August 2022
31Aug
Coming up
On Saturday I am running at the LMC Aintree Autumn sprint, up against John Graham and Ian Rowlance in class 5E. And on Sunday I am at Knockhill for the British Sprint Championship rounds on the anti-clockwise circuit.30Aug
1.8s 64ft
Going through the data I found that the fourth timed run, re-run, I recorded > 1.3G on the launch, so I went in to the data to find the 64ft time. We had no timing providing that information at the track, but the ECU records front wheel speeds and distance, therefore its not hard to extract the information. Using the LifeVIEW software, in distance rather than time mode, the data from the run shows that I covered 19.5 metres, or 64 ft, in 1.8s.I'm really getting the hang of launching the car, now we've changed the settings. The high grip surface of snetterton also helped a lot.
Fuel consumption at Snetterton was 9.789 litres, over the eight runs. Averaging 7.60 mpg. Since the start of the year, the car has now performed 51 runs, and used 73 litres of fuel, covering 112 miles.
28Aug
Eight, no, seven timed runs!
That was a tiring, but exciting day. BARC Midlands hadn't run a sprint at Snetterton before, and they had a few problems. Nothing serious, but organisational niggles, which otherwise took the shine off the event. The end result for me, was a new 1600T class record, of 78.88 seconds, a first in class, and a third fastest time of the day behind the extremely fast SBD Dallara driven by Matt and Steve. So it was, overall, a succesful event.The biggest issue was the lack of experience in releasing cars on to the circuit. First practice, my run was aborted when I found a white formula ford doing a 3 point turn on the hairpin, without any warning from the marshals post (no red flags shown). I didn't go for a re-run, its just practice. The fresh Avon HC3 front tyres were really good from the get-go, and I was running the cleaned Ultrasofts on the rear, saving the fresh set for later.
The first timed run, I pushed really hard, and had a downshift issue in to Oggies, where the ECU tried to select 3rd, and for no reason I could see, failed, however the second downshift attempt went in, but I was then too fast in to the bend and didnt have a great run. Getting back to the paddock, I used a blank worktab in LifeVIEW and showed Paddle and Gear to keep things simple, and I could see a missed downshift. So I deciced to replace both the short lenghts of black plastic pneumatic pipe that feed the Geartronics actuator, with fresh pieces, as they sat underneath the pushrod that had failed at Kirkistown, so I just kind of thought, maybe they'd been squashed or damaged, and it was a cheap fix, so well worth a go. I could recall some downshift issues at Kirkistown too following the pushrod change, so the evidence was strong enough to suggest the downsift hose was leaking air.
On the second timed run, with the fresh Ultrasofts on the rear, guess what, yes, another baulked run, catching a slower car again. This time I was due a re-run, and, suitably wound up, I lined up, and put in my best lap of the day, with a 78.88s run. That was 1.7s knocked off my PB from the BSC round in June the previous year. I was taking Hamiltons better and better on every run, lifting not braking, then lifting later and later as I turned in. That was paying dividends. And no gear shift issues, so the replacement pipes had cured the problem.
The third timed run went ok, as did the fourth. However, on the fourth run, rather than a baulked run, this time I had no time recorded. God knows how. Anyway, I'd already got out the car, helmet off etc, to find my time was missing on the TSL Timing page, and I was then invited to have another go. So I got back in, and tried again, and recorded another decent time (78.98s). It was annoying, as the previous untimed run was perfect, my best run of the day, isnt that always the case when they dont give you a time :D
BARC then announced that the fifth run would be a fun run, and with pressure to beat Pete, we both opted to go out again, and after putting 2.0 litres of fuel in the tank, I set off, and recorded another sub 80s run (79.50s), beating Pete again by 0.85s. As I was approaching the start line for my second lap, a red single seater was released in front of me, fortunately far enough ahead that it didnt slow me down, and I had a game of catch the pigeon trying to catch the car before the end of my second lap, even allowing an element of slip streaming as I crossed the finish line for the final time.
Eight runs, took more out of me than it did the car. The new Avon HC3 fronts did a remarkable job, handling eight runs in total. They worked really hard, and after the final run, I noticed some evidence of cold shear on the surface of the right hand front tyre, which I'll have to surform or heat gun off. Up until the fifth run they showed very little wear. The fresh ultrasofts on the rear totally restored the car's performance, on the final run I swapped them left to right just to try to even out the wear, and in doing so I was very happy to win the class with a new record time. I won a Snetterton baseball hat for finishing 3rd FTD, and a superb glass trophy for 1st place #onavons
I did speak to the organisers about the unsafe releases, which they didnt seem to have under control. I'm sure that they will take all comments on board and make sure the next event there doesnt suffer the same issues. I really enjoyed the day, had eight runs with no real issues, and won, so yes, nothing to complain about really :D
Chris Jones had a nasty accident in the paddock, when hot fuel sprayed in to his face and eyes when he removed the fuel filler cap. The Force TA was particularly hot as it had not long completed a run of the 100 circuit, and Chris was very unlucky to discover the fuel tank was under pressure. He was immediately helped by Chris Bennett who had some cold water on him, pouring it over his face and eyes, and then he was taken to the medical centre where the staff treated his eyes for fuel burns. Chris missed out a few runs but still managed to complete timed run four, and took the class win. Our best wishes go to Chris, hoping for a speedy recovery.
Class 5E results.
Full event results are here
15Aug
Coming up
The next event is the Borough 19 sprint at Snetterton on Saturday August 27th.This is not a BSC round, it is a HSA Sprint Leaders round which I'm also competing in this year. The entry list shows I am car 98, with Pete Goulding car 97. There are only 50 entrants so we will get a lot of runs.
13Aug
Revolution Magazine
Good to see the championship get a mid year review in the new Revolution magazine, published by MUK.
