDN S3 has been very impressive since its Launch in June.

We go into the last race of the season with an unexpected chance to get the Class A championship. So far with this new car we have completed 7 races with 100% reliability, 6 race wins (1 spin caused by me!) and 4 new lap records! As long as we stay ahead of Steve at Mallory, we can get the Class A championship despite the non finish at Brands and not entering the 2nd Brands race or the two races at Cadwell.

Following Mallory next weekend the car will morph into a new configuration for 2010, more of that later.

Mallory

Rounds 9 and 10 were a double header at Mallory Park
Mallory is the location of my first ever outright win and the prospect of some close racing between us and Paul.
Qualifying was very close with Paul getting pole with the first 100mph for RGB and we qualified 2nd for both races. All of the top three (including John in the Class B Spire) were significantly quicker than before so it was hard to predict the order before the times came out. The year before last, I was able to go around the outside into turn 1 in both starts so I was not too concerned about starting on the outside in the 2nd slot.

In the first race, I got a really good start and led into the first corner. It took a few steps up in starting revs through the first few races in this new car and we seem to have found the right spot, helped by the softer rear setup of this new car. From that start, I was able to pull out a slight lead, the car still quite lively but better settled than in the qualify session. I held the lead, although Paul was doing a very good job of closing down the gap, until we encountered traffic. Its always a significant factor at Mallory and part of racing of course and Paul snuck through into the lead as we came up behind two back markers. More traffic a lap later as seen on this photo helped to add a greater distance between us as well. As I pushed to close this gap, I locked the rear wheels up going into the hairpin and did my first spin during an RGB race for 3 years. Facing the wrong way around a blind corner is never a nice feeling and the video shows me waving frantically to attract the attention of the other drivers. All of them managed to miss me with the exception of Colin who just clipped the front corner. I waited until all of the cars had passed, spun the car back around and the cross the line. Thankfully it was on the last lap and I had lapped most of the field so I still cross the line in 3rd place in class, with fastest lap and a new lap record.
Here is the video for Race 1:



Mallory Race 2
John, Ian and Brian did a good job in the short time between the two races to repair the nose from the race 1 damage. The crash zone worked well and was not difficult to repair. We had the same starting position and challenger but with some knowledge of the comparative performance. Our car is definitely low on overall downforce as could be seen in the exit speed of the long Gerrards corner and the run through the fast chicane. From the Hairpin down to the start finish and the entry to Gerrards, we were quicker. Due to the repairs, we were not able to change the car much but I did alter the anti-roll bar on the out lap. I did another good start, entered the first corner in the lead again and decided to push hard early on. My first lap, from the stand stil, was considerably quicker than the same lap in the first race and the second lap around I was already under the previous lap record. This gave me a nice gap back to Paul and the car change had made a subtle but worthwhile improvement. I was able to maintain the lead through to the end of the race although I backed off for the last couple of laps following a spin from Paul at the chicane in very similar fashion to my earlier spin and the resulting loss of my closest competitor. This gave us our 4th race win in the new car and overall a good tally of points from the weekend.
Here is the video for Race 2

So a catch up for the season so far.

Round 1 at Snetterton. - 2nd place

Pole in qualifying for the double header. , In the first race on the Saturday all was going very well until, after leading the throughout the race, the upper wishbone on the offside rear collapsed upon entry to the last corner of the last lap. I dragged the car over the line to get 2nd place. A weak weld on a prototype wishbone had failed and was quickly and easily swapped for a spare that afternoon.


Round 2 at Snetterton. 1st race win of 2009

The following day was to start with the S2 back on pole from the preceding days qualify. A gentle start for the race to check all was correct with the repaired rear suspension and then an increase in pace resulted in my first win of the season. Unfortunately the Palm had crashed during the race, leaving me without lap times so I did not quite push hard enough for a new lap record.

It now transpires that Robin has swapped out our Donington round due to all of the problems with the track alterations and replaced it with another round at Snetterton. Maybe we can go for the lap record with the new car.

Round 3 at Brands Hatch
Round 3 was to be the last outing for the S2 before David took ownership and we concentrated on the new 2009 S3. Pole in qualifying, some half a second under the lap record was a perfect start for the double header weekend. However, pole at Brands is never the advantage you might normally think. For one, the 2nd place grid slot is right next to you and secondly, you are at the bottom of the hill which means you not only need to accelerate up a hill but the car tends to slide sideways towards the pit wall. As I pulled up to the start line, the marshals were kindly waving slippery track flags right in front of me to highlight the large quantities of oil left from the previous Formula Vee crash.

