Whilton Mill August 15th 2009
Round 6 OEKC Summer Series
After the last race we sent the engine back to our re-builder and he diagnosed our engine failure as a circlip that had come loose and mashed up the timing gears. They had jumped a couple of teeth and hence the vibration. So a more or less complete re-build was ordered though we reckoned the con rod was still OK.
Other than that everything was more or less the same though we had put in new super soft axle from Gillard.
The race however was very different this month, since it wasn't due to start until about 18:30 and would finish under floodlights at about 23:00hrs. Not only that but it was to be held on the old circuit with the downhill esses re-instated.
We were planning to use the same tyres as we used at Milton Keynes in June, since they hadn't done very much in that short race, but when we came to look at the rears they looked as if they had started to de-laminate. Not worth risking, we thought, so we bought a new set from KKC and and got on with a lightening tyre change.
In practice we really only had time to run in the engine and then for each of the drivers to do a few fast laps to get used to the circuit change.
We tried lower pressures in the tyres but we were hampered by the Alfano suddenly stopping, so no lap timing! We judged that lower pressures didn't do us any good so went back to 12/14psi.
Qualifying was a reasonable 10th in a field of 22 with the usual suspects grouped around us. A pity not to see Red Mist or Red Max there. The latter team are taking a breather, though Jason himself was driving for one of the HVAC teams. JxJ were also missing - rumoured to be riding in the Trans Rockies bike race instead.
James was starting the race and in the scrum after the flag dropped managed to retain position.
He was driving reasonably well in a tight knit bunch and fairly soon managed to get in front of Appliance Maintenance.
But not for long as they came back past him again a little later.
James overtook them again and long battle between them developed.
On lap 56 James got his fastest lap of the race at exactly 40:00s but he was hampered by the absence of any useful readout from the Alfano.
He was also finding the kart a little less responsive and easy to drive than previously - nothing serious but worth a few tenths.
Having finally pulled away from Appliance James caught up with two of the Box teams.
Boxed In was not a great problem but Box Tech was much more difficult to deal with and once again the race with them went on for many laps with them swapping positions multiple times. Eventually Russell got away in traffic.
Traffic was a major factor in this race with such a good grid and quite a few new or slower teams.
At this point James caught up with TT Racing who must have been visiting the pits and once more found that they were very evenly matched. We would overtake at the Boot but then TT would come past somewhere else. Very close racing but very fair (we thought!) and eventually James stayed in front.
After 66min James was well and truly pickled in exhaust fumes and was quite pleased to be called in - he's never spent so much time up somebody else's exhaust pipe.
On the weighing scales we were underweight initially but then the Marshall in charge said the scales were under reading and let us through with a mixture of unintelligible hand signals and unheard advice - which delayed us for a bit as James couldn't work out what was going on or what the hell he was meant to be doing.
The rest of the pit stop was OK apart from James running over Thomas' foot in the re-fuelling bay and Thomas was off without further incident.
James returned to our pit to recover and to re-fil the petrol re-fueller and was just taking a breather when Thomas was seen walking back down the pit lane.
The engine had seized at the bottom of the hill!
So that was very much the end of that and we packed up and went home.
Later in the week when the engine had been stripped by our engine tuner, we found that the skirt of the piston had broken up causing the engine to seize. Hopefully this will be a warranty job, but at the same time we are gong to replace the con rod just to be on the safe side.
Next race, we hope to
not to have any problems
Finish! ! !
Results are here.
R e d S t r i p e R a c i n g