21.06.08, Oulton Park

You know what – I want it to rain at every race meeting. There is something singularly spectacular about the skill needed to deal with driving fast in the wet. I have never claimed to be, nor believed my self to be, any kind of hot-shoe. But given confidence in the car, a seat that allows me to feel the slightest movement in the car and I become Mr. Sensitive and dextrous driver – all thanks to that deluged race meeting at Snetterton two years ago. Shame I struggle to bring that to a dry track. Wet weather - bring it on...

    After the Mallory race, I promised myself either some more rear toe out (been running a 'girlie' 15 minutes toe out... about 3/32”) or a rear anti-roll bar (ARB). After much too-ing and fro-ing in my mind, I decided on more toe-out. All my previous experience with anti-roll bars has been on sticky-slick-shod race cars where I believed, calculated and proved a rear ARB was beneficial, the size depending on the other determining factors. My limited experience with ARBs on cut tyre racers seemed to prove my hashed theory that the ARB is an extra spring. When things are not 100% tickety-boo in the grip/handling department and the car gets out of shape at the rear, the ARB behaves like a coiled spring would – unloading at ballistic rate causing loss of control of the car. Toe-out on the rear is controllable by use of the throttle pedal since it is a constant. Not needing surprises in the handling department I decided that toe-out would be better for me. Splendid – decision made I made a mental note of when this would be done. Shortly after that I was mulling my serious work-load over, trying to shuffle everything so that customers would not be let down despite various satellite companies supplying me bits doing their damnedest to screw up my work plan, when something horrible loomed up at me off the page... I had somehow completely missed the fact I was due to be away from 29^th until 9^th July at Mini Meet East in Maine, USA! So some rapid re-re-shuffling needed doing to get stuff done before I left. Of course the first casualty was the time planned on sorting the race car...

    Which got squeezed down to Monday night. OK – I just needed to add some toe out, and planned on doing so with the tracking shims I have had made. Simple. Undid wheel nuts, jacked car up, put on stands, removed wheels.... and that's when I re-discovered a problem. Since the revelation that my shell is 6mm lower on the left side, the re-set-up to get the geometry sorted meant that the left rear bracket was adjusted higher up than the right. Consequently the upper radius arm bracket to subframe retaining bolt has partially hidden behind the radius arm. The only way to get to it was to back off the camber... The issue here is I have the KAD rear track/camber adjustable brackets. They have horizontal serrations for setting camber. Track is adjusted by the outer plate sliding against the main plate. Both retained in place by simply heaving on the radius arm retaining nut to make sure it's bloody tight. The upshot of this is, they are a complete and utter pain to set up. Once that nut is undone you can easily end up loosing both camber and track settings. I didn't have time to load the car up, haul it up to the workshop, go through the motions and re-set-up I decided to leave it as it was. I'd deal with it before Croft, after my visit across the pond.

    This would be the first race without Otto von Stukka and his hospitality site (Karin and my bedroom – Mercedes Sprinter van – and the caravan for inclement weather/evening entertainment), and the first spent camping. Something I have not done since my teenage years. Steve and I and relevant crew (Karin, Colin and Steve's son Michael) rendezvoused at Oulton and erected tents – attack of the Bedouins! It was a beautiful evening – blue skies, sunshine – and the BBQ. Excellent food and a few beers, a long chat then bed.

    Six o'clock in the morning – it was raining. Steve and I always pray for rain now – as its the great leveller. Slows then big motors down a treat. Our race was third practise, and the relentless rain/drizzle mean the track was wet and very slippery. Underlined by the time it took the recovery crews to haul all the dead machinery out of gravel traps and barriers between the first two sessions. Big grins duly fixed in place, Steve and I went out to play. And my oh my - was it slippery. The Post Historics had been combined with the Historic and Classic crew – so it was very busy out there. I went out immediately behind Steve and determined to try and stay with him, but lap after lap was ruined by somebody getting in the way. On the third lap I was playing catch up as Steve had fallen on folk at easier places to pass than me. Still – I stuck at it. And seemed to catch him up quite quickly once there was nothing between us. A few laps later, I spun at the first bend after getting completely off line. I went to snatch first gear for a quick recovery, hit the throttle – nothing. Shoved the lever in the relevant direction again and got the gear. Did I buzz the motor? Didn't think I had – I'm usually pretty quick at realising a missed gear and lift off immediately. Anyway – off I went again. With  a clear track I seemed to be finding some decent pace, then got caught behind cars that had passed me whilst I was recovering from the spin. Got passed them again – after some hairy moments whilst they spun this way and that in front of me – and found myself with a clear track ahead again. Cool. I hauled out of Deers Leap on to the start finish straight and went for it. Grabbing top gear about half way down it there was a very loud bang, smoke, a flash of fire and no drive. Curses! What was that? I coasted over to the pit wall and let it roll as far as it would. Clambering out, I was just turning off the isolator key when a Dolomite Sprint lost it (may be on my oil) and thudded in to the pit wall not far behind my car! I legged it down the track as he slewed and slithered down towards my car... luckily grinding to a halt a few yards off my Minis boot lid. Phew!