As I pulled away from the lights and controlled the inevitable wheel spin on the remainder of the oil, Steve behind and John beside pulled alongside. As Steve tried to go around John, he moved over further than the available space and knocked the front of my car sideways into the Armco barrier. A rather nasty crash against the Armco bent the front suspension and the resulting front wheel alignment steered the car towards the 2nd barrier for a second impact. The rest of the race I watched from the end of the pitlane, with a mangled car against the wall beside me, to see Steve win and a very close and exciting class C / B battle in the mid field. Of course we were all very disappointed with the situation, complicated by the car being sold to its new owner, David, who was going to be collecting the car after Round 3 the following day!

Round 3 at Brands Hatch on the Sunday was eventful with Paul winning his first Class A race in the new Contour. No pictures I am afraid as we had already headed home to start the repairs.
Some considerable effort ensued by John, Tony Dad and myself to the get the car almost back together. Steve Harris from Concept Designs did a fantastic job to supply replacements wishbones and then the following weekend we were all joined by David for the final finishing touches before he took the car away.

Round 4 and 5 at Cadwell Park we attended in support of David in his first outing in the S2. I just wanted to make sure it all stayed together but it was very strange being at a race meeting without racing. The new S3 not quite being finished, we sat out these two races but enjoyed the RGB show. David did very well to get up to speed with the S2 over the weekend at such a challenging track. Some unfortunately teething problems for Paul meant that he was denied 2 further victories and Steve went on to amass some significant points in the class A championship standings.

The S3 first test was a day at Snetterton. Well what can I say, the car worked all day without a hitch, was lovely to drive and quick. We had a few items to test and a basic setup to find. I did a couple of gentle runs at the start to check there were not basic leaks or parts rubbing and even that that pace it felt stable. As we turned up the pace the car responded well, if anything being a little light on the front end.

Dad took some great photos which showed that the rear body work was being compressed considerably by the airflow, so the understeer in high speed was due to the efficiency of the rear bodywork. We spent the rear of the day making from modifications to balance the downforce and get a good grip without loosing lap times.
Brian and Ian really have built a very good car. Even more impressive than the speed is the up front reliability. Here you can see Ian doing some pressures and spanner checks.
The major change for me was the introduction of a wind deflector in front of me, during the earlier part of the day my head was being pushed around quite considerably by the wind to the point that if it got pushed sideways half way down the straight, I had to wait until I was braking before the strength in my neck was great enough to counteract the wind and straighten up my head! Fun going down the straight looking sideways at 140mph! In the afternoon we tried some alternative nose sections to gain some aero balance as well as some improved supports for the rear bodywork to cope with the downward pressure at full speed.

Round 6 and 7 were over in Anglesey - Two race win in the brands new car!, the exact opposite side of the country to us but it’s a brilliant circuit and we all enjoyed just the most glorious weekend away last year with the weather and racing. It was a real balm for the sad week that proceeded it last year and lots of friends asked whether it would be comfortable returning this year. I can honestly say that I have only good memories of Anglesey, of course helped by winning both rounds last year and dedicating them to Mum.

Now with a new car this year, we were not expecting to be in a winning position straight away so we booked in for the days testing on the Friday and made a long weekend of it. The testing went well with a few aero modifications to test and yet again excellent reliability. The qualifying was wet and our first outing with the new car in the rain! I qualified 5th on the grid for both races but feeling quite confident as the car was good to drive in the wet with good traction, I just needed some more seat time. I think I could have put it on pole with some better laps near the end of the session as it dried out more and if I had the confidence through more time in the car. The first race was very wet again the car had good traction, enabling me to overtake a couple of places on the first lap. I added a turn of front anti-roll so that I could lead on the front end a little more, modified the brake bias and went after Steve for second place, overtaking at the end of the straight into Rocket In. The middle part of the race I was chasing down Tim in the Class C Striker who was really moving. Admittedly the power advantage of a Class A car is reduced quite substantially by the wet conditions but it took some going to catch Tim who has showing the rest of the Class C driver the way all year. I caught Tim and as neither of us are actually racing each other, being in different classes, he did not make if difficult for me to pass. From there I backed off a little to manage the risk and really enjoyed the car moving around in the slippery conditions. When I came around for the final time I could hardly believe we had just won the first race outing for the new car. There were some big smiled in the pit lane as Brian and Ian (responsible for building and designing the car) and John (my race engineer) joined me in accepting the winner laurel. Race 7 on the Sunday morning was dry so a few subtle changes in the cockpit and a good test of the dry weather speed of the new car.
Again the car felt very good, with good straight line speed and even though the data logging would show that I have a couple of corners to improve on to equal the pace of the old car, we were quick enough to come through the field. From 5th on the grid we came through to the lead and broke the lap record I set last year in the progress. Two wins in the first two outings and still no mechanical issues for a brand new car!


