Malton Motor show over, I did fitted a new left front hub and wheels bearings. The abuse the front left hub has to deal with eventually causes the to stretch/distort, hence the wheel bearing going. It is something to be checked regularly on circuit racing Minis. This one must have gone quickly because it seemed OK after Brands Hatch in the post-race once-over. I have already decided to start carrying spare parts bins in future now I have the van as a tow vehicle. I just need to assemble a selection of what I consider necessary. Mind you – you bet your bottom dollar the first thing that will go bad will be the one thing I didn't pack! And Steve decided not to take me up on my offer of a drive in the Group One race. Mostly because he wasn't keen on the idea of possibly trashing my car before I got to race it. The only other change I made was to disconnect the rear anti-roll bar with the intention of running it like that in qualifying, then re-connecting it for the race. If there is one corner that will show whether it is helping or not it's the fearsome 180 degree, damned fast Gerrards. Expectations? If it rained I'd try for an out-right win. If dry – how about a lap record to round the year off? That made me chuckle – the tyres are now 2 seasons old, the engine not a full-on unit and the weather is unlikely to be good enough at the beginning of October.
Mallory Park then, last race of the season and on a Sunday for a change, and very late qualifying and race for us – last qualifying and last race. New for us lot. Karin and I debated whether we'd go down the day before as usual, or just whiz down on the Sunday morning, just be there for the day. A compromise of sorts was decided on – we'd go down late afternoon to get there early evening and instead of self catering (usually a barbecue) we'd find some where to eat out that evening, and then one of the exceptionally good Mallory Park Café breakfasts Sunday morning. We did just that, and it was very pleasurable.
Race day was going to be a long day. With nothing to do to the car except scrutineering before qualifying, it afford our lot (the PTHC) time to wander about and have lengthy chats, something not normally afforded so that was very pleasant. Scrutineering came and went without issue, and so to qualifying. After the usual cautious first couple of laps to get heat in to things that needed it and settle myself down I upped the pace. It was going pretty well right up until I caught up with a couple of other cars – one being my nemesis.. that Rover P6! The pilot tends to treat qualifying like a race, not giving an inch anywhere, and squeezed me out on to the grass at the hairpin under breaking, and also cut across the front of me through Gerrards. I was not making any headway with my lap time because of this foolishness. So I backed off and gave him about half a lap, then got on the gas again coming past the pits. Wasn't enough. I caught him up again very quickly after negotiating Gerrards and the following kink much quicker to be back trying to out-brake him in to the hairpin. This time I tried the inside but he just squeezed me up against the concrete inside wall. Great. And so we circulated again. I finally got up the inside of him entering Gerrards and drove round the inside, concerned he was going to clip me, but I'd carried enough speed through to have a decent gap between us. It was a bit late in the day though, the tyres had gone past their best, but I did squeeze out a couple of quicker laps before the end. Owing to a computer glitch, race admin were not producing any qualifying results so we all waited, wondering where we were at on the grid. Karin had got me at 58.3 seconds, which I thought wasn't to bad since everybody else was saying they were a couple of seconds off their best time – a combination of the weather and track condition. Oh yes, the weather – bright blue skies and sunshine with some clouds – warm in the sunshine, cold when the clouds covered the sun. At least it wasn't blowing the force 9 it had been the day before!
I decided to leave the rear anti-roll bar disconnected for the race because the track was pretty slippery after cars in just about every race before us had liberally sprayed oil all round the track. Further diminishing the feasibility of a lap record. Right up until a half hour before our race we still had no grid sheets and the organisers having a rare old time sorting out grid positions in the preceding races. A lot of finger drumming was going on. Then at last we get the qualifying results! Karins' time keeping as good as ever I was recorded as 58.319seconds placing me 10th on the grid out of 19, on the outsideimmediately behind a beautiful BMW 3.0 CSL and a massive Camaro. Not good. And... worse, that P6 was behind and inside me. Great. The grid stagger had me placed with the gap between the BMW and Camaro right in front of me, and at Mallroy they bunch you up pretty tight, so making a good start was going to be very difficult. The best I could hope for was to get between the BMW and Camaro and pray. Very hard. Being on the outside of the pack going into that awesome Gerrards first time around is most definitely NOT a good place to be. Especially with all those big rear wheel drive cars around you, slithering tail out all over the place.
