The weekend started well with an incident free first testing session, recording a 1.02.82. The car felt very good and nicely planted. I really feel like the car has reached a point now where I have actually improved it and can exploit the power. Yes i can still make improvements and tweeks, but i know the car is now faster than me and i can gain more by tweeking myself (but not like the guy in the shower next to me on saturday morning!!). The 2nd session wasn't so great, coming out of the first corner, a tight righthand hairpin, i lost all drive and the car came to a halt on the side of the track. I sat there for a few seconds going through the gears trying to work out what had broken, was it the clutch, gearbox, prop, diff or half shaft?? While standing on the side waiting for the recovery truck (sorry for closing the session everyone) i'd decided it wasn't engine side as i could hear the prop spinning around in the tunnel, it wasn't the prop as the prop was spinning and not flapping and removing my legs and the car was sitting on all 4 wheels, so i was convinced the diff had gone and that was the end of the weekend. On the tow back to the pits there was a lot of dragging noises and the car started bobbing up and down on the left hand rear corner, until there was a clunk and the car dropped down on that corner. At this point i actually felt relief as i then suspected a broken half shaft, which after jacking the car up was proven to be the fault.
Other than the broken halfshaft and a bent brake caliper bracket there seemed to be no other damage, so whilts dad set about removing the broken shaft from the casing, i started to ring around to find a replacement. Now if there is one place on the planet where finding escort mkII spares on the shelf or in someones garage, Wales and its rallying scene is probably the place you want to be. Within 30 minutes i had the required parts set aside at Peter Lloyd Rallying and set off with Gavin (thanks!!) to pick them up. By the time i had the parts (expensive uprated Tran X items) in my hands i had 2 other offers (which were much cheaper, but 2nd hand standard items). Dad had removed the old shaft and straightened the bent caliper bracket and was waiting to fit the new shafts by the time i returned. The shaft was obviously machined to use a slightly narrower bearing, so once fitted the hub and disc sat about 4mm further out than the standard item, this meant that the brake caliper fouled the disc. Dan B had seen exactly the same issue when he fitted the Tran-X items a few months ago. A few washers to space the caliper out cured this problem and the car was good to go.
Qualifying was damp and very busy, i was caught in a gaggle of cars and found i couldnt get a clear lap, so ended up wasting laps backing off to give myself the chance of a big enough gap to have a good go at a lap. I qualified 11th but more disappointingly 2 seconds of where i wanted to be. A sterling performance from Ben in his lonely 919 powered westy saw him out qualify many of us in our more modern 1000cc class F screamers.
The race was wet, extremely wet! I'd go to say probably the worst conditions i have raced in so far. The first corner at Pembrey is pretty tricky in the dry, slow, tight and narrow, and i wasn't really looking forward to it in these conditions. Upon the red lights going out my concerns were confirmed, visibility was null, grip wasn't much better and Bens early exit onto the grass, which was actually caused by the rain drop obscured car of Matts in my video, did little to build the confidence!!! But somehow we all made it round without incident, infact there was very little contact or spinning during the entire race, which is a credit to all the RGB drivers. After the tentative first corner i then proceeded to miss a gear, well changed the wrong way down the box instead of u,p coming out of the 2nd corner which allowed James to sneak up the outside of me. For the next few laps i tiptoed around and dropped back slightly from James, the visibility was terrible, but infact grip was a lot higher than the conditions suggested. My confidence grew and i caught back up to James, who was driving and sliding his car around like i have never seen him do before (well done James!), I noticed that James was braking far to early for the first corner, so after a couple of laps i ensured i was positioned tom ake a move on him coming down into it. It all got a bit close and bit skiddy, but i managed to sneak by. I then set about catching up with Lee, whose car looked a bit lively at the rear, and coming into the first corner again he ran ride and i snuck up the inside. For the next couple of laps i managed to pull a slight lead on Lee and felt comfortable enough to slow it down a tad on the last lap to ensure i didn't over run on the 2 tight corners and throw away the position. This meant that coming into Honda Lee was fairly close but i knew i'd be able to defend the line and hold him off, that was until i spotted a back marker who i had to go inside coming into Honda, Lee backed off allowing him to get a good run out of Honda where i had tiptoe out off, i saw him flying up the inside of me, but i managed just to keep a nose ahead of him as we crossed the line 0.1 seconds apart. So i finished 4th in class, and had a very eventful race, great fun, tinged with terror, or should that be terror tinged with fun???
Sunday was a late race, so a very pleasent evening was spent with members of our Birkett team (Rabid RGB) eating chilli, rice and snacks, washed down with plenty of beer, followed by a trip to the paddock bar and more beer. The evening was bought to a close by the miserable circuit owner kicking us out of the bar, shortly followed by a covert mission to "redesign" a certain trucks livery, which was unfortunately thwarted by a local troll...........
Sunday morning weather was dry, as was the shower block, so after a cold water wash in the Transpotting toilet we proceeded to kill 7 hours by what ever means we could. There are only so many things you can check on the car, so after a mid day meat fest BBQ we were all packed up and ready to leave after the race.
Amazingly the race was dry, even though showers had been forcast. My grid position was 1 better than before and i managed a decent start. There was an altercation at the first corner between John C and one the 3 bikesports that had been chucked in with us as there pathetic numbers meant they couldn't have there own "race". The word race and bikesports don't go together in my mind as there never is one!! The rest of us made it round fairly unscathed, and within all this i had done rather well and was directly behind Al, Derek and Tim G. For the next few frantic laps i really felt as if i was part of the class F front runners. It was manic, and i honestly didnt know how i would keep it up for another 15 minutes. I managed to get past Al as he out braked himself going into the first corner, but he managed to get the place back again on the following lap. Al then managed to get past Matt who was in the middle of the class F pack, and i had to back off going into the kink before Honda as i couldn't make it past Matt too. I then had a rather large sideways moment at the left hander and dropped back and then Lee came past me like a scolded cat on the start finish line. For the most of the rest of the race i had Tim H in my mirrors, who sat patiently waiting for my inevitable mistake, which capitalised on and came past. I had noticed during all of this that Derek and Lee had dropped out so was 3rd in class so the sensible thing to do was just to pootle round for the last few laps and take the points, but the competitive side of me would allow that and i wanted to have a go at Tim, but then the car started missing, initially i thought it was fuel surge, but it became obvious it was dropping a cylinder as i headed down the start finish straight. The last lap board came out so idecided to try and limp the car home to get the points. I lost another spot to Tony on the last corner, but as he was in class R it meant i finished 3rd and didn't lose any points.
At the presentations i was awarded 3rd and 2nd as Tim G was apparently invisible as he never actually entered the championship this year. So it was a bit of a fraudulent 2nd and 3rd but i'll take the points thankyou which guarantees 3rd inn class for the year, wahooo!! This leaves the overall points table for the last race of the year very interesting, Paul and Al are both in the runnings for 1st overall, but any slip up can be capitilised on by Derek or John behind them. Matt is 3 points ahead of me in 5th, but when you take away the 2 worst results i am actually in 5th overall (only by 4 points). In the early part of the season i said i'd be over the moon if i could manage 3rd in class and 6th overall, so if i can manage 5th i'll have to get extra drunk at the awards evening!!
The official gimp/slave, Dan was back from Afghanistan and made a welcome return to the Q20 camp, so not only provided great company, but also lots and lots of pictures again!! Thanks Dan!