    Hauled back to the paddock behind a recovery truck, popping the bonnet open revealed a hole that shouldn't be there just below the dizzy and behind the starter motor. Terminal then. Cobblers! I do not know yet if it is a thrown rod or a busted gear or some such. The persistent rain meant I wasn't going to spend time finding out there and then. The important bit was - my race was run. Well – not even started. Humph. Ah well – I guess I can't gripe about it. It's only the second motor I've had go bang since I started racing back in 1978. Or 1979... can't remember which. Bloomin' long time ago anyway. And... this engine has done a dozen race weekends and not had the attention it deserves. Just pushed my luck too far following the post-race cylinder pressure test and leak down test – along with no over-heating and good oil pressure. So it was off to the cafe for breakfast. Having downed the vittles the jest was – maybe I'd out-qualified Steve, and maybe stuck it on pole. Karin had me down with an impressive lap time, and they said I was catching Steve rapidly. I laughed and joked along. Then the time sheets turned up... I wasn't on pole, but for the first time in this championship I HAD out-qualified Steve! Not only that, but was 6^th on the grid out of 27!!!

    The crying shame of it is - my season may well be over. I have a very serious pile of work needing attention. To add insult to injury – Steve didn't make the race either. Having actually got through practice without a hitch for a change, driving up to the collecting area, something seized solid in the drive train, rendering the car immoveable! So his race may be run this season too. Bummer. Ain't racing fun.

24.03.08 Castle Coombe

    So – new season opener at Castle Coombe on Bank holiday Monday. How'd it go? Much like this...

My original plan to do a heap of stuff to the Clubby over the winter got axed as soon as I discovered what appeared to be causing the weird handling that has bugged me since I got the car working something like well a couple of years back.

    Since completing the seasons last race at Oulton Park in one piece bar some very unhappy brake pads and brake fluid – boiled up after severe brake over-heating – the Clubby sat patiently awaiting attention as I  promised it a full strip-down and re-build over this winter to double check everything, give it all a good clean and re-paint where necessary, re-new certain 'lifed' components and then bolt it all back together again. I seriously dis-like messy cars.

    I was going to be changing a number of things I haven't been at all happy with since I built it with a it of a rush towards the end of its construction. The front/engine wiring loom would get re-done as I planned on fitting a bulk head mounted plug that will simply allow the engine bay loom to be disconnected from the interior section. Various reasons for this, one being easy to re-do should there be any accident or fire damage, and I am not at all keen on electric cabling passing through bulkheads via a rubber grommet. The battery was to get moved inside the cabin next to me on the floor. I intended combining this with a new switch panel as I plan on moving the master cut-out switch from the windscreen scuttle panel inside the cabin too. Main reason is to prevent the switch from corroding/failing because of water – rain or cleaning. This is probably the most common problem on race cars that suffer electrical issues. It will also mean I can open the bonnet without having to remember to remove the master switch key each time. Several have been busted over the last few years by crew members and scrutineers who do not know the deal and it's become more than an annoyance.

    I also wanted to fit my big capacity fuel tank as well, just in case I get in to some longer distance races. The new 7.5 gallon tank doesn't weigh all that much more than the 4 gallon one in there now and the fuel isn't going to notice if it's got more head room when doing the current series racing.

    One thing the Clubby was definitely going to be seeing over the winter re-build was a chassis jig – whether that was close at hand or several hours drive away. I had to find the source of this handling weirdness I was experiencing/was able to identify once I'd managed tore-discover how to drive a racing car reasonably well again.

    I was having discussions with one of my Class Four grass-track racing customers about his engine and gearbox winter re-build when it came to me that if there was a decent and proper chassis jig in the area used by a competent operator, they were likely to know since they spend their race weekends bashing the be-jeezus out of their cars. Consequently a regular amount of straightening out is undertaken. And they didn't disappoint, pointing me in the direction of a young man by the name of Richard Cartledge who, fortuitously for me, was a mere 15 minute drive away. He turned out to be just the man I needed – possessing a proper body jig, knew how to use it and - perhaps just as importantly – is enthusiastic about what he does, and likes working on competition cars of all sorts. A quick call had him come visit the Clubby at home first for a good look round to make sure it was worth hauling down to his place. Giving me the nod, I trailered the car down to his place and left with him. A few days later he had the car on the jig and asked if I'd like to go down and take a look for myself. Sounded ominous. I was there the next morning.