Rounds 8 was return to Brands Hatch for a single round. Race win - 3 out of 3 for the new car!

I just managed pole, with an excellent 2nd place on the grid by John in the class B Spire. The car was not perfect with lower downforce than Paul or John but I was able to pull some lead out during the early part of the race whilst everyone else was in the pack and trying to navigate around the oil left by the preceding race.




As the race progressed others in the pack found that the oil which covered quite a lot of the racing line was not a hindrance to a good lap time. At the front I was not able to see what others were doing and to play it safe, I stayed off the oil and ran a rather unconventional line. As we neared the end of the race, Paul who was in 2nd place, was able to close down the gap as we navigated around the back markers. At the end we crossed the line under a second apart for the new cars 3rd race win out of 3 starts!

Snetterton Race Videos

Here are the race videos from our first and second rounds for 2009.

Saturday Race1 - Aborted 1st lap due to red flag when Aaron spun and was collected by Bob


Saturday Race1 - Restarted race and my early battle with Steve


Saturday Race1 - Part2, lapping a few cars and a rather eventful end to the race when my rear suspension failed on the last corner of the last lap. Dragged the car over the line on three wheels to get 2nd place.


Sunday Race 2 - Highlights of the rather more successful Sunday race. From Pole to race victory with fastest lap along the way. The car was working better as I had the correct tyre pressures.

Autosport

Page 120 of this weeks Autosport covers the fun of last weekend at Snetterton

Testing Tomorrow

A very quick post to bring you up to speed on the developments this week, off for a days testing at Snetterton tomorrow.

B&C Express were fantastic and delivered a new sprocket and chain the day after it was ordered so that was installed on Tuesday evening.

Old and new sprocket comparison

Sprocket off

Sprocket On

Drive Shaft On


Air filter cleaned and refitted.

The car is not all completed and packed up ready for the short trip to Snetterton tomorrow morning. Saturday we have qualifying and an afternoon 30min race. Sunday we have a 15min sprint race in the morning.

With just one week before we do our first test and only 8 days before our first race, its just down to the small things in our prep list, thankfully.

This week, John and I, attached the Shaw patented towing eye and cut out a suitable slot in the front bodywork. The slot is a little larger than the attachment, to ease the fitting of the bonnet and at worse will just a little more cooling for the front wheel. It actually looks quite neat in Red and does not protrude beyond the front splitter which is nice.

Its attached to the front chassis support for the floor and wedged between the two bars so the entire car could probably be hung from it without a problem! Its also nice and low down on the car which will aid the marshals if they need to drag the car out of a gravel trap as it will stop the car from digging the nose in.

Apart from a good spanner check, the only other task at the front of the car was to bleed through all of the old brake fluid and replace with nice clean Castrol Response 4. We did that for both circuits and reset the brake bias. We have already replaced the front pads as the old ones were almost complete down to metal, interestingly the brake bias was wound all the way to the front. I must have been moving this forward throughout the two long birkett sessions, compensating for the reducing front pads, although I have not recollection of this being the case. Interesting how your concentration is focused on the variety of cars and huge variances of speed in a race like that.

At the rear of the car, the K&N filter has been cleaned and refitted, the repacked exhaust and CAT has been fitted (pending a couple of spacer to help clear the rear from the undertray that I need to fit). All of the interior panels have been refitted, some even repainted, belts installed and seat refitted. If I decide against giving the dash a quick spray then all I need to do is refit a few screws and its all complete.

