Re: Silverstone Report

by bill2b Wed Sep 10, 2014 11:27 pm

Part 2

by bill2b Thu Sep 11, 2014 9:48 am

Watch for the end where Ed burns off Ian "After the flag and keeps going" ha ha

by Jackracing Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:55 am

Ah yes, glasses, flag, finish, missed, who does this remind me of Shocked

by bill2b Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:04 am

Front view from Ians 1.1
Sorry its longways but the camera was leaning into the bends

by bill2b Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:38 am

Eds front view

by Jackracing Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:37 am

The below has been submitted to CKC for publication along with photos which I will add later.

Silverstone. National all Comers Race September 6th 2014

It has been a while since I have had a weekend away racing.
As such I decided to pack everything apart from the kitchen sink.

In between a huge amount of working hours time has slowly been found to fettle my Tiger Racing Avon.
2 litre Black top in standard form on 45’s. A standard T9 box. An open diff’. Disc all round and a Webcon ECU that soft cut at just over 6000 rpm for the days over Tiger Racings Standard Class.
Entry fee paid, entry faxed (four times) and off we go.
Number 1 Mechanic, Rachel, packed me up with enough food for a small army, (or at least a Brick) and off I went.

MSVR had indicated that we could sign on at Silverstone between 16:00 and 18:00.
Arriving at 16:30 I drove around a empty upper paddock eventually being met by a charming chap from MSVR who indicated I could park where I wanted.
Having called Billy Fletcher to ascertain his favoured position it was time to move.
So, advice taken, it was down to the end next to Copse, save some space and await the arrival of the others.

Signing on was about the most relaxed I could remember, empty paddocks and just me and the lady in the office. It certainly beats the havoc of signing on at the Birkett.

First to arrive was ‘Lord’ Edward Fuller, rumoured to be an eccentric millionaire of North Lincolnshire.
I was surprised he had not had his ‘Man’ deliver the car.
A car that despite being a Tiger Racing Super 6 goes well having had numerous upgrades to suspension, gearbox and Diff’.
It is rumoured that Ed had spent the National Debt of a small African Nation on his engine, I was curious to see how it performed.

Billy Fletcher the ‘Crusty Chief’ arrived towing the Mk4 Fletcher Hornet, the Mk2 being in the midst of some engine ‘development’.

Stuart Fenton was expected to arrive later, this turned out to be at half past darkness, 23:00 and involved a lengthy chat with the Jobsworth who was employed by G4S, late of Olympic and government Tagging fame, so getting in was never going to be a simple task. Having not seen Stu for some time when he was enthusiastically racing a Tiger cat I was looking forward to seeing his Tiger Racing RS6 with Duratec power.

This covered our kit car element but still left Ian Smythe to arrive with his XR2.
Not exactly a Kit, but equally not exactly an XR2.
Rear wheel drive and Cosworth turbo in the front.

By the time we had set up our small part of the paddock it was beginning to look like a motor home show. Ed and Billy both have more ‘vintage’ motor homes where then
joined by ‘Battery’ Bill Brown, Robin Hood owner, in his more modern ‘Gin Palace’ who was there to lend support and tinned beer.

With cars fettled for the night it was time for a cup of cocoa and bed.
With signing on for late comers being at 07:00, scrutineering at 07:30, a briefing at 08:00 and being called for qualifying at 08:30 an early night was essential.
Well, that was the plan. Several cups of ‘cocoa’ later, the stories and gossip got better and better.

06:30 and the bellowing of my alarm arrive far to soon, but there was no rain. Bonus!
Kettle on, strong sweet tea and biscuits for breakfast followed by the arrival of Ian Smythe who had only got his turbo rebuilt and engine running at 16:30 the previous day, finishing work on the car at 20:30.

The final instructions sent by MSVR had stated that no engines were to be run until 08:30, a not unreasonable request you may think, but this would then involve pushing them to and from scrutineering.
I noticed a few of the more athletic drivers pushing there cars to scrutineering but having recently just spent several weeks being tortured by a ‘physioterrorist’, who insisted that the discomfort she was currently causing would be worth it in the end, I decided it was engine start at 07:25 along with the rest of our crew.

My plan for the day was simple.
While the car had had maybe 60 road miles since it was sorted, there is no substitute for track time or testing.
I decided that I would run some 15” R888’s of unknown vintage that came with the car in qualifying and race 1, followed by a change to ACb10’s on 13” rims for race 2.
This would allow for a performance comparison and an interesting test in that few Avons run on 13” rims and none that I know of on Acb10’s.
There was no need to load the two different sets of wets before leaving home as every forecast showed no rain. So my Formula 3 wets and my specially cut soft Kumho V70 rain tyres stayed in the garage.

Briefing over, another brew and a last smoke and it was off to the assembly area reading for the first qualifying session of the day.

Lack of seat time meant that qualifying was going to be more of a test session with some timing.
I spent far to much time listening for odd noises and getting a feel for the car than I did going for timed laps.
It was not long before Stu Fenton roared passed me on the opening lap.

As I approached the Maggots Beckets complex I noticed Stu disappear strait on in a cloud of tyre smoke of the track.

