Cadwell weekend report:
This time a week ago we were trucking upto Cadwell, it was a great weekend wish I could do it all again every weekend!
So testing didn’t really go to plan, New brake pads causing vibrations and the new tyres not working well were annoying but coming into the Mountain complex I went over a kerb in 2nd gear and suddenly lost all drive. I presumed it was the gearbox what with its less than perfect track record. So 8 laps into testing and that was the day over. It would of been all too easy to load the trailer up and call it a day but i’d taken 4 days of work for the weekend and to get the car ready so I wasn’t going to give in easily! Started to ring around some friends and Chip based less than an hour away was a great shout by another friend of mine (thanks Steve) Chip being his usual generous self offered me a selection of gearboxes of which I chose to go no diff but better gearing rather than worse gearing with a diff. I also went through the symptoms with Chip who suggested it could be the clutch so he also provided me a 2nd hand clutch and an engine crane. Thankfully Lee from Apex had been doing a job down south and it was only about an hour out of his route back to Cadwell to go and collect the parts. He’d started work at 6am and it wasn’t looking like it was going to be an early night.
Once the parts were arranged I got out of my race suit and into some scruffy clothes to get the car stripped down ready for the parts arriving. Thankfully for the weekend I had bought a generator and some site lights, without these we would have really struggled to get the job done. Lee arrived a couple of hours later with the parts just as it was getting dark. Engine crane came straight out of the trailer and into action. With the engine on the floor and me splitting the gearbox from the engine thoughts turned to food. Tony very kindly suggested cooking while me and Lee carried on with the help of David Clark and his friend (Sorry I didn’t catch your name
) I selected the gears under the box and tuned the input shaft and all felt fine. Then we saw metal shavings in the bell housing, took the clutch off and sure enough the centre splined section of the friction plate had shattered away from the friction material so was just spinning and not giving any drive. So time to put the clutch back in that Chip had donated and put the normal box in too. The food Tony made was amazing and then it was time to get the engine back in the car and running. It took about 75 minutes from the engine sat on the floor to being back in and finished. That wasn’t even going mental at it. Huge thanks to everyone for the moral support and mostly to my buddy Lee for helping out after such a long day! You couldn’t ask for anyone more helpful!
Race Day:
Next morning and it was time for scrutineering, Sailed through and got my little sticker for the new helmet. Then it was onto tyre choice for the qualifying session it looked like R888 weather so went with that. Got out first in quail so tried to get some heat into the tyres and build up to a hot lap before I caught up with traffic. Just coming round the final corner of my first hot lap the red flag dropped. Doh that wasn’t going to count
Fortunately my warm up lap the lap before was good enough for pole by a second. In the hot lap I was already up by 3 seconds but didn’t really matter now I was on Pole for the Tricolore series. After the red flag I did an outlaw and caught up to a slowing (trying to find a gap in the traffic) Nippon front runners I went past him and had a big lock up and couldn’t avoid hitting the tyre wall. This took off the front bumper, damaged the rad and a few other bits but Lee managed to get it patched up nicely. Managed to reverse it out and carry on but not enough time to set a better time with the traffic.
/
Race 1:
Had to make a call on the tyres and opted to stay on the R888’s as we thought it was still damp. On the green flag lap realised this wasn’t the case but too late to do anything about it now. I got an okay start or so I thought but Simon in the saxo flew past like I was stood still. After Charlies Mr Lockwood in the Jap car came flying past also like I was stood still. No point trying to block him when he’s in another class. Tried to close Simon in but then on the second lap the safety car came out which we followed for a lap. On the restart the civic didn’t seem to react, Simon went to the right and ended up on the grass I was going to follow him until he was on the grass so I chinked right and then was in the lead of the Frenchies. The civic (racing in the nippon and much quicker) caught up quickly so I held off my entry into goose neck and let him through and then tried to manage the gap to Simon. The tyres were well out of their comfort zone and I was understeering all over the place. Keeping Simon behind was going to be tricky especially with his straight line advantage I had to really focus on great corner exits to try and get a jump on him each straight. He got a run on me heading out of Charlie's which I chose not to defend, I braked a touch after my usual reference and he wasn’t braking so was doubting he was going to make the corner. I took a later entry to try and cut back on the inside but he ran even wider than I expected and then it was just a matter of getting to the end of the race with those tyres without throwing it at the scenery so backed it off and come over the line for the win. Was a good race albeit annoying with the tyre choice but still fun and enjoyed the battle with Simon. Apparently the first Renault to win a race this year!
Video:
[video=youtube_share;Gk9IoUmGSnU]http://youtu.be/Gk9IoUmGSnU[/video]
Race 2:
Dry for the start of race 2 so onto the Dunlops although tyre pressures were a guess as lack of testing the day before. Bogged down off the start a bit so a bit more gas and clutch back in a touch and then we were off, Simon was right on my back bumper with nowhere to go, Civic on the inside of me going into the first corner which put me offline. Then into the second corner back end of mine came round a bit thankfully caught quickly not so lucky for the civic in front who had a full spin and head backwards onto the racing line, trying to decide which way to go was a tricky one but thankfully managed to get through okay... Just.
Then time to crack on with the dunlops on I had the pace on Simon. Russ then got past Simon and came after me. Unfortunately he had a lock up and couldn’t make the final corner, I had a fear he wouldn’t make it so didn’t turn in but unfortunately he came into the side of me
He was very quick to apologise so fair play to him, mistakes happen and these things are always going to happen in racing just hopefully not too often
While this happened Simon sneaked through, I wasn’t sure on the damage to my car so was cautious but managed to get onto the back of Simon, The rear end of mine was all over the place. I wasn’t going to get past Simon without a bold risky move or him making a mistake so just had a nice close bumper to bumper last few laps to bring the car home. Really enjoyed the battle with the Saxo and it seemed a fair fight what he gains on the straight I seem to make up for in the corners. So finished in second.
Video:
[video=youtube_share;qQHA6oi8CAw]http://youtu.be/qQHA6oi8CAw[/video]
So overall not a bad set of results to say the engine was out the night before and with the changeable conditions. I had lots of fun and did better than I thought going into the weekend as I knew the competition had picked up the pace since last year.
So moving forwards the engine and box need to come out to swap to my uprated clutch and repair the car from my antics. Need yet another set of catches for the front bumper, New bonnet and some wrapping. Then sort the side think the door should be repairable where its cracked and the car is at the bodyshop at the moment. The impact has shortened the drivers side from where its gone in but its going on the jig so will be pulled back straight hopefully which will correct this. Thankfully that explains the lively rear end after the accident as the impact didn’t touch any of the wheels so was an odd one. Then just a matter of re wrap it and put a new side skirt on
Looking forward to getting it back fixed as was annoying walking past it everyday this week looking so battered!
At the bodyshop
Thanks for reading as ever and really looking forward to Birkett and Snetterton next