     Richard was a little perplexed. He couldn't find anything amiss. With the shell set up level on his jig, both front and - more importantly for me – the rear subframes were both level and square to within 1mm or less everywhere. He reckoned that was pretty darned good for an old road car that hadn't been jigged before. Now I was perplexed. So where is this weird handling thing coming from. Richard said he had gone round all the suspension and everything was true and tight. Very weird. Some more measuring established the front right tie rod mounting point was some 5mm higher than the other side, but only forward of the engine mounting holes. These again were within 1mm side to side in height from the bed and fore/aft. So that wouldn't be causing the issue then. So we re-checked everything again. Same results. I had wondered if the damage caused by being torpedoed by that Hillman Avenger in my first season had caused more damage than originally thought/fixed. But no, it was all straight and square and the subframe level. Goes to show what a decent welded-in roll cage is worth - thanks Roll Centre.

    Standing there running my eyes over the car generally whilst chatting to Richard about other scenarios and possible solutions it suddenly occurred to me that we were measuring everything from his nice flat and level jig with the car not sitting on it's wheels/tyres. When I set the car up, I used the sill lips each side to sort the ride height. So I checked the sill heights each side, front and rear to that lovely flat and level jig bed. To my utter amazement the left side showed to be 6mm lower than the right! So I had been jacking the car up more on the left side to compensate. That would explain why I had to run more adjustment on the left suspension to get the same geometry as the right side and feasibly why the damned thing wouldn't turn in to right hand corners! Well – at last. But what a weird one; I'd never come across this before – but then I've not had occasion to look this hard at a car before. Richard said it is entirely feasible. The car does not look to have had any serious re-panelling done – in fact it is all original panel-work apart from the battery box, rear valance and two very small patches in the sills. So now I have something to go on and will be setting the ride height up initially from the subframes to the floor, although since the sill line is an even 6mm different all along the left side I could allow for that when measuring. No – on the whole I believe the subframes are the best place to work from. A BIG thanks to Richard (07754 071389). A splendid chap who knows what he's doing.

    Work was to be limited to an engine and gearbox once-over then set the suspension geometry up armed with the knowledge gleaned from the chassis jig check. However, a hefty work schedule saw this diminish to sticking last years engine and 'box back in as it was and do the geo set-up. The one thing I had to sort out was the LCB 'Y' section of the exhaust manifold. I neglected to fit the steady/bracing bracket from it to the gearbox side plate bolt last time I fitted the engine at the beginning of my endeavours last year. Consequently the pot-jot (in-board CV) wore a hole in the pipe. It always amazes me how much the engine can move despite being tied down with 4 engine steady bars with no play in them at all (rod ends used at each end). I still use the standard rubber mounts so there is some vibration absorption. A local, exceptionally talented exhaust fabricator welded it up for me.

    Good Friday early morning saw me out in the garage putting the engine/box back in and connecting everything up. Time was short though as I had rellies coming for the day. Never mind – all that was left to do was fit the exhaust system, load the car up and whisk it up to the workshop where I could get it fired up and do the geo set-up. Should all be done by lunch time. Back out early Saturday morning – having arisen to a few inches of snow on the ground -  could I find that exhaust manifold steady bracket? Making another was a trauma as all my manufacturing equipment is now at the new workshop. Much swearing later and the exhaust was on, car loaded/unloaded at the workshop and the engine filled with relevant fluids. Crank the motor over t get oil pressure up, and noticed water droplets spitting out from the front of the engine. Turned out to be coming out of spark plug holes 1 & 2. Deep joy. I prayed it was a head gasket issue, but only a vain hope as I've never had a head gasket go yet. Whipped the head off – sure enough, head gasket was fine. The head had gone porous! Hmmm... I had a couple of head castings already prepped for grinding, so Saturday afternoon I burned out another race head. Had it completed and on the engine by seven o'clock. It fired up first time, everything was cool, except I now had a leak from the bottom hose where the heater take off spout is attached. Hmph. Still I could do that at the track, it'd only take 10 minutes and I had a spare. And I then recalled noticing the right rear wheel bearing was rumbling a bit – that too could be sorted at the track. The suspension would have to stay as it was – it wasn't that bad at Oulton last year. Loaded it all up again, took it home and stuck it in the garage. The plan was to watch the F1 race from Malaysia then split to the track where we'd stay over night in the accommodation suite that is my mate's caravan and van. I would have plenty of time to do the bottom hose and rear wheel bearing before Monday's race calender.