The most annoying noise coming from the rear left hub, but only when mid apex in Luffield 1. An overly strong smell of melting rubber saw me return to the paddock a couple of laps early.

The annoying noise was never identified. Given the lack of active driving this car has seen with myself and it’s previous owner, it could well have been a nest of small rodents complaining at being disturbed on a Sunday morning. The tyre smoke was traced to a lose cycle wing rubbing the tyre.

Brew made, I went to see what had happened to Stu Fenton.
The throttle had stuck wide open on the approach to Maggots leading to heavy braking and a trip to the gravel trap. Said gravel had also shredded to alternator belt.
A quick test of the throttle linkage with the engine running showed no fault.
When tested with the engine off using full throttle movement one of the connection bolts jammed against the manifold at full throttle opening.
A hacksaw and five minutes later problem solved along with a new alternator belt fitted afterwards.

With MSVR pushing the racing programme on, we were called early at 11:45 for the Silverstone National All Comers Race 1.

After my ‘testing’ during qualifying I was towards the rear of the grid, with stu Fenton behind me in the Tiger RS6, to my front a BMW to the left and a Ginetta G40 to the right on the row in front.
Green flag lap and form up in our boxes.
The plan being, after a lousy qualifying time, to drive between the BMW and the Ginetta before Copse.
With my rarely used GoPro camera switched on I was hoping that for posterity my plan worked.
All the red lights came on at once, 3 seconds later they went out.
Floored it, up to second, nose level with rears of the BMW and the Ginetta, both of them moving towards each other closing the door. Foot still well in, up to third, past the BMW, turning into Copse door to door with the Ginetta my car wriggling on cold tyres, moved to the right approaching maggots to straighten the braking line and the Ginetta sitting on my bumper. Brake hard, change down for the right onto the Wellington strait.
The Ginetta stick to me like glue all the way down to Luffield 1, attempts to go around the outside at Luffield 2 bur I drift wide, the BMW attempts the inside. Down the Pit strait I can se the Ginetta large in my mirrors and the BMW the same in his.
Turn in late for Copse in fourth, nowhere near enough drive out of the corner and they are both all over me heading again towards Maggotts. The tyres were now warmed up, brake extra late for the turn onto the Wellington strait and now it is just me and the Ginetta. It is cut and thrust all the way to lap 10 when he starts to fade.
Lap 11 and I notice Stu Fentons Number is being displayed on the pit wall.
Lap 13 complete, chequered flag and back to the paddock, no Stu Fenton.

Kettle on and Stu and his car appear on the back of a recovery truck.
Tea made and it is time to visit Stu, again.
Having purchased some very ‘Gucci’ push on connectors to his remote oil filter, they had decided to fail.
I left Stu to decide on his next course of action to find a grumpy Ian Smythe attacking his throttle cable. The heat of the turbo having melted the throttle cable, so I set about helping Ian.
At 12:55 Stu arrives needing a lift to a local racing supplies company for new oil hose and sundry parts, no problem Stu, I will take you, “they close at 13:00” says Stu.
We got there just as the guy was closing, rubbish out and keys in the door.
Decent chap that he was, he stayed open, Stu got his kit and fixed his car.
Back to helping Ian with his throttle cable.

Caught up with Billy Fletcher and Ed on their tales or daring do and with our second race not due until 17:30 was looking forward to watching some racing.

Got the Avon jacked up, wheel nuts loosened, prepared the 13” ACb10’s ready to go next to the cars and having a nice little relax in the warm wheather.

That was until 15:00, then it decides to chuck it down with rain. It can’t last long.
It did, until16:30.
So with car covered I sat it out in my tow car. Eventually getting nice and wet tightening and re doing the torque on the wheel nuts on the 15” R888’s and putting the ACb10’s back on the tyre rack.

Having packed everything bar the kitchen sink, it appeared that the kitchen sink was the rain tyres.

I now noticed that Fletcher, Fuller, Smythe and Fenton were all on rain tyres and without exception all said, “I nearly didn’t bring these”.
Further inspection of the paddock showed that everyone else apart from me had fitted rain tyres.

While R888’s are a fine dry tyre, wets there are not. Possibly ok for much more heavy tin tops but, on a light 7’esque car, no.

The call came to the assembly area and I noticed the the guy driving the Ginetta G40 had decided that the rain was not for him and was packing up.

Race 2 was much as I expected.
The wet shod boys made a hasty exit to the front leaving me to play catch up.
Catch some I did having an enjoyable scrap with a wet shod BWW.
He sped past me on the pit strait, spinning at copse. One lap later he caught me as I span on the entry to the Wellington strait. Thanks Stu!
One lap later he hit the pit wall ending up in the tyres at copse.
At the end, there were 3 heavily damaged cars returned on trailers, which technically did not make me last.
From previous articles there are some who may remember my ‘eureka’ moment when I discovered that racing in glasses meant you could see.
Repeating this in the rain was not so much fun, mist condensation, whatever.
It was like driving in fog.

The next outing is likely to be the MSVR Winter Series 10th November at the Snetterton 300.
4 races over 2 days, in NOVEMBER
More modifications to be completed on the car twixt now and then.
ACb10’s will be run this time and both sets of wets will definitely be going on the trailer.
Now where did I put my Damart thermal underwear catalogue.