Warm up lap completed and assembled on the grid, that gap was looking mighty small. Red lights on, off, and despite getting off the line quickly, the Camaro slewed left and shut and out. So I was crammed up against the back of the BMW heading down to Gerrards. The BMW caught me out by backing off very early indeed – allowing a train of cars to pass up the inside of us and I was hung out to dry on the outside where it was very, very slippery. All I could do was try and stay on the circuit. Having done that, several of the cars placed behind me on the grid had pulled away so coming out of Gerrards I was well behind them. But – out on my own, I could blaze up behind them as they squabbled for position and track space, catching them at the hairpin and very nearly driving straight in to the back of the BMW as I nearly out-braked myself. Idiot. It was a 20 minute race – so 20 laps in the offing. No need to do-or-die on the first lap. I then wasted two laps following this crowd, all being held up by thatP6 as they dived this way and that, cars slithering about and tail-happy round all the bends. I say wasted because I was worrying at whether they were going to stick or spin. I should have been braver earlier. Never mind. Running the engine hard – pulling 8,200 rpm exiting Gerrards in third - I started picking them off with some pretty excellent over-taking manoeuvres having judged each one as to where I would take them, eventually passing mostof them, coming out a long way off from the next car, so a lonely end to the race. I finished 10th, but had enjoyed the race – a fitting end to the season. Back in the paddock Karin said I'd got several mentions by the commentator for my progress and over-taking manoeuvres, and that over-all it had been the best race of the day to watch. We got loaded up and tidied away quickly since time was getting on, and just as we were about to leave, one of our committee came over and handed me – the 'Driver of the Day' award! COOL.
05.09.09, Rockingham Raceway
So, a little work to do prior to a visit to 'The Rock' – a circuit we have not raced at for quite a few years. In fact I think it was in 2004 when we were last there, and when I blew my clutch so didn't make the race. I do not like the circuit at all. Just can not get in to it. It is very 'busy' on the infield, then a long blast round part of the 'NASCAR' tri-oval section. But all race experience is good experience, and a difficult track sometimes pleasing to get sorted out.
Before that though, I had to find out why the left pot joint (in-board CV) was not staying clicked in to place, change the gearing and fix the broken bulk head bracket for the engine steady bar. Just as well I had to crane the motor out to do the gearing change as this facilitated fixing the other two issues. I thought the pot joint retention issue was probably being caused by a worn out circlip. That was not the case though. The left side stub shaft was moving in and out more that it should have been, consequently the circlip was not engaging inside the pot jot as it should do. Removing the diff side plate showed a lot of wear on the spacer that is press fitted on to the stub shaft. Initial thought was that the spacer had moved, but after measuring it – it had not. Hmm. There was also wear on the inside of the diff side that where that shaft spacer butts up against. Hmm. Well – I couldn't find anything clearly wrong, so I used some shim spacer washers between the stub shaft and LSD and that sorted the circlip engagement problem.
Next up, changing the gearing. I am still not fully set up at home in the garage again yet, so have to ferry tools to and from the workshop. The main problem I could foresee was air supply; I doubted my mini-compressor at home would be man enough to pop the flywheel off. Sure enough, having fitted up my brute of a puller, the air gun was not making a big enough impact. Hmph. I tried with a long knuckle bar and a few whacks with a copper mallet, but to no avail. That meant loading the power unit in to the van and taking it to the workshop. I turned my attention to the engine steady bracket. Rather than grind off the piece of the original bracket then weld on anew bracket, I decided to bolt on a piece of decent weight angle iron instead. A fine plan as it would not require the brake master cylinder from being disconnected to give good clearance around the bracket when welding it back on. Warning, Warning, Warning.... anybody else thinking on doing this take heed. Having drilled 3 pilot holes in the bracket then in to the bulkhead to see where they came through (this section backs on to the pedal box assembly 'box' in the bulkhead). Peering up in to the pedal box area I could clearly see the holes. Great. Now drill out to 8mm in bracket and bulkhead then fit bolts and nuts from the inside and tighten. Yeah, right. I just could not get past the pedal box bracketry no matter how I tried. All this made much more difficult because of having to contort my not-inconsiderably sized body over/past the roll cage door bar, seat and under steering column. Cutting an epic short I had to take the pedal box out, modify the bracketry of it where it butts up against the bulkhead to clear the steady bar bracket retaining nuts, then fit it all back inafter firmly fixing the bracket in place. A ten minute job that turned in to an hours graft.
