Donington Race Report Round 2
It was touch
and go if we would make Donington due to the Muffet ‘Muppet’ diff expiring on
us at Anglesey at the previous round.
Like I mentioned in the previous post, I wasn’t keen on NOT competing,
so I went to great length and cost to get us sorted. One Freelander diff check! One Quaife LSD, check! One Ken Greenway, to fit LSD, check! We were sorted.
Many hours
(thanks to Tris) cutting and welding and quite literally rebuilding the back
end of the chassis to accommodate the diff and we were done. Well almost.
It appears the drives don’t fit and require some custom ones made
up. After a lot of time pondering and
measuring up we finally got the lengths sorted and Tris delivered the old
shafts up to Bailey Morris to have them adjusted etc.
Neither of
us was able to collect the shafts from Bailey until the Friday before the
race. I eventually got back to the workshop
just after 4pm Friday, the afternoon before the race weekend. One gallant effort to reassemble the car
later, we were ready for the off up to Donington about 10pm.
We arrive
quite late or early rather Saturday morning.
Parked up and decided to just get our heads down and worry about the car
and final adjustments in the morning.
Saturday
morning: All hell breaks loose…..’what
do you mean the car won’t start?!!!’. The
engine has been so reliable up to this point, it kind of took us by surprise. To replace the diff the fuel tank had to come
out, so initially thought it was an air lock in the fuel line or maybe dirt had
managed to get in somehow. Nope…that’s all good. Fuel pressure? Off came the fuel line to the engine
to check pressure. Definitely not that
as we managed to squirt fuel halfway across the paddock. Injectors….all 8 of them. Nope they are fine. What could it be.
Several
frantic calls to Andy Bates of AB Performance, as he was still driving over to
the circuit, and I think AB was running out of ideas too at this point. The issue was; the engine would turn over
momentarily start then die. Very
confusing.
WHAT COULD
IT BE!!!!!!!!?????? About 25 mins before
qualifying AB turns up eventually and gets over to see us to try help. We tried everything, to no avail. Time ticked by and it was looking like the
weekend could be over before it even got started.
10 mins before
qually I ask…’do you think its even worth getting changed into my race suit?’. I was feeling really quite despondent at this
point. Andy simply turned round and said…’if
we somehow get this working 30 seconds before qually and you are not sat in the
car ready to go….you are going to feel like a bit of a *#&!’. Fair point I thought, so promptly got
changed. As I was getting changed
literally few mins before qually the car burst into life……woooohoooo!! I thought….GAME ON!
‘What was
the issue?’….’ECU sensor is fooked’ was the reply. Basically, to gewt the car started, unplug
the sensor start the engine, then plug the sensor back in. Puzzling it through my head….how does the
engine run or start even with it being unplugged. Not having time to dwell I jumped into the
car and away I go….with the last words I hear…’don’t switch the engine off or
stall it as it will not start again without having to take bonnet off’. Not a problem I thought. I’ll be in the holding area for a few minutes
then away we go. No chance! Locost was out qualifying before us and there
was a several chaps that needed assistance off the track so meant we had to
stay put. Not wanting to switch the car
off….i soon became concerned about engine temps (oil and water etc). Temps were rising and rising. This was a battle of who’s going to crack
first. Me i.e. switch it off and bottle
it to stop the engine overheating, OR, pray we got going very soon. BING!
Idea popped into my head…why not turn the sodding fan override switch
on? Bosch…! Job done. Temps started to fall quickly and I
was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Eventually, we
were away. Not wanting to perform any
Dukes of Hazard spins on the first lap (unlike some, see photo) of qually I decided to take it
relatively easy, get the tyres up to temp and then put in a few quick
laps.
All was going well until I started
to hear a grinding noise coming from back end of car. ‘What’s that?’. Knowing I had to complete a minimum of 3 laps
to qualify I got these under my belt then came back to the paddock to inspect
the noise. The car felt fine, but couldn’t
help but think, what with a fresh diff in there something was not right.
Some
investigation later and the help of Ken Greenway checking various bits, nothing
lept out as being the culprit for the noise, so we put the issue to one side
and proceeded to prepare for the race.
RACE #1
Race 1 was
quite a lonesome affair. Because of my
poor qualifying position, I started inevitably at the back of the grid. Qually time was 1:26.16. #26th on grid out of 26. Wasn’t best pleased, but still nonetheless,
please to be racing.
Not much
drama in the race until lap 8. As the
front runners were starting to lap the stranglers at the back…..whoooosh, there
goes Tim Gray in his inevitable style. Its
only a matter of time before the likes of John Cutmore will be wanting to
pass. After eyeballing my mirrors the
road was clear behind and what with McLeans corner fast approaching, took my
line and headed for the apex. As the
race progressed I was getting faster and faster, so at this point I knew if I didn’t
make the apex I would be digging potatoes on the exit of the corners that’s for
sure.
Just before
apex……BANG! The car went flying into spin and as I spun round saw John facing
me. Eh?!
The car continued to spin and the offside rear slammed into Johns
car. ‘Oh f***!’ Before I even blinked, John managed to stay
on the black stuff and zoomed off. Not wanting
to waste time, the car was still running I got back on it. Straight away I knew the grinding noise I could
hear before was 10x worse. Everything
still worked however so proceeded to complete the race.
Finished 20th
out of 26 starters with best lap time of 1:20.51. Marked improvement on qually.
Post race, I
went to speak with John, more really to find out what happened. I saw the damage to his side pod and it had definitely
seen better days. My car however, there
was some rubber scuffs marks but initial inspection showed the incident to have
caused no damaged at all……OR SO WE THOUGHT. To be concluded later. However John was (thankfully) okay about the
situation, mainly because the incident hadn’t caused him to loose a place and incident was duly forgotten.
RACE #2
Waiting patiently at the back, sharing a few jokes. Aurther leaning on the car hoping it will add weight somehow!
Again
starting from the back in 26th everything seemed fine, until the
Green Flag lap. Crunching and lots of
grinding later (as per video shows) the noise was terrible.
The race
went by without incident. I really
thought I was doing well however.
Managed to keep up with the Class F pack really giving Rob Grant a run
for his money. Really enjoyed hunting
him down. Going into McLeans presented
an overtaking opportunity, but under heavy breaking I knew the car wouldn’t turn
in so I stayed on the (straight line) scrubbing speed which gave the corner
back to Rob and from that point I got distracted by the front runners coming
round t lap me so spent the race of race avoiding them as they came through.
Really enjoyable
race all in all.
Result: 22nd
out of 26 starters with a new best lap time of 1:19.56. So was pretty chuffed with that. The new diff had certainly helped. With the old one the car was topping out
about 112mph. New diff saw this rise to
over 120mph consistently. Hitting 126mph
down the main drag, so well worth the investment.
Race 2 Video
POST RACE INSPECTION (several days later)
Turns out
the rear bearing were shot, so Tris thought this could have contributed to the initial
grinding noise. Closer inspection revealed
the rear upright was crack badly as a result of mine and Johns coming together
at McLeans (Definition of ‘coming together’, someone later described this as a
Touring Car nudge’). Also the suspension
pick up points had crack away from the chassis.
So Tris had his work cut out once again to repair the damage.
NEXT RACE:
MALLORY PARK 14th Oct 2012 – the finale of the season.
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