Hey everyone,
A few people were asking about how this last weekend went so thought I would put a post up.
One of my customers (BillSC on here) came to me after the national and said he wanted to go racing. He didn't know what racing he wanted to do but did want to try it. I suggested before we turn his nice Harrop VX road car into a noisy horrible race car he try something else cheaper first.
We decided I would turn an MG ZR I had in the yard into a race car and have a go in that.
This weekend was his first race. It was the BMH 4-hour relay race at Snetterton (200 circuit). The plan was to have 3 cars and 4 drivers who would all do 2x 30min stints. We had Bill, me and two other friends of mine..
The race has a traditional classification at the end but also runs a handicap system for the first three hours of the race as there is such a range of cars entering. Basically they take your qualifying time as your race pace lap, the fastest qualifying time overall is set as scratch and everyone slower than that time has laps added to their total lap count at the end to even it out. This handicap can be modified throughout the first 3 hours of the race in case cars go significantly faster in the race. The plan was for the two fastest drivers to sandbag quali and their first stint and go all out in the last hour.
I was out first in quali and sandbagged by a couple of seconds and set a 1.28.6. The car was running rough and wouldn't idle, when back in the garage we found the TPS sensor had died (common Rover K-Series fault), new one fitted and all was fine. But it meant Bill who was out next only had 9 mins of his Quali session left. He went out and did 4 laps so was fine for the race.
The race started with one of the other drivers and off the start his car had issues. Limp mode and wouldn't rev past 5500rpm. He finished his stint 3rd in class and 22nd overall. Bill was up next, he completed his first 1/2 hour stint and did everything I could of asked for. He did consistent 1.30/1.31 laps when not in traffic for his whole stint. He kept it on the black stuff and had no drama's. He was overtaking as took us to 1st in in class and 18th overall.
3rd stint was completed by another driver and I was out. I had asked the team to tell me if they needed me to change my pace. I was lapping in the 1.29's and they told me to go faster. Sadly it turns out I couldn't judge my pace that well and on my next lap did a 1.27 dead. They modified our handicap and we suffered slightly.
I came in 4mins early from my stint as I thought I saw steam from under the bonnet (its always a worry with a rover k-series). I did some ducting on the radiator and sent bill out for his next stint. The cooling system ran considerably cooler now and Bill thought it was an issue so came in after 3 laps. We sent another driver out in his place and even though we quickly realised the car was fine it was too late and Bill's stint was over.
With and hour to go the other cars gearbox failed on circuit (bits that are supposed to go round and round didn't want to go round and round and they tried to come out of their casing). I was relaxing trying to act cool and was thrown into the car and told I had to drive till the end of the race. So the last stint for the race and for me was and hour long. A very hot but great hour, loads of overtaking and loads of fun.
We finished 1st in class, 14th overall and I got fastest lap in class. I couldn't have planned for more. The car was on the pace and did a long stint and the end without fault. For his first race Bill did everything I asked and more. We both had a great time and looking forward to the next race, hopefully we get one more before the end of the year.
Couple of clips for you, sadly one of the team nudged the camera for Bill's stints when strapping him in the car so have no footage of him.
I caught an S1 Elan about 30mins into the last stint and we battled till the end. I would overtake him 2 times a lap in the corners and he would just drive past me down the straights. This clip shows a late 'O why not' overtake through the middle of two cars round coram followed by the Elan overtaking again, then me getting it back about the 6th time. My hands show me trying to work out what I have to do to make it stick (not annoyed):
This clip is later in the race where I go for the inside round coram and hit something slippy. Lets say I was quite worried at the time that I was about to smash up a mint S1 Elan:
End of the race he came up to me and turns out had one of the best races he'd had for a while.
Great weekend, cant wait for more!
Matt