My mate Steve Young came up with most of his family to visit, so took the opportunity to get him to help lift the power unit in to my van, then whisked it off down to the workshop to use the big air supply there. Even that didn't get the flywheel off including more judicious blows with the big copper mallet initially. Waiting for a few minutes then having another go with the air gun eventually pulled it off. And once again the reason for the difficulty in removal was obvious – the flywheel had been fretting on the crank up near the primary gear retaining 'C' clip. I have not suffered these issues for years, and since I only use standard cranks, it is not the taper on the crank that is incorrect. It is becoming a source of aggro that the various steel flywheels made appear to be inconsistent on the machining detail of their tapers, as is the line 'well, we've sold hundreds with no other problems mentioned by others'. I simply do not believe it. It was not bad enough to trash the crank and/or flywheel – both cleaned up OK with a little careful attention with some abrasive tape and flap-wheel – but it is an issue that is starting to irritate me. A lot. With the gearing changed (primary gear swap), all was re-assembled and craned back in again, re-fit completed and fired up. All gears worked, engine strapped in tight once more all ready for the race weekend.
The weekend was a double header – sotwo races in the same weekend. Originally to be qualifying and race 1 Saturday, race 2 on Sunday. Having got to the circuit Friday afternoon, however, there were seemingly various revisions to the program that threw all in to uncertainty until one of our co-ordinators appeared first thing Saturday morning with the the last running order – we were to qualify Saturday morning then two races Saturday afternoon. Not good if anything went wrong in race one.
Qualifying was mostly spent trying to remember what corners were coming up next and which way the track went. I used to be really good at picking up new circuits and sorting racing lines – in my elder years I find my memory is mostlygoldfish-like. None of which was helped by others in close proximity having the same problem, consequently we were falling over each other. Towards the end of the very limited 15 minute session I made some clear space in front of me and started working on half-decent lap times, but then the chequered flag cam out and that was that. I had noticed a slightly handling inconsistency from the rear when blazing through the slight turn 1/turn 2 kink – the car would start to over-steer, easily corrected, but then would do it a gain and again – so continually steering adjustment was needed. Chugging back to the outer paddock (some 1/2 mile away) I could hear a noise that shouldn't be there. Snicking the box in to neutral and coasting along I could hear a distinctive 'rhum-rhum-rhum-rhum' that generally announces wheel bearing issues. And it sounded like it was coming from the rear of the car. Back in the paddock, a change out of the fire-proofs in to 'work' apparel I stuck the back end of the car on axle stands and checked the rear wheels – yep, both had play in them. Stripped them down, re-greased them (though the left rear needs replacing as it takes most of the pressure), re-assembled them and re-torqued then tightened them a little more. Fine. Play was gone and not too much drag on them. Job done. Re-fuel, check oil, water, tyre pressures and all good for the race.
Driving to the assembly area back through the tunnel I could hear that same noise.... so it was the front then. At the assembly area I clambered out of the car and gave the wheel a tug and push. There was definitely play there. Now what to do? Do I pull out now, or start the race and be aware of a pending issue? Well, I was there, in the collecting area for the race – I decided to go for it. The warm up lap showed up nothing – the mickey mouse nature of the circuit meant a slow trog round to the grid for the start. Red light on/off and go. Not a great start, but the fact the first real corner was a long way off meant as soon as the big engined cars behind me got traction they simply blew past me. In to that first double 90 degree 'hair pin' was an entertainment, but all scraped through without damage, and I'd caught up with and passed a couple of the big engined cars. First 'dance' through the infield section was ridiculous with cars going in all directions all over the circuit as they fought for grip on a pretty slippery track. Making any dare-devil moves was out, survival was the name of the game. Annoyingly the front group were starting to make a gap on the second group I was caught up in as we neared the end of that first lap. Of course as soon as we got back to the big long straight section the big cars passed me again, but this time I was closer to them at the hairpin. I felt they were all trying to out-brake each other as I hit the brakes early. Sure enough the 4 cars in front were under-steering/over-steering