Items for the coming week are down to tracking and sorting out the chain. The chain at minimum needs to be swapped for a new one which should be with us by mid week but that's a quick job. We may also have a replacement rear sprocket through before the test session on Friday so we may have a go at fitting that. Trouble is it requires removing the driveshaft from the diff which is a new activity for us so we may opt not to undertake that in the time we have! You can see from the photo that the sprocket is showing signs of wear as you would expect from Ali being attacked by the chain for a race season.

The start of the season is really close and its all getting exciting. Oh and my new helmet and HANS device has arrived so it feels a little like Christmas.

2 weeks to go!

Inspired by seeing Pauls new car fire up for the first time this weekend, I thought it was about time to get my old car running again and ready for our first race in just 2 weeks time.
Since the last update, I have had the CAT fitted, changed the Oil, Oil filter and fuel filters, replaced the front brake pads and checked the exhaust packing.
This weekend, I put some fuel into the car and checked for any leak around the filters that I replaced and after fitting the final fastener, I refitted the repainted interior panels. The belts and seat are back into the car. I am waiting for some exhaust packing to arrive and then I can refit the exhaust system to the car. Other than that, outstanding items include fitting the front towing eye once its finished being painted, a slit needs to be cut into the front bodywork for the towing eye and the I need to check the tracking.

In the meantime we have purchased a newer motorhome like the one pictured here. We decided to go with something large enough for Dad, John and I to comfortably spend time in, a garage at the rear and facilities to enable us to use to for holidays as well as the racing.

We can rebuild

Just a really quick update to say that the car is back in the garage and we can now start to put everything back together again. The replacement paper elements for the Fuel filters have arrived so we can refit those and then attach all of the bulkhead panels.
That will be everything completed from the front of the car back to the main engine compartment bulkhead. We can then refit the rear body work to get the correct measurements for the exhaust alteration. That can then go to Steve for him to work his magic.

Outstanding items are:

1. Fit new chain (awaiting delivery but its a quick job anyway.)
2. Replace oil filter and fill with Oil.
3. Repack exhaust can
4. Refit camera
5. Fit new exhaust end inc Cat
   
6. Fire her up!
7. Check geometry.
8. Race
9. Sell
   

The Start of 2009

So the 2009 racing season is nearly upon us.......

This is a strange time for club racers. The new season is matching towards us but with a few months still to go, some are frantic in the garage with new builds whilst others are trying to piece together their cars from the winter rebuilds and any major maintenance (Like Adrian, see image!). Its also cold and the short days meaning its often time in the garage wrapped up and with fan heaters on!

For us its a little different this year. We have a new car being build and an existing car in the garage. Its seems unlikely we will have the new S3 in time for the first race of the season at Snetterton, or if we do it will be before we are able to do any meaningful testing.

Because of that, we have decided to keep the existing S2 which we ran last year quite successfully. We will run that for the first few races whist we get the new car through some shakedowns and some basic setup work.

That means that we need to get the new car ready, whilst Brian works on the new car. Mostly this means we are looking at general start of season preparation.

For 2009, we have a couple of regulation changes that we need to make modifications to the current car to meet.

The new regs include the need for a front low level toe eye so that the marshals don't have to use the roll cage to pull a car out of the gravel trap. Honestly I think this is a sensible choice, especially with a mid engined car with a low front as it will help to stop the car from burying itself into the gravel trap. John has busy making up an attachment after making up a template the completely changing the design after viewing the way in which its been implemented on the S3.
The second change to the regs is all together less sensible. In fact its absolutely stupid and just adds cost without any benefits. From 2009 onwards we now have to run a Cat converter on the race cars. Even engines back to the 90's with carbs, running in class C, have to have them attached! So we are working out how to fit one on. Of course the cat contents could well disintegrate very quickly with the overfuelled exhaust gasses and have no advantage to the environment at all. On that point, the fuel and emissions of racing are so insignificant compared with that of the traveling to and from the race meetings as to be laughable. Lets just tell people they are not allowed to use their cars, motorhomes to travel on recreation. That means you cant drive to the park, to the sea side, car boot sale, golf club, gym, football etc etc.

The other items on the list are just the normal maintenance activities for the start of the season. At the weekend we progressed the following:

• Brake pads - fronts replaced and waiting for brake fluid replacement
• Wishbones inspected and front near side swapped with spare
• We found a few suspension spherical bearings that are a bit stiff so they have been replaced.
• I removed the rear bulkhead panels so I that we can get to and replace the fuel filters. With the panel off we can also clean up the engine bay a bit more and check all of the exhaust bolts etc.
• Oil drained so I can do the filter and fresh oil. Cracked testing all completed and all results were clear.