    Up early Sunday, a glance out the window revealed yet more snow. My mate called just before the F1 race started – sounding very poorly indeed. A brief discussion ended with him going back to bed and keeping his cold to himself. That meant no over-night accommodation for us – and the prospect  of a crack of dawn start on Monday. At least I could take the car back up the workshop, do the bottom hose and wheel bearing and then geo set-up. The snow was falling on and off. Areas of North Yorkshire were buried with roads impassable. And then my enthusiasm just died. The thought of leaving at four a.m. in questionable weather for a 4 to 5 hour drive to the track, then not get home until around midnight was just too much. This racing thing is for fun. I am not a race junkie. One bonus – the car is sorted for the next race at Lydden Hill now!

Lydden Hill,  12.04.08

    Having not made the Castle Coombe race and the vastly diminished enthusiasm of that weekend I still had the rear wheel bearing and bottom hose to deal with. The bottom hose took all of five minutes. Not so the rear wheel bearing. Since moving in to my new work unit from home, all my equipment is down there, so anything that needs more than the odd few hand tools requires me to go back and forth twixt the two. And it is very frustrating. The bearings needed replacing rather than re-greasing. Without even a vice at home now, I had to do the job over two days. Stripped the hub off one night, then re-fitted it the next afternoon after lunch. Just to make sure there were no more issues with it since simply trying to tap  the outer races in with a hammer, punch and questionable props wasn't cutting it. The hub was on the tight side after fitment. Squeezing the outer races in with my press at the unit solved the problem. The suspension set-up and everything else was done, so it was just a matter of loading it on the trailer and heading south, a 282 mile journey that took five and a half hours because of two traffic jams. And the weather was horrible on the journey too – serious nasty thick rain in several places. The car was a mess when we got there... all that cleaning the engine bay was undone already! In the morning before scrutineering I washed the car, and my better half, Karin, offered to clean the engine bay area as best she could after all my grumbling about what a mess it looked. So at least it was presentable when it went to scrutineering.

    The main problem was going to be in dealing with bedding in new brake discs and pads. The lack of pre-season testing meant I'd have to do this in practise. Now, I have been told by any number of folk not to worry too much about doing the whole process described by the pad manufacturers, but I am a great believer in the fact that if instructions were supplied, they were probably going to help give the best performance of the parts concerned. I was relatively happy that I was going to be starting on the back of the grid. Not too much of a worry at Lydden as it's only a mile long/round and was trusting in my usual blistering start to gain me some ground. The weather was predicted as sun, wind and occasion/possible showers; of course me and my mate Steve Young (other 1275GT driver) were praying for rain...

    Practise came and off I went, determined to adhere to the instructions for bedding in my new brakes as described by the pad manufacturers – Hawk. I decided to try these Hawk Blue pads after strong recommendation from folks I can trust. I needed to do something as I have persevered with the Ferodo DS3000s and simply didn't like them a whole lot. Oh -and after last years massive brake fade at Oulton Park I re-built the KAD calipers using their super-light stainless steel pistons instead of the standard fitment aluminium ones. I also fitted the side radiator blanking plate as the ambient temperature seemed quite cool. As I was getting to the point of deciding to come in for the 'cool down to ambient temperature' faze of the bedding in procedure, last years new sparring partner in the MK2 Lotus Cortina, Tony Crates, threw it in the kitty litter and got beached, bringing out the red flag. Nice timing, so in I came. Karin came over looking a little worried and enquired if all was well. 'Yep', I said, 'just doing the brake bed-in thing'. She looked pretty relieved! I was very surprised to find that I was only 2 seconds off Steve's qualifying time despite me puttering around bedding brakes in. Thinking on it some, I guess it illustrates that smoother, slightly slower driving is a pretty quick method. I was still on the next to back row of the grid though. And the handling seemed to be better – it now turned right as well as it turned left following the close-season chassis jig check and suspension re-set-up.

    Post practise check-over proved all was well. Nothing had fallen off, fallen out and no important fluids had started escaping. Excellent. The coolant temperature had been a bit on the high side so I removed the side radiator blanking plate. Fuel check revealed still 2 and a half gallons of fuel in the tank (it was still full from the Castle Coombe non-event). Check wheel nut torque and that rear wheel bearing and all was well. Now we wait.