and generally making a right hash of that corner. I cut right through the middle of most of them, getting caught behind one (the mobile chicane that is Mr Rover V8 P6) to the next corner. I was determined to get past him early on, and finally made a solid and determined pass in to another hairpin, having out-cornered him on a very difficult tightening left hander, then pulling along side him, sticking to his inside and out-braked him in to that hair-pin. Making a decent exit and forcing to take outside approach in to the very tight chicane I got enough of a gap coming on to the back straight to keep him behind me – providing I could take that kink flat out. Teeth gritted I turned in with it nailed – and the car was good and stable. Phew! At least attending to the rear wheel bearings had sorted that inconsistent rear end movement. Open track in front of me, baring down on the hair pin I nailed the anchors at the 100 metre board, made a good job of that first heir pin, and I was away. Unfortunately I had lost the front pack – so a lonely race was in the script. I just worked on trying to sort out that mad infield section to get my lap times down. And then the front wheel bearing stated to protest more and more with each lap heading down in to that hair pin and eventually causing an issue turning in to that very fast kink. The kink started to by a lift, turn in, let the car take a set, then increase throttle to full coming out of the turn, and horrendous brake judder and weaving in that manic braking zone. Coming up to finish lap 6, entering the chicane the marshalls were frantically waving yellow flags – an altercation between a couple of cars I thought. Backing right off as you can not see the chicane until you are on top of it there was an RS2000 Escort stranded in the middle pointing the wrong way up the track, driver legging it for safety. 'That'll be a red flag then' I thought, just I was passed the start/finish like where there was, indeed, a marshall brandishing a red flag signalling the race had been stopped. Realising we had completed over 60% of the race (a 15 minute race rather than a 10 lap race) I confess to being relieved, I wasn't sure how much more punishment the wheel bearing would take.
The trundle back to the outer paddock was a VERY noisy affair, and thought it'd be just my luck that the wheel would fall off in the middle of the single-track tunnel! But it didn't. Needless to say I pulled out of the second race, loaded up and came home. Last race of the year at Mallory Park in a months time so plenty of time to sort that wheel bearing and do a quick spanner check over the car. I have been invited to show the car at the Malton Motor Show on Sunday 13th September so will leave the car 'whole' until after that. And since my mate Steve Young hasn't raced all year I have offered him my car to drive at Mallory. The intention is for me to do my usual championship race and then he can take the car out in the Group One series organised by our club. So a seat fitting will be in order as he's somewhat 'slighter' than me and shorter of leg. Fun with chemical mixes and dustbin bags then for a seat insert!
Lydden Hill,25 July 2009
OK – where were we after last races' epic.... Oh yeah. So, engine out and check the head, change the gearing, sort water pump gasket and alternator issues. The head wasn't porous so I cleaned it, re-assembled it and re-fitted it. Changing the gearing was a good plan, as the flywheel was very reluctant to come off, even with my super-dooper puller. It relented eventually, showing signs of the flywheel starting to micro-weld around the widest part of the taper on flywheel and crank. Hmmm. Haven't had that problem for decades. I'd fitted a new flywheel, pressure plate, 'grey' diaphragm and a cerametallic clutch plate. The first time I have tried one of these for years and years. As detailed in the last report, getting it balanced was a bit of a trial, and I suspected it hadn't been balanced correctly.
After experiencing the on/off switch feel this set-up gave I decided to take the opportunity to go back to my 'orange' diaphragm and composite/organic clutch plate I've used for years and years. Partly because of better 'feel' but also because it does not transfer anything like as much heat in to the primary gear – thus avoiding issues this causes. Mainly lack of clutch disengagement when the bushes become damaged. I haven't had any issues with this for decades as I went to floating front bushes in the primary gears. I set the clutch/flywheel assembly up and took it to be balanced. Looking at the Grey diaphragm – it is no where near as well pressed/finished as the old orange one I was using. Talking to other A-series colleagues seems these latest offerings from AP are much more out of balance that ever before – needing heaps of holes drilled in them to balance them up properly. So take heed – if you fit a new diaphragm, it is ESSENTIAL to get it balanced on your flywheel/clutch assembly.
