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Race Results

2008 Season

Melton Concrete Products Formula Ford Carnival - 4th October

We had already secured 2nd position in the class championship after the last win and so I just wanted to finish this race and bring the car home before all the winter work would start on it. During qualifying I had a really good session putting the car 1st in class with a best lap of 1:20.001. 

Rain had been threatening all day and the forecast had predicted rain early afternoon which after a few small showers came as expected. The car was changed to its wet set up for the race and we were given 2 formation laps to allow us to familiarise with the conditions. At the start of the race I got boxed in by 2 of the class B cars that made a poor start which dropped me back to 4th position by the first corner. I managed to get back up to 2nd by the end of the first lap and held this until the end of the race coming 2nd to the class winning MG. Best lap was a 1:36.865.

 We have finished the season 2nd in class C which I am extremely pleased with especially after the problems we have had during the season. The next stage is to develop the car further with a number of ideas that we have and hopefully achieve the aim of winning the class and overall championship in 2009 or 2010.

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/84068.pdf

MG Raceday - 13th September 2008

After the last race we had managed to climb from 5th to 2nd in the class championship standings and now had something to aim for. A wet qualifying session greeted us however the track was starting to dry up towards the end with each lap getting faster. I decided to not push the car too hard due to the lack of grip and also testing of the car to make sure that the clutch was no longer slipping at high revs and this qualified us 3rd in class with a time of 1:31.312.

The race was dry and from the start I managed to get up to 2nd in class before following a few of the class B cars up the inside of the leading 306 up the inside of tower to take 1st place. I managed to pull out a lead of about 10 seconds and then backed off the revs until the finish. I was really pleased with my second consecutive win and managed a fastest lap of 1:19.872 in the process again setting the fasted lap for the class in the race and for the season.

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/83768.pdf

A Plant LUX Traffic Controls Sportscar Raceday - 25th August 2008

I was really looking forward to this race so we could see what difference the engine would make out on the circuit. First time out in qualifying and the car felt really good, however it did take a bit of time to get used to now having to brake a bit earlier due to the increase in speed at the end of the straights and the extra power coming out of the corners which was even causing the Quaife unit to struggle to find grip. I managed to qualify 2nd in class with a best time of 1:20.623 which was just under 1.5 seconds faster than my previous personal best. 

I managed to get a great start in the race and immediately got into 1st position in class. The engine was working better than I had predicted and I was managing to just hold on the tail of some of the faster class B cars whilst pulling away from the rest of my class. By the end of the race I won by 12 seconds with a new fastest lap of 1:20.054, some 2 seconds quicker with the new engine fitted, which was also fasted lap for the class during the race. We did discover 1 issue during the race that the oil breather pipe from the crank was leaking onto the gearbox and dripping onto the clutch which caused the clutch to start slipping when changing gear at high revs during the race. A new pipe and catch tank were fitted to hopefully stop this for the next race.

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/83568.pdf

Classic Carnival - 2nd & 3rd August 2008

A wet qualifying session was held and the car seemed to perform pretty well with no sign of the old fuel problems and a best lap of 1:35.947 which put me on the grid 4th in class.

I managed to get a great start in the race overtaking 3rd and then 2nd off the line and putting me right on the tail of the leading MG into the first corner. The red flag was then bought out do to a 3 car incident on the start when 1 car failed to get away and 2 others ran into the back of him. After the restart I managed to hold onto 2nd position before the red flags appeared for the second time due to a trail of oil appearing most of the way around the circuit after a major oil leak from one of the evos. Due to the time needed to clear up the race result was called after the 4 laps completed. My best lap was 1:22.755 but I knew there was more to come as the car had not had time to “come on” before the race was stopped.

Due to this being a double header weekend the starting grid was determined from the previous finishing positions of race 5 above. At the start I managed to overtake the MG on pole position however I also got overtaken by one of the other MG’s going into the first corner. I managed to hold 2nd position for a number of lap until another MG managed to get past me on the straight due to  its speed advantage over my car. I managed to hold 3rd by the line which I was pretty happy with setting a new personal best lap time of 1:22.070.