We had a minor set back last week when I did a precautionary check of the spark plugs and one did not come out cleanly. Thankfully Andy Bates came to the rescue once again and was able to clean up the thread so once we collect it from his tomorrow we can finish off any remaining items. When the order from DT comes back we can refit the fuel filters and plug it all back together again.

Birkett Relay Race

Our end of season was the Birkett 6 hour relay race on the Silverstone International Circuit. Here is the video from my second 30min stint, split into 3x 10 min session on YouTube.

Videos and Pictures from Oulton Park

Race 1 -
This video shows the first two laps where just missed Martin as he stalls on the line and make my way through from 5th to take the lead at turn 1 for lap 2. It then shows the penultimate, on which I set the fastest lap of the race, and final laps for the victory.



Race 2 -
4th to 1st in the first corner and then a simple run to the checkered flag.

Rear Suspension

Back from some time traveling in Australia to find out that John has been speaking to Brian at BDN Sportscars to source a replacement rear lower wishbone which is bent after the round at Oulton Park
I will add a photo shortly but the rear bar of the lower wishbone on the near side rear is very noticeably bent upwards. I must admit I did not notice it at the race but then I think it happened in the wet qualify and I did not push to the limit in either of the two races at a circuit I am no expert at. Could that be why I did not notice what must be a rear wheel with very little camber and some toe out instead of the norm toe in?
Could this off during the wet qualify session have caused the bent suspension?



The replacement wishbones have arrived and changing over is a reasonably short activity and we have plenty of time before the final round of the 2008 championship.

Oulton Park Double Header - Championship decider or will it go to Mallroy?

Quick summary from Oulton Park as I am traveling.

Turned up to the most rain I have seen all year, the paddock area was flooded and lots of reports of treacherous conditions during the Friday practice. Saturday morning dawned with the pause in the rain, although the surrounding area seemed to get rain all day.

The qualify session was wet although it was not actually raining and the car felt good although not very predictable at the rear. Well actually it was ok but the throttle sensitivity means its hard to invoke a slight slide in the wet or to control a slide to a small angle, it it either sideways or not which means its hard to feel the changes in grip level. All was going well until about half way through the session when I slided more under braking and turn in to Druids than I had expected and had a fun session of traveling on the grass and over the gravel trap. In fact I though it was ok once I held the slide over the grass but it was quite a wake up to realise I needed to accelerate, whilst off the track, to be able to clear the gravel and rejoin. From then onwards I did to push hard enough which mean I did not make use of the increased grip that was evident by the other improved times int he last couple of laps. This left me 5th in the first race (and behind Steve) and 4thin the second race. My worst qualify for over a year I think.

The first race went well for me, I just about missed Martin who stalled on the grid, got to 4th on the run down the cascades, 2nd after the straight and chased Steve for the rest of the lap. Steve was experiencing some brake issues and therefore lifted early for the entry to the first corner of lap 2, which I slipped past and pulled out a good lead. That is where it finished and although Oulton is a great track, it was a very quiet race for me.

The second race, at the end of the day, looked like it could be effected by the rain and therefore we decided to run the wet weather types to cope with any sudden down-poor. As it was the race was completely dry. I had a great start and drove around the outside of the 3 class C cars in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place which gave me the lead after the first corner. From there I took it easy and concentrated on the race win for the championship points.

So 2 race wins and fastest laps have given me 26 points from the weekend. Paul in class B and my closed rival for the overall Championship had a 2nd and 1st in a reduced points round and John in class C did not convert the weekend into 2 wins so the points are looking good.

Interesting results with brakes as well.

At silverstone, the newly supplied brake discs from Hispec failed after just 1 qualify session.
The much smaller spare for the rear, when fitted as a replacement at the front, lasted a full race.
The spare disc, supplied originally from Hispec to BDN Sportscars, ran for the qualify and 2 races at Oulton faultlessly.

Interesting dilemma for Hispec, original manufactured discs work fine, smaller spare by them worked fine, newly manufactures replacements (and there were 2 remember) both failed first time out! What to do then Hispec?

Derek