Having done that I whipped the transfer gear casing off to change the primary gear. I do this rather than pull the primary gear out along with the seal and fit a new seal as I use these Viton-lipped seals, and the one in there hasn't leaked for 4 years and was still in perfect nick. The seals are not cheap so I use them until they are worn out. Having pulled the primary gear off the crank I looked inside it just to check all was OK. It was not. Now I know why the oil I drained out looked like it had more 'glitter' in it than usual... the inside of the primary gear contained no small amount of swarf from the inner edge of the floating bush. Examining the primary gear threw up a change in machining/detailing to what they used to be like. The oil thrower holes drilled through from the outside just between the clutch spline and gear spline now exited inside at the edge of a step that never used to be there. This basically acted as a machine tool and trimmed nearly 2mm of the width of the bush! Checking my small collection of primary gears showed the older/original gears had a radiused trough at the end of the standard bush fitment bore where those oil holes exited. The new ones I had didn't have this. So now I have had to convert those later gears to fixed bushes. Just as well I was going back to the composite/organic clutch plate then. Yet more unexpected work. That sorted and the clutch/flywheel assembly re-fitted I turned my attention to the alternator installation. Cutting another very long story short, it took about 10 days to get the not-too-cheap competition alternator kit specially designed for the A-series to fit. Incorrect brackets, incorrect new brackets (twice), incorrect alternator pulley (had to machine it down to get it lined up with water pump and crank pulley), cut/modify/re-weld rear support bracket (nothing like correct bolt hole positioning), sort correct length fan belt and then finally sort the wiring. The latter was done once the engine was back in the car as time was running out again; made a heap easier by bugging my mate Gordon again.
I was determined to fit a rear anti-roll bar but needed the engine in the car so I could consider just what I was going to do about the exhaust system to get around it. I'd welded stiffening plates to the subframe years ago when I first built the car. Foolishly I did this with the subframe on my bench rather than in the car... I'd welded them on a little lower than the position I'd designed the bar to fit (this is the C-AJJ4008 adjustable rear bar from Mini Spares Centre). Consequently the bar intruded into the exhaust hanging area more than it should of. The bar was also rubbing on the battery box slightly once installed in the mounting blocks. The battery box was eased out of the way (well, whacked with a ball-pein hammer), and all I needed to do was drop the rear hanger bracket a bit. That was easy enough – simply use a centre hanger bracket flattened out and welded to the rear bracket. That fitted and cleared splendidly.
Now the gear change linkage... I was in a chew over this. Despite thread-locking the lever retaining collar down on the very nicely crafted KAD quick-shift I had been using as it had come out once before, examining it more closely – or at least the way it worked in the remote housing – I felt the reason the collar was coming undone was down to something not quite correct in the way the lower ball engaged the gear shift rod eye. And thinking on it, it has always felt a little stiff/reluctant across the gait. What with that and the change being not at all smooth with the new shoe/bracket and single universal joint change rod, I decided yet another re-design was needed. I know I had to have 2 universal joints in the linkage because getting the perfect alignment with one was way too difficult in the short time period I had to get it sorted in. I also wanted something more simple by way of an installation without the need fro welding more brackets in. I didn't have time to get them fabricated properly anyway. Arranging the pieces roughly in position and staring at it for a few minutes revealed the easy route – simply drill down through the remote unit at all 4 corners (there are even bosses conveniently placed there) and bolt it down on the tunnel/cross-member. I made a spacer plate to give a flat face on the underside of the remote unit as it has the base plate retaining screws sticking out, then simply drilled down through the tunnel/cross-member and fitted washers/nuts from the under-side. Simple and very effective. I then had to make a new link rod to allow for the inclusion of another UJ and the new position of the remote unit. At this point I went with the standard gear lever set-u to see how that worked out, bending the gear lever to get it somewhere near the correct place. I messed up one gear lever by trying to unbend the bend in it positioned just below the rubberised anti-vibration joint. I now know the levers are heat-treated in this area as it cracked/split and was not wedlable. The second one I bent above that anti-vibration joint. No problem
All the new installation complete I fired it up and everything was tickety-boo. Ran it until the head was quite warm to the touch, left it to cool completely while tidying up and prepping the race spares and essentials boxes and tool box, filled it with coolant, set the car on the floor, checked I had all gears and that was that. Though I did not like the feel of the gear lever at all... very 'loose' after the nice and tight KAD quick-shift. Loaded up Friday morning and set off for Lydden... 300 miles away. It was not a pleasant journey. 6 hours of miserable traffic. When we got there the heavens opened and poured rain for 40 minutes. It then cleared up and we had a late BBQ. Appetites sated, a few glasses of wine and a chat with fellow racers, then bed.