    Clambering in for the race, spots of rain from ever-more threatening steel-grey-blue clouds started appearing on the windscreen. In the collecting area it worsened to actual rain. I was smiling to myself and thought Steve would be doing the same – and likely both praying to whoever was listening to make it continue. It seemed the clerk of the course thought it would persist as we all had orders to turn our hi-vis rear rain lights on. But looking at the sky, I just knew it was going to blow over quickly. We formed up on the grid to get our starting places, then were flagged off for the warm-up lap. The rain was still at it and I actually had to use my wipers a few times. Re-forming on the grid, the lights went red, out and I completely and utterly wasted the start! Now, I usually make blinding starts. I have no idea what happened – just too much wheel spin and no forward motion. I guess I as just trying too hard to make a good start instead of letting it happen 'naturally'. I got away only to be confronted with an XJ Jaguar and RS2000 Escort indulging in a little 'rubbing'. Bits of plastic in all directions and suddenly a barn door in front of me that was the Jag sideways on. There was no way around it – damned barge (albeit a very beautiful thing) – so I had to back out of it and pootle round the end of it. Now dead last I had to get on with it. And I did.

    The next few laps were very busy as I passed several cars – Austin A35 with 1275 motor (pretty quick I can tell you!), Hillman Avenger (new man to the series - hope he's not another Nemesis for me!), MK2 Lotus Cortina, Dolomite Sprint and a couple of others. After that folks had got to grips with their race pace and making ground up on the RS200 Escort in front of me was proving a gradual thing, especially as the tyres have given of their best and are a bit on the old/hard side of things for a twisty little track a shade on the cool side. The Lotus Cortina was harassing me in certain places on the track and I lost time fending him off unnecessarily. Once I just forgot about him and concentrated on driving smoothly I left him behind then blew all the margin away by getting very sideways coming out of Paddock bend – quick 90 degree bend that goes off camber as you come out of it, easing you in to the very bumpy dirt/grass track side for those that over-cook it. Fortunately, Lotus Cortina Man backed out of it and gave me BIG room. I managed to gather it up and keep going at a reasonable pace I must say. Again I fended off LCM and broke away from him. Two laps to go I was never going to catch the RS200 in front, and was surprised when I lapped the tail enders with a lap to go. It was also gratifying to be looking at my mate and main opposition Steve's boot lid from some yards off instead of half a circuit away.

    The engine ran strongly, the car handled better than it has since I built it and the brakes were pretty darned impressive - not fading once and giving plenty of feel. And the few laps I ran without concerning myself about LCM's attentions I felt I did a reasonable job on lap times and was curious to find out what my 'race pace' was. Waiting for the results sheets to come out, I had a good look around the car – all was in good order. On a whim I decided to check the tyre pressures as the tyres were still pretty hot. I was gob-smacked to see the needle at 53 psi! Dunlop suggest the hot pressures for these tyres should be 40 psi – I definitely need to do a test day and play with the tyre pressures. The wear pattern on the tyres suggests I also need to maybe run a little more negative camber as well. The only problem with so much neggy camber is less tyre contact patch in touch with the ground in a straight line... could this be wrecking my starts? May be some more rear toe-out is needed, or rear anti-roll bar. At least with the car handling something like reasonable I have something to build on. Roll on Snetterton in two weeks time.

    The score on the doors showed me within two tenths of a second of Steve's existing lap record! THAT was pleasing. He went quicker too – a new lap record by my reckoning, but I was still within less than four tenths of a second of his best time. So I was second in class, tenth over-all - a good weekend all round then.

Snetterton, 26/27.04.08

    This was going to be a good test of whether or not the race car handling had improved as much as I hoped. Snetterton is big and fast.

    The usual post-race check over after Lydden Hill revealed nothing needed doing at all. Cool. So I left the basic pre-departure prep until the day we were leaving for the track – over-inflate all tyres to avert tedious foot-pump inflation at the track, sort oil and water levels and fuel it for practise. We stayed the night before at my mate Steve Young's place, I was to be building a 998 road burner engine for his eldest daughter Claire. We (Karin and I) got there mid afternoon Friday to find Steve wasn't going to make the race. The engine in his yellow Clubby GT had a problem. Start engine, depress clutch pedal, engine dies. He pulled the engine whilst I was getting on with the 998. Once on the floor I checked the crank to see if it was broken – seemed OK, so suspect there is an issue with the centre thrust washers. Insufficient time to sort that in time. Bummer. I didn't get the 998 motor done either for various issues I had to sort out before proceeding. At least I got the crank, rods, pistons and block assembled.

    Arriving at the track Saturday morning, we unloaded the car and Karin gave it a good wash and Rain-Xed (water repellent and anti-mist) the windscreen and side windows. Just in case. Wet weather was forecast for Sunday afternoon, but I don't trust forecasts, there were some heavy clouds hanging around although mostly is was very sunny. The only things needing attention were the tyres. The astonishing temperatures seen at Lydden suggested I needed to do something about my cold start pressures, and the men at Dunlop reckoned they should be 40 psi hot. I guessed at 30 psi cold and determined to take my tyre pressure gauge with me so I could check the pressures as soon as was possible after practise.

