Postby TR 8squadron2 » 25 Aug 2010 09:14
Afternoon gentlemen, sorry to be so long in giving this update
All members of the squadron have been busy at work so the racing has taken a back seat for all of us. Not really what any of us need but without the green stamps we don’t get to race. I have been working in Azerbaijan, Willie is in Kazakhstan, Ross was in Italy and Gordon has been moving his garage
Old news first, in between all the work we have had a couple of races each resulting in 5 podiums between us. Willie a 2nd & 3rd, Gordon with two 3rd places and me with one 3rd and a driver of the day. Shonny also had a driver of the day award at one meeting.
I was disappointed that I only got one race at the Scottish Speedfair meeting due to an over enthusiastic marshal putting out a fire that did not exist. The car was stranded and my engine bay was full of fire extinguisher powder. I had qualified 3rd and was confident of a good result. When my car is on the 48’s at start-up flames shoot out of the trumpets for a second (un-burnt fuel) the marshal decided that it was a full blown fire and put it out. This meant 4 hours work to get rid of the powder and to add insult to injury I had to start last in race two.
Starting from the back of the pack is a lot of fun but can be dangerous, a Jaguar XJS hit me from behind and I almost had a few more big incidents due to the speed differences. I had pushed hard to get to third then ran out of brakes at the hairpin. I threw the car into the corner to rub off the speed but my ability as a driver came up short as I went into the gravel backwards. I rejoined in 4th and made a little progress on Willie Robertson in his fantastic Datsun 240 but then his gearbox expired making my life easy.
It’s my first race with the new car and although it’s very fast no brakes and a poor cam shaft choice + unbalanced carbs due to the supposed fire made it a handful to drive, the main problem is the cam. Power is not available till 5,000 rpm so I had to come down the extra gear in three places, the car could have gone thru the corners quicker but I had no power just a flat spot. I am sure if I had brakes (now fixed) and a milder cam I could go a couple of seconds a lap quicker
It becomes apparent that even on our best day the Morgan is just too quick, to be honest we are still not in the same time zone, having said that we just don’t have the seat time to test and get these TR’s working properly. I don’t think for one minute we can beat them but it would be good to close the gap and almost challenge them
I managed to tick one of my bucket list boxes a few weekends ago by competing at Spa. The team and when I say team I mean team was present. Mechanics an Auto Electrician + the photographer and helpers + 4 drivers “12†in total along with family support another 7 people. Before I continue with our story I must thank each one of them.
Mike – Thanks for all the effort and putting up with or demanding shit
Richard - Welcome back, you are missed at the Knockhill events
Titch – Thanks for your help at the track and garage
Steve – A new welcome addition to our team, the auto electrician
Ross – In this modern world it’s difficult to find an active teenager that can’t wait to get stuck in
Rex – Another new addition, thanks for the fantastic pictures
Rab - Thanks for all the help and support
Joe - Another new member (Robin’s Son) we will convert you to the dark side
We must also thank Lammy back at HQ and all the other people that helped make it all happen.
We ( Willie, Robin, Gordon and myself ) competed in two one hour races, the swinging sixties and the inter-series. Both races were organised by the CSCC club. All the drivers had a fantastic time thumping around the 7 km long track, I calculated that me and Gordon must have been hitting almost 150mph down the Kemmel straight showing 7,200 rpm on the rev counter.
The weather was fantastic for the 1st race with a record temperature of 37º, that was probably not good for the tyres but hay it all adds to the fun.
The second race was the opposite with torrential rain.
Both races were an absolute nightmare, the best I can say is that we made a total mess of it. In the 1st qualifying session Gordon set a fantastic time of 3.03 and third overall, that’s amazing for only 6 or 7 laps on the track and the high track temperature.
Only problem was the quick time gave us a one minute time penalty. Willie was a bit more cautious and qualified 12th which with Hindsight would have been a better place to start.
It went real well for Gordon on the first few laps, sitting in a comfortable third but disaster struck when he came in early for his penalty and then pitstop / driver change. The time window for pit stops and driver changes is between 20 and 40 minutes, he came in at 15 minutes to take the penalty but had to circulate for a few more laps.
Willie made a similar mistake, the pit board went out to give him is position and he misunderstood and came in on the next lap, again too soon for the 20 minute changeover.
This dropped us both out of contention for good finishes, but the events are about participating and the first time around its unrealistic in be the top 10 or first few in class.
On the driver change it went from bad to worse for me the un-rehearsed driver change and fuel stop was 3 minutes looking at the lap times, then the exhaust came off totally from the manifold on my second lap. It sounded fantastic but I must have lost 20% of my power and I had to change some lines as the exhaust was dragging on the floor this resulted in lap times around 3.20 then on the last few laps I got a slow rear puncture so I was lucky to get to the finishing line.
Willie and Robin had 3 driver changes ( Willie driving two stints ).
Race two was no better, we had miss communication about the race start time and my exhaust was sitting beside my car 50mins before the start of the race and 20 minutes before the position grouping, to cap it all off we had not fitted a windscreen de-mister that was sitting in a box. We were so pushed for time I was in my car helmet on and harness fastened with the car on jacks / axle stands waiting for the car to be lowered so I could get out. The exhaust still made some noise but hay, that’s just get on with it. We entered the track for our sighting lap and the heavens opened.
The rain was torrential, my windscreen misted instantly and I could see nothing. I slowed to walking pace and made my way back to the pits, it was very difficult finding the pit lane but on the way I remember water coming in the car from the floor, it was spraying on to my fire extinguisher. So much for fitting the windscreen heater?
When I finally made to the pits Willie was having the same problems as were many others. The cars still out were held on the start line, we both seized the opportunity and sorted out windscreen demisting units, the heater for me and Willie rigged up a hose taking in air from the window. We both went out but by now the lead cars were on lap two.
In this race the inter-series the cars are far quicker than the swinging sixties and 72 cars were on the grid. We qualified 42nd and almost 20 seconds behind the lead car.
When I joined the track I ended up right in the middle of some rapid caterhams so I just got out of the way then got my head down, the first few laps were horrendous. Have you ever tried driving a rear wheel drive car with 350+ hp on semi slick tyres at racing speeds? On my second lap a caterham passed me going down in to en rouge and then spun in front of me. The rain had stopped by now and the spray was easing so I was starting to enjoy myself. Living in the north of Scotland is good preparation for these driving conditions. I came in after what I thought was 8 or 9 laps as the safety car was out and I was being slowed by the car in front.
It turns out that I had only completed 5 laps, Gordon went out and raced till the end completing 10 or 11 laps on a drying track.
Willie and Robin had a good run full of entertainment and good racing, Willie as always put in a crowd pleasing performance and Robin was challenging an Aston Martin. He got the Aston on the brakes then spun almost taking them both out, he recovered and went for it again. Not bad for a Capri racer
Like I said we made so many mistakes but at least both cars completed the two races. But we need to remember this was our first major event. It’s a learning curve and we have to make a note of the lessons learned so that we are better prepared for the next one.
The big surprise was our finishing positions in race two, we were 2nd and 3rd in class, even more encouraging was our lap times were 10 seconds per lap faster than the lead car in class. Had we started on lap 1 we could have been first and second in class.
Enough of my talking, I have missed so much from our trip but have no time to write a book.
Our next race is Silverstone on the 4th September
Videos and pictures to follow.