The weather was beautiful in the morning – blue sky, sunshine and a light cooling breeze. Because this event was actually organised by my club (Classic Touring Car Racing Club) and was being recorded to be shown on television (Some Sky channel I suspect), our members were out in their droves. We had 23 cars in our race – the biggest grid for a long time. And it was great to see some new blood in my class – A Simca Rallye and a Lancia Fulvia. The Simca in particular was beautifully built by its owner Daniel Burrows. Unfortunately my mate Steve wasn't racing. Having burnt a big hole in a piston at Snetterton he just did not have the time to sort it out. I was glad of the dry weather at least for practise as I was wondering how the rear anti-roll bar would change the way the car handled. I didn't want any big surprises, especially in the wet... And with 23 cars out there it was going to be hectic to say the least.
The time came, fired the motor up and drifted down to the collecting area. The gear change felt horrible. I reckon the gear lever boot in a standard Mini helps a lot to damp out this very sloppy feeling in a standard car. Wasn't long before we got the 'start your engines' signal and were ushered out on to the track for qualifying. Did the first couple of laps to settle in and get a feel for the ARB and whether it was doing anything weird. All seemed OK so I started upping the pace a bit at a time to feel out the ARB. It seemed to be having no major effect but definitely reduced the amount of body roll, so should be helping with grip in the bendy bits. And Lydden is a lot of bendy bits. Some pretty damned fast, others slow. All in a one mile length of tarmac. Highly entertaining and quite difficult to do fast and consistently. Four laps in all was going well, so I had better get on with it a bit more seriously. Next lap, exiting Chessons Drift – a seemingly never-ending right hand up-hill bend- 'WHOOSH' coolant all over the place. Knocked the motor off and rolled off the circuit. Clambered out of the car and in to the marshalls post very disgruntled. After practise had ended I popped the bonnet to find a heater hose had pushed off a pipe. Very frustrating as it had been no issue for 5 years. At least it was an easy fix. Back in the paddock it was fixed within seconds. Qualifying results were quite pleasing despite my short run – 12th out of the 23, and way ahead of the others in my class. Bad news was I was surrounded by BIG metal – 2 Camaros, a Rover 3500 V8 P6 and the Mk2 Lotus Cortina of my sparring partner last year,Tony Crates. I have come across the P6 in previous years/races, Let us just say the driver doesn't give a toss about others on the track around him and is a mobile chicane. I was a bit concerned about him being so damned close on what is a tight grid. Another few laps and I would have been a couple of rows further up. Ah well. Re-filled with coolant, fuel and oil, tyres, pressures and fuel all checked I was ready for the race. Actually, I'd been harbouring the desire to get a lap record. The weather was good for it, the car felt OK, but I had no idea what the record was. We'd see what the race would bring.
Warm up lap, red lights on, and on, and on for a long time... thenoff. I made a much better start that at Snetterton with the 'more feeling' composite/organic clutch plate. Trouble was – there was no where to go. It was a case of'carefully does it' as everybody was at great pains not to cause an incident. The first couple of laps were hairy, and that muppet in the P6 damn near creamed the side of my poor little Mini. I thought he'd just hit me side on, but I'd been easing away from him as much as I dared and post race there were no telling marks. Thankfully I got away from him quite quickly asthe race settled and and spread out a little. He ended up in a gravel trap not many laps later. It was a very entertaining race from my perspective. Dicing with several cars inabit of a group, but picked them off one at a time and eventually got some clear track ahead. Now – what about that lap record? Unfortunately getting away from that gaggle of cars (Camaros, Lotus Cortinas, Alfa Romea GTV, Dolomite Sprint) had used up the best in the tyres (they're gone after half the race) all I could do was ty and drive consistently without wragging the tyres too much. I was catching the two in front of me (Mk1 Lotus Cortina and Hillman Avenger) as they were holding each other up. Then they collided and the race was red flagged. More than 60% of the race done they called it a result at that.
The car went well. No engine issues and it was handling slightly better but still needs tweaking to make it run faster, and I think I am going to have to tweak it to make it work best when the tyres are shot in the last half of the race. Be a bit of a handful until then, but I I think most ground can be made up then. The race results sheet showed I finished 8th, but because of a mix up with the red flag and the Cortina/Avenger incident I believe a creditable 7th was mine and a half second off my qualifying time... was it a new lap record? After another long hall home I checked what the lap record was – held by my mate Steve... 51.362 seconds. My best lap? 51.70! Damn me. But at least I am getting in the ball park! And I was not THAT far behind the leaders – I could see them going down Hairy Hill as I was going up it. Roll on Brands Hatch!