    Wary of the lower start tyre pressures I planned two or three 'acclimatisation' laps, then get on with it. The car felt very different on 5 psi less than I normally start with, but soon got in to the groove, but on the third lap I made a hash of my turn in for the extremely fast double apex (Riches) at the end of the pit straight! The back just kept coming round until i was on full left lock and foot buried in the floor pan and still no recovery, so I let off the gas and steered straight, bounced heavily across the infield, missing the second corner (Sear) out completely and coming back on to the track some third of the way down the very long Revet straight. A cautious lap to clear the dirt off the tyres and off I went again. I succeeding in making a mess of just about every corner on the circuit for the remaining practise time. I don't think I took the same line or hit the brakes at the same point twice. Riches got better the more goes i had at it, but Sear and the second part of the Esses at the end of the Revet straight had me damn-near stopping the car to get it round without ludicrous under-steer. Turn-in to the bomb hole was not as sharp as needed, but it seemed to hang on very well all the way round the fast and long Coram bend. The brakes were fantastic, hauling the speed off time and again consistently and without fade. The cross-wind hitting the car on the Revet straight slowed the car up a bit – barely making 8,000rpm at the entry to the Esses. When Steve set the lap record here there was a stiff tail wind blowing down the Revet straight that eased him up to 8,800rpm, and that was with a 3.76 FD!!!!!! I was on a 3.9. That record is going to take some breaking – I was just over 4 seconds slower than this... Anyway, I qualified fourteenth out of 19 – all the cars behind were bigger engined classes. There was only me in my class so nothing to gauge the days performance by.

    After practise we were ushered in to parc ferme as usual, where I jumped out and checked the tyre pressures – 40 to 42 psi... so that's good then. Just what the Dunlop folk said they should be. There was a noticeable increase in good tyre performance after the first few laps over the rest of practise. The dilemma then was – do I want best tyre grip from the start and deal with the fading tyre grip towards the end of the race – or start with weird grip/handling and get better performance towards the end of the race??? Hmmm... Then we were waived away, hopped back into the car, hit the start button – nothing. Absolutely zilch. Niet, Nyada. Had to get a push start – it fired straight off and ran fine. Back to the paddock, turned engine off, hit start button – nothing. Electrical gremlins then. Hospitality suite supplier, guru of electrics and good mate Keith Manning whisked his multi-meter out and started testing the master cut-out switch. These damned things are renowned for corroding internally – especially when mounted outside on the bodywork (and one of the reasons I wanted to re-locate it inside the cabin over the winter). Whilst he did that I poked and prodded at various cables, to find the alternator charging cable was no longer attached to it's terminal! So that was it then – battery had gone flat – which is what Keith deduced from his testing. I set off across the paddock to my mate Gordon Pocock's encampment (he racers a Miglia – the Seven Racing Club being at this meeting). I knew he'd have terminals, even if he didn't use them himself (he's an electronics whizz at Renault F1). And he did. What he didn't have, and I'd left at home thinking 'won't need that', was a battery charger. Luckily for me another mate was airing his Miglia – Peter Baldwin. He carries EVERYTHING so a battery charger was not much of a test for his travelling stores/workshop. Luckily for me. An hour and a half later – battery at full charge, new terminal – hit the start button – and we have lift off. Cool. Oil, water and fuel level check/re-set, job done. The race was the following day so some protracted socialising ensued.

    A quick whizz round with the Rain-X just in case, and re-check the tyre pressures and we were ready to go. Trial start showed the battery in full health. An hour before practise time, I fired the motor up to get some warmth in it. It was at this point I discovered the water pump was not playing ball. Tapping it gently didn't help. The fused switch seemed to be in good order, so it was 'take it of and check it' time. Just what you need at this stage of the game... Whipped the grille off and minutes later I had the pump in my hand and in pieces. The impeller is magnet driven, over the past few years detritus floating around the cooling system had collected on the drive magnet, effectively insulating it from the impeller. Easy enough solved, except I failed to notice the sealing 'O' ring from between the top and the main body fell off as I removed the top – and it fell in to one of the race spares box. I cleaned the magnet thoroughly, screwed it all back together, popped it back in the car, filled the system with coolant once more, fired it up – water squirting out from between the top and pump body. ARRGGH!!!!!! So, same drill, except this time I determined to use silicone rtv to seal the lid having found nothing there when I took it apart. Then Otto Von Stukka (AKA Keith Manning, hospitality suite man) took a look and said 'there should be a seal there'. Everybody on hands and knees playing 'spot the seal'. Steve finally found it in the spares box. By now the clock was ticking and practise time was looming. A glance at my watch suggested we were OK with time, so I casually re-fitted the pump, re-filled the cooling system and hit the pump power button – and it worked. Splendid. It was then that Otto Von Stukka told me that they'd just called our group up to the assembly area... some 20 minutes ahead of schedule! Strewth!!!!!!!!! So a bit of a rush to clean hands, get suited and booted and up to the assembly area, followed by a long wait while the marshals cleared the debris from the previous race... ho-hum.

