I had not intention of licencing for the first year a I thought it would be a good idea to just stick to RWYB's until we understood what we were doing. It has been a steep but interesting learning curve.
We have had our share of problems, we found the front timing cover was badly cracked and leaking oil all over the place, this is when we found John O'Sullivan and his engineering works. we then found a cracked tail piece on the gearbox when we serviced it, this was also sent off to big John for welding, then the gearbox destroyed itself we managed to get it back and running just before Dragstalgia which was one of my target meets for the year...
It was at this meet that we at last gave the car our identity and changed it's name to Tight Fit...for a very good reason..it was.
Dragstalgia 2014 will remain in my memory for a very long time it was everything I thought it would be and more,we were pitted between Mo Blackburn and Steph Milam, we were very ably looked after by Claire and her bicycle, we made some good friends..Ove and his family and team from Germany for one, we met many more racers that I had only ever watched I was enjoying every second of this. We ran our best time to date 9.2 seconds and I got to run against other cars, the first being Miss Winter from Germany.
Photo courtesy of Mike B
One thing I did notice at this event was the amount of vapour/smoke that was coming out of the engine breather hmmm!!! so one more RWYB at the Pod before the Hot Rod Drags it was at this event I noticed there was a discernible difference between the two lanes at the POD the spectator lane was far more lumpy and unsettled the car and I never ever got close to what the car was capable of in that lane, at the European finals other racers also mentioned this problem about the bumps that were appearing in that lane..all this after all that money was spent an resurfacing, perhaps a few quid on drainage wouldn't have gone amiss.
Anyway onto the Hot Rod Drags at Shaky I have never raced there and was looking forward to it, I like Shaky I like the laid back atmosphere of the place and how helpful everyone was but...and there is always a but! I did notice a difference between the lanes or is it me? is there a difference? I maybe getting paranoid about it and then there is that bloody bump where the other runway crosses the shut down area, my god what a tooth rattler why oh why don't they just fill in that bit with a piece of tarmac or is that too simplistic a solution? and get rid of that problem once and for all, I watched a couple of outlaw Anglias take off on that bump. before anyone starts lambasting me I did say I liked Shaky but it does look like the place has been left to its own devices for too long and needs some money spending on it, and yes I will be going back. They do have to get the basics sorted though and safety must come first. I can put up with that bump and so can my car but I dare say there are other cars that can't. I' know that some cars can't race there as they would be seriously damaged it would be great to see all types of cars back at Shaky and get crowds as big as they were at the Hot Rod Drags at all meetings.Please remember these are my personnel observations from a stand point of a being a Shaky Virgin.
We had a few problems at Shaky we changed the injector ram pipes for longer ones, not only as we were advised to by Hiborn themselves but ..Dam! the car looks better with them! and we adjusted the clutch and changed the springs in the magneto so after three runs I only managed a best of 10.0 but I also managed to get a face full of methanol and oil and then gearbox oil, With a lot of help form people like Mark Coulsell we managed to sort out the timing and the fuelling problems and boy did that make a difference but we managed to knock a couple of holes in the gearbox and oil the track. So that was it for us for this season.
We found the engine needs a rebuild we were getting far too much fuel in the sump this goes back to the vapour through the breather looks like the rings have gone we also found one the rocker boxes was cracked, so the engine will be coming out over the next few weeks, the gearbox will be repaired unless I can find a suitable replacement, the car will also be re-tagged and I will apply for a licence for next year.
With a gearbox that works properly and an engine that has some compression and that will burn all of the fuel and not let half of it slip into the sump we should get back to running 8's I am now on a diet and keep fit program to help me shift a bit of weight which should also help and on top of that we found that the MSD box was set to 6 cylinders and not 8 so all things being equal we should be able to compete in Super Pro next year as well as staying with the Wild Bunch who are just the most incredible bunch of people in the land.
So I am looking forward to next year and again running at both Santa Pod and Shakespeare County Raceway and having some more fun with the Wild Bunch and maybe getting stuck in with the big boys in Super Pro.
I would like to say a big thank you to my ever so understanding wife Lorni and my super crew of Steve and Dave who I did promise a go in my car at the end of the season unfortunately the damage is such that this is not going going to happen this year, but there is always next year. A big thanks to all the track crews and safety people at both the Pod and Shaky for all their hard work and all the people who have helped us out and advised us during the year.
I also found out that we had appeared in a foreign magazine ..woo hoo we are famous LOL
So this was our rookie year I spent far more than I thought I would ever have to, I have had far more fun that I ever thought I would, I went faster and quicker than I thought I ever would, and I made some serious friends I have loved it, and I am going to spend more money that I don't have to ensure we will be back next year faster quicker and bigger than ever.
These are the rantings of a rookie driver and team owner who never thought he would ever get to do this, what an incredible sport and it is full of incredible people who I have nothing but respect for even more so now I have changed the side of the fence I sit on. Roll on next season.!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment