The adventures of going racing in 2011 750MC RGB championship. Year one, 3rd in Class C, Year two 1st in Class C and Overall championship. Year three 1st in Class A and Overall championship. Year four 2nd in Class A. 2010: RGB Class B with a Fury to 2nd in class. 2011 Fury for class F
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:
Fit new chain (awaiting delivery but its a quick job anyway.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Silverstone Summary As I mentioned in the rather brief summary of Silverstone, it was quite a successful day but also frustrating. We went out in qualifying with the new discs, straight from HiSpec. I took it easy for the first couple of laps, let the brakes get hot and then cool and then put my foot down. Something like 7 of the laps in qualifying would have put me on pole in last years race and we were substantially under the lap record although I don't think I was driving brilliantly. Rather too many missed apex's and messy exits. Once we came in from the session, we did a normal check over the car and were astounded to find the near side from discs to be cracked in two after just one session!. We checked the other side and found hairline cracks emanating from every mounting hole. Wow what Qualify Control.
We reverted the car back to running the original front disc on the near side and the spare from the rear (quite a bit smaller) on the off side, as per Donington and prep'd the car for the race.
In the race, I wanted to be nice and easy on the brakes so that firstly I did not overheat the small front discs and secondly did not have any issues with the potential imbalance of running two different specification of disc. My start was not amazing and I arrive into turn 1 with Steve ahead on my left and Doug beside me on the right. I held station, tentatively hit the brakes and slotted in behind Steve. Turn 2, both of us missed the apex. In my case I was trying to use engine braking up to the apex to save the brakes and this just helped the rear around a little more than I had expected. I was quite happy to sit behind Steve as I learnt new ways to drive the car with plenty of engine braking and to get a feel for the brakes but that was short lived when I had a good exit from the last corner on the start finish straight right at the time that Steve had a bad exit. By the time we reached the start / finish line we were side by side and I just slipped in front at the turn-in for the corner. From there I was able to steadily pull away without putting much strain on the car and ended the race with a decent margin. It was quite an interesting exercise and definitely concentrated your mind on carrying apex speed and maintaining pace even if you cant get the lines perfect due to a compromised entry to a corner. We even managed to get under the existing lap record, set by a Radical SR4 2 years ago, all be it considerably slower than we managed in the qualify session. I may have over done the gently gently approach!
Oulton Park The car is now all ready for our next round at Oulton Park this coming Saturday. At the Oulton Park trackday, we noticed a little liquid around the near side front but could not identify where it came from. Once the car had been sat in the garage for a couple of days it was obvious that the near side front brake caliper had a small leak. The internal seals had once again failed, good these HiSpec brakes! So last we fitted some new seals and made a few other alterations to the brakes to try to give them an easier time and minimise any potential issues with these. The car is also in wet weather settings, ready for what is forecast to be a rather damp weekend.
As Hispec have been incapable to admitting there are a problem with the discs they supplied last time let along deliver any replacements, it was a fantastic to hear that Brian has found another spare pair of new front and rear discs that we can use this weekend.
As we lead up to the Oulton Park double header, here is a short in car lap of the Oulton circuit. I wonder if we will see if like this at the weekend or whether it will more closely resemble a pond!
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.
