Castle Combe – 28th August 2006
We’ve had to very little to the car over the past few weeks which made a nice change. The only major change was fitting the larger front splitter which I had repaired after breaking it at the test day back in early August. For the first time this year I splashed out on a new set of tyres, Avon again provided these and involved a quick trip to Trowbridge to take advantage of their great fitting service.
Race day, as the norm this year I woke to a wet day however the forecasts all said that the day was going to be dry. With this thought in mind we set off to Combe ready for a days racing. By the time we had arrived at Combe the rain has stopped and the sun was starting to break through. Our qualifying session was a bit earlier today at 10am, this meant that the team was running around a bit to make sure everything was in place and double checked. It was soon 9.40am and we are making our way to the holding area and soon out on to the track. I have the nice new Avons on so take it easy on the opening lap to scrub them in a bit. By the second lap the tyres were already providing lots of feedback and were feeling fantastic. I put a couple of laps together and already the times are into the mid-1:12s and I don’t feel like I am anywhere near the limit of the car. I had to avoid a bit of a coming together with one of the class A cars and a MR2 at the Esses which got the old heart going but I got though unscathed.. The car is running really well and feeling great. I get some space and decide to get my head down to get a good qualifying time. Soon the times are in the low 1:11’s and I am really enjoying driving the car, it feels fast but at the same time very controllable. I was getting some great 4 wheel drifts out of Quarry which had me grinning like a Cheshire cat. I got the time down to 1:11.08 then I start hitting traffic again. I decide to back off for the last couple of laps as I had my "banker" time for the race plus the traffic was getting a bit to heavy. I was very happy with my qualifying performance as it was over 1.5 seconds quicker than any of my other qualifying times this year. This time put me 13th, out of 27, on the grid which considering the number of very quick cars in today’s meeting I was very pleased with. Back in the pits everything was good, we go over the car and again double check everything. Then we sit back and relax while we all wait for the race which was scheduled for 2.50pm. This time gave me a chance to catch up with some of the other competitors, like most club events everyone is very friendly and willing to have a chat and a bit of banter.
Its soon 2.50pm and I am sat on the grid waiting for the off, the pace car moves away from the grid and we start the formation lap. As we exit Camp corner everyone is starting to increase speed in anticipation of the start. As we all got closer to the lights they still hadn’t changed from red at this point the front runners started to back off and brake because they think it was an aborted start. I had the same feeling however looking in my mirrors I could tell the cars behind hadn’t noticed the front of the grid slowing. Just as the front cars were about to cross the line the lights went out and we all hit the gas! There were cars going in all directions, if you imagine the rear half of the grid were already upto speed while the front pack weren’t. How we didn’t have a big pile up I don’t know. I lost a few places because of this dodgy start but latched onto the back of a group consisting of Simon Tilling in his Clubsport, Mark Funnel in his Exige, Tony Michael in his very quick Westfield and lastly Nigel Mustill in his monster Omega V8 Star car. The lap times were already in the 1.12’s after the opening lap and I was having a ball. Lots of close racing I was feeling confident in the car and started eyeing up Tony’s Westfield. We are just coming to the end of lap 3 and there was a car pulling into the pits which sent all the cars in our little group in all directions. I knock it down a gear to get a good run out of Camp and I am suddenly aware that all is not right with the car. There is a massive vibration coming from the engine accompanied by a very nasty rattle/banging noise. I try to change gear but I get nothing so I dip the clutch which stops the vibrations and noise and I coast to a halt just after the pit lane. The engine is still running so its obvious that the transmission is the problem. I kill the engine and hop out and watch the rest of the GT race from the spectators section. I was annoyed but also quite philosophical about it as it was the first failure of the car and upto that point it was going really well so I know once this problem is fixed we can run with the quick boys. We get the car back in the pits and try and work out what is wrong, I was hoping that is might be the chain/sprockets but as soon as the cover was off it was apparent that wasn’t the cause. Next we checked the diff and all CV joints but again they were all fine….this is pointing to a internal problem. The engine started fine but when it was put in gear we were greeted with a loud clunking noise. I killed the engine and pondered what the problem could be. The noise seemed to be coming from the clutch side and there have been cases of clutch basket nuts coming undone. There was nothing we could do at the track so we put it back on the trailer and set off home. On Tuesday I removed the clutch completely and again found no real problems there. I did find a small problem with the primary drive but it wasn’t the main problem. Next step was to remove the engine from the car which we did in under 1.5 hours. It will now go off to Joe at Peter Hammond Motorcycles to be stripped down to see what the problem is. Good fun this motorsport lark, I am hoping to have the car back out for the 16th September meeting but at the moment we’ll have to wait and see.
Just finish by saying thanks to Justin and Barry for their help with the car, and to my family for the moral support.