I knew the car needed more power (currently running at 160bhp) to get me up with the leaders and as luck would have it one of sandy Brown’s newly built engines came up for sale. This was not the full spec that we have envisaged building from scratch however had a proven 192bhp (45mm bodies and GMC manifold) in the original car it was fitted and would be a great improvement over the engine I had with also the opportunity for further development if and when required. I managed to get the engine for a decent price as I only required the engine itself and not the throttle bodies/ECU or exhaust system as I already had these.

The weekend we got the engine we set to work removing the old engine, swapping the gearboxes over and refitting the new engine with my 42mm bodies and supersprint manifold. The engine went in fairly easy and we managed to get everything assembled and get booked in to have it mapped the week after. We all estimated the engine on my existing set up would probably produce in the region of 185bhp however were all amazed when during mapping it was producing just over 200bhp at 7000rpm and still pulling. We then took the car out on the road to trim the map which gave me the first time to test the engine out and it defiantly seemed to fly!

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/83168.pdf

Dunlop Great and British Motorsport Festival - July 20th 2008

Qualifying seemed to go ok however with running half a tank of fuel we were still getting issues with fuel surge after a few laps. I managed to set a lap time of 1:22.584 which qualified me 5th in class which I was happy with considering the problems we had.

For the race we filled the fuel tank up the ¾ to try to cure the fuel surge problems however this also produced another problem with what we think was a vacuum building up inside the tank thus cutting fuel to the engine after a few laps of running. This got progressively worse during the race and I had to pull out as the engine power would die off and then stall and would be unable to restart until the vacuum had gone. A best lap of 1:23.298 was achieved however this reflected the problems I was having.

That was the second race in succession that I failed to finish which was very frustrating however good news was on the horizon with the new alloy fuel tank being made up and fitted to the car. This was custom designed so that it sites nicely up underneath the car but out of the way of any debris. The tank uses a 205 GTI fuel pump with all the standard fuel lines from the 106 and therefore was pretty easy and painless to fit. 

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/barc/2008/82921.pdf

Caterham Carnival - May 26th 2008

A very wet race was on the cards for the meeting and having only completed limited testing in the wet we had to guess the setup and managed to qualify 4th in class with a best lap of 1:38.220 which I was very pleased with.

Onto the race and I managed to get a decent start and hold my 4th position for the first few laps. I started to gain on 2nd and 3rd for the next few laps until I had issues with fuel surge when coming out of the esses and heading towards tower corner. This with the combination of a damaged wiper caused a slight loss of concentration and I went wide at tower on the next lap, hit the tyre barrier side on and the race was over. I managed to get the car back to the pits and a damage assessment showed that a replacement wing/bonnet and headlight were required as well as the usual touch up paint and t-cut to hide the scratches. My best lap was a 1:36.317 and up until the accident the car was driving really well.

We decided that running around with an almost fuel tank a fuel was not the best idea due to the extra weight and also the movement of the fuel during hard cornering and braking upsetting the cars balance. We set about the task of having the standard plastic fuel tank cut and welded (a tempory solution whilst a custom alloy tank was being fabricated). We could not get the tank to seal properly and so had to rush around the day before the next race to find a replacement – how lucky was I feeling when one popped up on eBay and was only a few miles from my house!

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/82268.pdf

Husqvarna Springtime Raceday - May 5th 2008

This was the first race entered with the new Throttle Bodies set-up fitted and the results immediately seemed to be paying off with a quicker lap time of 1:23.166 in qualifying although still only qualifying 8th in class due to the increase in competition.

The race was even better with the car performing extremely well and after a great start and race I managed to cross the line 3rd in class (later upgraded to 2nd place after one of the cars received a time penalty). I produced a new personal best lap of 1:22.606, 1 second quicker than my previous best so showing a very good improvement with the new setup.

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/81968.pdf

Classic Saloon Raceday - 24th March 2008

The first race of the 2008 season took place on Easter Monday. The weather had been unsettled for the previous few days so we were not sure what to expect when we got up in the morning. It stayed dry all day (bar a few small showers) but was very cold as can be expected in March! Qualifying went very well with the modifications over the winter working as predicted.  I was held up for most of the session by a Class B 205 GTI however managed to set a best lap time of 1:23.683 which put me 6th on the grid in class for the first race of the season.