    The warm-up lap showed everything to be in good order and functioning as required. I determined not to try hard on my start line take-off. Lydden proved that just made things worse. After re-assembling on the grid after the warm-up lap I tried to un-focus my mind. Light on, off and away. A far better start, I squeezed up between the bigger cars in front on a fairly tightly packed grid. Fits corner was all I hoped it wouldn't be with cars pushing and shoving, ultimately causing those further down the grid to have to back out of the go-pedal to negotiate those acting as road blocks. When the dust settled I found myself just behind the 2.0l Alfa Romeo that was next to me on the grid. Bummer. I was hoping to be a few cars ahead by now. Anyway – the race was not that interesting for me other than fending off the Alfa. I absolutely ran away from him coming out of the slower corners (better power to weight ratio I guess, and may be decent grip) but he would catch me down the long straights.

    It was a timed race (15 minutes) so I wasn't counting laps, but with a couple of laps to go (known after the event) coming down in to the Russell chicane the Alfa got down my left side far enough to squeeze me out away from the apex on the exit. As I brake and changed down to first gear between the entry Apex and the exit one, the gear lever came off in my hand! Talk about surprised! I jammed it back in to the remote housing so I could at least grab second to pull me up the pit straight. The Alfa by ow was yards in front and pulling away as I struggled with the gear lever retaining cap. It is a screw-down party that had obviously come undone (a dab of Loctite will be applied before the next race!), but reaching it was not easy securely strapped in to my seat. It took me most of the pit straight, followed by very careful negotiation and gear changing at Riches and then Sear, and half the back straight to get the cap screwed down properly. By now the Alfa was well away, but I didn't give up. Some determined driving saw me right back on his bumper coming in to Coram (very long, seemingly endless corner right on the ragged edge in third gear pulling 7,600rpm). I determined that as I could out-drag him from the slow corners, I wouldn't commit to any heroics that could jeopardise both of us finishing. As we hauled out of Russell, I was leisurely pulling up along side him top beat him in to Riches and then hold him off until the finish line. Except I hadn't seen the last lap board when I passed it with my head own dealing with the gear lever! I saw the chequered flag being waved just up ahead. Surprised I nailed the pedal with vengeance and ran the engine out to 7,800rpm as we crossed the line i nan effort to take him, but he pipped me by 0.3 of a second! Hmph.

    Still – I went quicker than my lap time last year, but well off the lap record. The car is handling much more predictably and evenly, so it's time to make some changes to reduce under-steer. The brakes were again terrific. With the car in one piece and engine still going strong (10 races use now), all I have to do for Mallory Park in a couple of weeks time is Loctite that gear lever retaining cap on and a quick over-all check.

Mallory Park, 18.05.08

    Mallory Park is found boring by some racers. I don't understand why – other than it is short, a ,ere 1.35 miles. But it is one hell of a test of a cars handling, brakes and driver attention. It is also deceptively fast. There are those that were saying to me before the race 'should do well here in your Mini – a tight circuit'. It isn't THAT tight. And as I just said – it is deceptively fast.

    Post Snetterton all I had to do was make sure the gear lever retaining cap was 'glued' on. The usual post race check over revealed nothing needed doing. So I gave the motor a leak-down test. I really like this Total Seal Gapless top ring ring set. After 11 race weekends there is still barely 3% leak down. Now, I defy any doubter to explain that that is not in some way significant. If there is near no ring leakage it must mean more performance, even if small – as there must be a better 'suck' on the intake stroke, better charge retention in the chamber, which must mean a higher calorific value on burn. I also decided to raise the rear of the car a little to see how much it would affect skewed-roll over-steer. I increased the rear ride height by three-eighths of an inch so it is an inch and an eighth higher than the front now. Trying to compensate a little more for my way-back seat position and my not inconsiderable bulk.

