4th August

Motorsport, it has it highs and it has its lows. After the high of the last meeting I just new a problem would be around the corner. During the routine service of the engine I noticed some metal in the oil, although some small amounts of swarf can be expected this was more than I was happy with. I decided to drop the sump and have a proper poke around, on dropping the sump it was obvious that there was something amiss in the engine. I gather up the bits and pop down to Neil at Corinium Motorsport in an attempt to match it up with the various spare engine parts he has in stock. We decide it must be one of the shims from the gearbox, we have a think about what to do and considering the investment I’ve put into the engine the decision is taken to strip the engine down. This isn’t a big problem on its own however we are only a week away from the next race. On the Sunday Justin and Barry came around and we ripped the engine out of the chassis ready to take it over to Neil’s. Neil, being the gent that he is, said I could use his engine build area in his workshop to strip the engine down. To help keep the costs down I am going to do most of the work and Neil will keep a watchful eye over me to make sure I don’t do anything wrong. Rebuilding a bike gearbox is a completely new thing to me so I’m looking forward to the experience. Monday I get the engine over to Neil’s and I set about stripping the engine down, after a couple of hours I am ready to split the crank cases so we finally find out what has gone wrong. With some gentle use of a rubber mallet the cases were soon apart and I was looking into the heart of the engine. I set about checking the play in the cogs and the problem is soon found, first gear has the best part of ¼" of an inch of play in it. The gear cluster is removed however the damage is worse than first thought, it looks like the bearing has suffered from oil starvation and welded it’s self to the drive shaft. This in turn has meant the edges have burred up meaning I can’t get the gears off. Out with the angle grinder and after about 5 mins we finally get the gear off followed by the others. As we know 1^st gear is broken, as is 5^th and the drive shaft. On the other shaft that has also suffered some damage and 3^rd, 4^th,5^th gears are all damaged. To be honest its good I decided to take the engine apart as if I had left it for another race the damage could have bee a whole lot worse probably ending up with a written off engine. Neil has most parts for the gearbox in stock but he was missing a couple of items. Peter Hammonds Motorcycles to the rescue and the extra parts (plus replacements for all the ones I "borrowed" from Neil) were ordered. Wednesday all the parts are back and the job of putting the engine back together starts. By 5pm that day the engine is completely back together and ready for transplanting back into the chassis. That evening I rope Justin into giving me a hand to graft the engine back into chassis and the work starts to plumb it all back in. Thursday morning I have to take a trip out to Melksham to collect some tyres from Avon Motorsport and on the way back I call in at Spec-R to collect a new oil catch tank. By Friday morning the engine was wired in and ready to go. The afternoon the car is back at Neil’s having the suspension setup, I have replaced one of the rear wishbones to a later design. This was done because the old design with the very sticky Avons was causing the lower upright pin to bend. So almost a week after all the drama started the car was ready to run once again……me on the other hand, I just wanted to catch up on all the sleep I’ve lost this week!

Saturday 4^th and for the first time this year we have a totally dry race meeting. Our qualifying is at 11am so there is no panic to get to the circuit. The car was already at the track and as usual we are lodging with Simon and Tilling Motorsport. It is the classic race meeting and the paddock if full of mouth watering machinery. The downside of all these classics is they can make the track pretty slick with the amount of oil they drop. We are soon in the holding area waiting for our qualifying to start. As soon as I got onto track the car felt amazing. The engine was strong and felt so smooth. The traffic was really busy and I struggled to put a full lap together. As expected the track was also down on grip and I was suffering from under/oversteer on most bends, talking to people in the paddock I wasn’t alone. On lap 6 of qualifying the oil warning light came on coming out of Quarry. A quick glance down to the gauges did confirm that the oil pressure had dropped off. I came off the throttle and trundled back to the pits, luckily the problem was just a lack of oil problem. The engine runs a lot more oil than the standard engine and with no dipstick it is hard to judge how much oil is in the engine. I topped the old girl up and fired her up oil pressure was spot on so we’re ready for the start. Simon had his own excitement in qualifying having a very strange off at Quarry causing a small amount of damage, nothing a couple bits of rod and some weld won’t sort out. Even with all the drama of qualifying I ended up on 6^th spot and Simon was alongside me in 7^th.

The race – we are lined up on the grid waiting to go, the sun was hot and I knew this was going to be a tough race. The lights go out and I get on the gas, Guy Woodward was infront of me and came across the front of my car pushing me onto the grass. This lost me 2 or 3 places on the run up to Quarry. Quarry was busy, I caught a glimpse of Norman Lackford doing his best to get around me on the apex of Quarry. I found myself in 6^th again with Mark Funnel in his Exige infront of me. I got a good run out of Bobbies on Mark and got along side of him on the run to Camp. A loud pop from Mark’s car told me he had hit the limiter in his car and I knew I had him and I out braked him into Camp. I then set about catching up with Simon, Tony Freeman, Louis Davidson and Guy Woodward who were all together. The leader, Howard Spooner, in his very powerful Jade had already disappeared into the distance so the race was for 2^nd. The track is still very slippery particularly Tower and Bobbies so these corners demanded a bit more respect than normal. The next few laps were just pure fun as I caught up with the group, we all had a small moment when a problem with Guy’s car caused us all to telescope together as his car came to a halt! Simon and I were battling hard, one thing about Simon and I am sure he’ll be the first to admit he makes the odd mistake but when you are trying to overtake the bugger he is inch perfect and just doesn’t get ruffled! I tried all ways to get around him and each time he got the better of me. In what seemed no time we were already lapping cars. One poor chap in his MR2 got mugged on both sides by us Radicals on the run from Tower to Bobbies. On lap 7 I was still trying to find around the relentless Simon when we arrive behind a gaggle of cars into Esses. Simon takes the right side of the back marker and I go the long way around the outside. Lucky for me it works and I get around them both. I am now sitting in 4^th and I start digging into the time between me and Tony Freeman. I manage to get up with Tony after a couple of laps and watch him for a lap to see where he is strong. On lap 10 I make my move into Tower corner and get past, I make a small mistake going into Bobbies and expected him to get me back but I was just able to stay infront. Now in 3^rd I can see Louis in the distance and I start to reel him in. By lap 12 the tyres were starting to cry enough and moving around a lot more. I was still gaining on Louis but not quickly enough. I cross the line in 3^rd, 2^nd in class, 3.5seconds behind Louis. Simon follows me in for 4^th.

What a great race, it was hard work in the heat but I much prefer that to the rain. Have to say a big thanks to Neil at Corinium Motorsport for helping me get the engine/car ready in such a short time. Thanks also to Simon for the use of the awning.  Finally thanks Justin, Barry and my family for their support!

Next meeting is the 27^th August, can’t wait.