Some pics of the car with all its new bodywork, some say its ugly, some like it, and some say nothing, but it seems to be doing a job, and personally i think it looks great.
Practice went fine for the first 10 miniutes and i was putting some consistent 1.19.xxxx times in, but then the car started losing power down the Betley straight and i initially thought the engine was seizing (as had Paul Rickers during the test day!!), but after stopping at the end of the straight the car ticked over fine. So i decided to venture out again, i managed about half a lap before the power went again, this time i realised it was fuel starvation, but not when cornering, just when i was on on WOT. When we lifted the bonnet, the high pressure side of the system was still pressurised at 3bar, so i was confident it was something to do with teh low pressure scavenge pump or pipe pipe work. We removed the return pipe from the swirl pot and pumped the fuel through, it seemed pretty poor and the pump was making a strange noise, something i had noticed on the test day to be honest, but just assumed it was a lose nut or bolt vibrating on the internal ali panels. We removed the pump and tried it alongside a spare pump, and sure enough the spare pump floe rate was far better, so we replaced the pump and assumed all was ok. Trouble is i couldn't properly test it until the race as WOT and driving at 100mph around the paddock is frowned upon.
The race started, only to be red flagged on the first lap due to Bobs 45 seconds hell, involving 3 separate collisions (all none of his fault) and resulting in a very badly damaged green and white BDN. I'm happy to say Bob came out virtually unscathed and is already well into the the rebuild. The restart was a little less hectic, but 2 laps in the fuel starvation returned and i had to retire. But on the bright side i had qualified 3rd and 2nd for the races, beating Al for the 2nd race grid position for the first time since the engine upgrades.
Back in the paddock again, a physical check of the glass bowl filter (which visually looked clear when we checked it earlier) showed up that the gauze was almost tota;y blocked, this had caused the first pump to run under serious strain for a period of time, causing it to semi fail, but was also starving the replacement pump. Luckily the pump seemed OK, and a free replacement gauze from Andy got the flow of fuel going again.
Race 2 on sunday went well for me, and i felt that i again improved my driving, staying focused, making far less mistakes and controlling the old red mist. This resulted in my first 2nd in class F, and 10th overall. Ok my 2nd in class was less impressive due to the fact that Paul and Derek not starting due to mechanical issues, but never the less i'll take it!!!
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