    Arriving at the track on the Saturday afternoon we discussed the weather forecast and whether we concluded with them – or whether we thought it might rain. The forecasters were saying dry, bright, sunny intervals with the small possibility of showers in some places. Of course I was praying one of those showers would hit Mallory park just as we formed up on the grid for the race and stopped just as I pulled in to the paddock afterwards! Anyway... as I had a VERY worn set of tyres I have been using in the dry, and a brand new set of un-scrubbed tyres, neither were suitable for the wet, should it happen. Since I was the only car in my class I decided to scrub the new tyres in in practise, just in case. The worn tyres would do one more race then be trash. At least I would have an option for the race in either weather event. So on went the new un-scrubbed tyres that evening so we were ready for the days racing. A good meal, some wine and a couple of hours of cards and it was time to turn in.

    Race day dawned bright and sunny with may be 40% cloud. Big fluffy stuff, so no rain in the making. I set the tyre pressures to 30 psi again (the net result at Snetterton being better tyre grip through the majority of the race after the initial few laps of weirdness in the handling department, loaded 2 gallons of fuel, and we were ready to rock. The plan was three or four laps to scrub the tyres, then get on with sorting a quick lap time for grid position. Out we went. The first two laps were pretty horrid with the new tyres, but not un-controllably so. Just slippery. Then they started to grip, so one more lap, then I get my head down, did one quick-ish lap to make sure the tyres were with me, then upped the speed. Exiting the 180 degree, long bend that is Gerrards, snicking top gear showing 7,800rpm on the exit I wailed – well, as much as a Mini can – down to the Goose Neck, a madly fast left right flick. As I turned in (slight dab on the brakes and down-shift to third – I was running my 'standard' 3.9 FD) the track marshal must've suddenly noticed me and stuck the red and yellow stripped oil flag out. About the same time I saw the dark line on the tarmac. And about a second too late. HUGE moment as the car slew one way, opposite lock, foot planted on the loud pedal and a phenomenal amount of praying for an atheist, then flicked the other way and a similar amount of sudden faith gain, then a moment of relief as my heart rate hit seriously treble figures and the car straightened out. That dark line stretched all the way from there, through the hairpin and down through Devils Elbow. So half the track then. I did another two laps, but the oil wasn't going anywhere. Well – it was, getting spread around the track more, so I decided to quit the practise. I'd rather have the car whole and be on the back of the grid than having the car hosed off the Armco needlessly. Several other competitors did the same thing.

    The practise time sheet showed me doing a 59.711 – not at all shabby considering I wasn't even trying yet. The day was bright, but distinctly cool – nothing like the last visit where it was blisteringly hot with barely a breeze blowing. The lap record held my mate Steve Young is 57.045. The day was not a lap record day, so I was pleased anyway – and was 16^th out of 20. The post practise check over showed nothing untoward, so a fuel top-up, oil and water levels check and tyre pressure check and we were good to go for the race. I decide to leave the partially scrubbed tyres on as the car felt Ok on them and I wanted to make sure they were fully scrubbed for future needs.

    Red lights on. Off. A much better start this time had me slip past two rows heading for the fearsome Gerrards, and I managed to squeeze my way to the inside of the track. When stuff happens at Gerrards first time round it all goes outwards. I hung on tight to the car in front (Escort 2000) until a third the way round when the 3.0 CSi BMW in front of him got well out of shape. He lifted, so did I and git rushed by several cars I'd jumped at the start. Ho-hum. Exiting the corner, I grabbed fourth and headed down to the goose neck. That bloomin' BMW blasted by, taking a few cars as we approached the goose neck. Some careful self-preservation driving by all the drivers through the goose neck for the first time ensured we all made it through and all barrelled up to the hairpin  for the 'he who brakes last' test... to fond that damned BMW had got completely side-ways on the entry. AARRGGGHHH...  I was in a Hillman Avenger/RS200 sandwich, so I literally had to stop the car to get around. Having negotiated the BMW and the hair pin, I found myself trailing almost all the cars I jumped at the first corner. Great. OK, head down and just get on with it. And I really enjoyed the race. The car was turning in better with the raised rear, but only a small amount (need to do something a little more drastic to get what I am looking for...) The brakes were awesome lap after lap at the hairpin. I gained ground on, and then passed several cars (Hillman Avenger, a couple of RS2000 Escorts, the BMW) and pulled my lap time down to 58.4 secs. Not as good as my last fastest lap at Mallory (58.08) but considering the weather, tyres, and the fact I was driving well within my comfort zone (could see little gain in giving it 110% being only the one in class, and I was catching and passing cars anyway) I was pretty pleased. And the car is whole, the motor and gearbox still singing away happily. So no major stuff to do before the next round at Oulton Park. I was contemplating fitting the rear anti-roll bar, but have decided to add some more toe-out instead in the from of shims between the radius arm brackets and the subframe. At least I can whip them out easily if I find it too much for me.

    End result – twelfth out of 20 starters. Not bad.