For the race we decided to leave the tyre pressures the same as qualifying however this caused a few problems throughout the race. I got a great start making a number of places by the first corner and the race was going well until about the 7th lap when the car started to suffer from sever understeer due to the overheating of the front tyres, however I still managed to finish 6th in class with a fastest lap of 1:24.122 and given me my first point in the new championship.

For full results check out http://www.tsl-timing.com/ccrc/2008/81368.pdf

2007 Season

Castle Combe Formula Ford Carnival - 6th October 2007

This was the last round of the season and I was pleased I managed to get the car running for this as it gave me more time to learn the track and car before I start to make changes over the off season. With the addition of the new rear shocks my best lap in qualifying dropped to a 1:24.783 which put me in 21st position (7th in class). The race started really well and I was having a good battle with an MG ZR 190 for the duration of the race up until the race was stopped due to the unfortunate accident between Simon Norris’s Evo and Chrissy Lewis’ 106, the good news was they both walked away. Best lap was a 1:24.597 which I am more than happy with to finish the season on.

 I have been very pleased with the progress so far, I have managed to get my lap times down from a 1:28 to a 1:24.5 and right now I am starting to prep the car for the 2008 season with a number of new modifications taking place and fingers crossed this will get me towards the front of the grid for some even closer racing, the Class C front runners a lapping at about a 1:20 lap time.

For full results check out http://www.msttiming.com/ccrc/2007/74068.pdf

 

Castle Combe MG Raceday - 15th September 2007

The third race was conducted without my usual mechanic and so 2 mates were employed to give me a hand – Cheers to Rich and Nick for that!

The car was left at the same spec as the race before to gain more experience on how it handles and during qualifying my best lap was a 1:25.048 which put me 27th on the grid (7th in class).  For the race we decided to try a different set up which did not work to well with the car tending to understeer more however I managed to finish 22nd (6th in class) with a best lap of 1:25.660. Due to the ongoing coolant problem I decided to take the head off to try and establish the cause as we had tried everything else up to this point. Once removed we found a split in the steel ring on the head gasket in one of the cylinders which was allowing combustion gas to get into the coolant system and thus pressurising it and causing it the blow out the radiator cap. A new head gasket was put on the engine and a new set of rear shocks were also fitted to test out during the last race.

Pictures of the gasket can be seen here!!

For full results check out http://www.msttiming.com/ccrc/2007/73768.pdf

 

Castle Combe Sports Car Raceday - 27th August 2007

The second race was a bit more relaxed as I knew what to expect. We had not made any changes for qualifying but put in a best lap of 1:26.782 which put me 26th on the grid again (6th in class). As can be seen the lap times were gradually coming down which is what I wanted. During the race I managed to keep up with a few drivers for the whole race which gave me something to focus on and aim towards. This felt so much quicker as I could learn from other driver’s lines and I was really pleased when I got back and discovered my best lap was a 1:25.357 (nearly 1.5 seconds quicker than my qualifying time!!). I finished 18th overall (6th in class). We had bled the cooling system and changed the thermostat and radiator cap for this race however the car was still blowing out coolant during the race and so this led us to believe a problem with the head gasket however due to other commitments this could not be further investigated until after the next race.

For full results check out http://www.msttiming.com/ccrc/2007/73568.pdf

 

Castle Combe Classic Race Day - 4th August 2007 (1st Race)               

I got to the circuit nice and early for the first race to ensure I had plenty of time to sign on, get the car scrutineered and have time to change anything if necessary.  The only thing noted was that I did not have an external return spring on the throttle body, not bad considering it was my first race.

Qualifying was completed with no dramas and a best time of 1:27.848 which put me 26th on the grid (7th in class). I spent most of the race out on my own as the people around me were either a second a lap quicker or slower but at least this gave me more time to get used to the car and circuit, I finished 19th (6th in class) with a best lap time of 1:27.475. We did discover a problem with the radiator blowing out coolant during the race and so further investigation was necessary to stop this.

For full results check out http://www.msttiming.com/ccrc/2007/73168.pdf

 

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