9Aug
Kirkistown race report
I left Leicester around 4pm Thursday afternoon, and drove the 198 miles to Castle Douglas where I slept inside the van until 5am, when I then drove the remaining 35 miles to Cairnryan ferry terminal. Once on the boat I made the most of the cooked breakfast and coffee refills, and when the ferry docked in Belfast, set off for the short trip to the Kirkistown circuit. Once unloaded, I had a few jobs to do on the car, and although scrutineering was opened at 6pm, I opted to leave the car until the following morning, and had an early night instead.Saturday
On Saturday I was first in the scrutineering queue, and she passed with the new seatbelts and steering wheel fitted.
Simon Wallis (OMS) made his first trip to Kirkistown
My first practice run was around 11am, and I struggled for grip all day with the ageing Ultrasoft tyres. I had no incidents, and a pair of podiums, which reduced my nine point lead in the championship by one point. The rear wing end plates worked really well, and I ran a lower rear wing angle than I normally would all day. But my times were slower than my PB, and try as I might I couldnt improve. I had a chat with local driver Rob Dwane, and he watched my onboard and said I wasnt doing anything wrong. But he gave me some advice on where to turn in and where to carry more speed, so I tried the following day to put them in to action. In the evening I changed the faulty front wheel speed sensor for the RSPro equivalent I'd just bought, and the ECU appeared to like the signal from it, so I'd see the following day if it were up to the job.
Picture credit: Jane Loudon
FTD winner, Rob Dwane's OMS. He let me sit in it too :D I returned the favour when Rob came over on Sunday morning to give me some more driving advice. Methanol powered, the car has over 400bhp. Rob runs the Avon sprint compound tyres, which were paying dividends over the weekend.
Sunday
On Sunday, in first practice, on freshly cleaned tyres, the car was great in first practice, even on the older tyres. For the second run, the qualifier run I kept the old set on the car, and I monstered the car around, and it was so much quicker putting Robs advice in to practice. However ..... under braking on the second lap, for the final chicane, the car locked the front left, and the right rear. Turning in to the chicane, I hit the kerbs heavily and the rear pushrod was bent in the impact. I managed to complete the course, and I coasted over the finish line. The sector times for this run indicated I would have produced a 111s run, on my old tyres!I limped back to the pits, and parked outside the garage, I jumped out of the car to assess the damage, then pushed the car with help, inside. Luckily for me, it was just the pushrod and a rod end that were bent. Both I carried as spares. So, on my own, I worked quickly to replace the bent pushrod in around 30 minutes, burning my left wrist on the red hot brake disk in the process, whilst trying my best to get the corner weights right. I was told I'd got a time, confirmed I'd qualified, and was told to get it mended, which is what I did. Back on all four wheels, on the next run, the first run off, I had to take a cautious approach, and I finished sixth.
We're all told about the legend and folklore of making the trip to Kirkistown, and this was just another example of getting a car repaired and back out under immense pressure, so as not to miss points. It's part of the Craic. I was certainly up for the challenge :D. In previous years, drivers have overcome all sorts of adversity, so I wasn't about to miss my next run.
Afterwards, with confidence growing again, and braking earlier for the final chicane to avoid a similar lockup issue recurring, I completed the final two runs, and scored sufficient points to retain my overall lead in the British Sprint Championship.
Final results from Sunday
After the five runs, all 40 minutes apart, it was time to packup, get a shower, and head back to Belfast for the 11:30 ferry across to Cainryan. First I drove to the same chinese takeaway I used last year, and got myself dinner, and was joined back at the ferry terminal by Simon Bainbridge and John Hansell. So I sat in Simons bus, to eat my food and we had a natter about the weekends events. The Stenna Lines ferry was on time, and on board I found a spot to try and get some sleep; but I couldnt switch off, and cat napped. Once back in Scotland, I drove non stop back to Leicester to arrive back at home at 8am, absolutely shattered.
Aside from the accident, the car was fantastic all weekend. I do think the accident was caused by a bent pushrod, but I've no idea how or where it could have been bent. The kerbs at Kirkistown arent too bad, but it is a very bumpy circuit, as can be seen from the video below. During the weekend I was working again with my calibration engineer, trying to tune the wheelspin out whenever I change up. Making changes to the Gear Cut strategy during the runs on Saturday gradually dialled it out, and the gear changes felt smoother and smoother. My launches werent that great, the surface was quite poor, and on the final run on Saturday afternoon a 2.96s 64ft was recorded. Looking at the data, the car was generating a speed signal from the rear speed sensors, before I released the clutch, so the tail wind was rolling the car forwards in to the timing beam before I set off, triggering the timing to start early. On Sunday morning I asked the start line crew if they could stop the car rolling and they said no. Instead, I chose to hold the car on the brakes once staged, and as soon as the green lights came on, I swapped to the throttle pedal with my right foot, waited for the boost pressure to build to 1.5bar, and then released the clutch. My best launch all day was a 2.1s 64ft, and that was with a bit more clutch slip than I've used before, and it paid dividents.
Picture credit: Jane Loudon
On Sunday, on my second qualifier run, I caught up another competitor, driving like miss daisy, so my run was red flagged and I had to take another turn. If you're not going to drive round at qualifying speed, please go at the end of the batch, rather than with the front runners who are trying to drive flat out and improve their times! Class records were at stake, and unless you had a technical issue, there is no excuse for holding a faster driver up.
Fuel consumption on Saturday showed 9.515 litres used for five runs. On Sunday morning, I brimmed the tank again and reset the fuel consumption counter in the ECU. With the rerun on Sunday caused by the third timed run being baulked, I had to add two extra litres prior to the final run, and the engine consumed some 10.536 litres in total, making a total of 20.051 litres used over the weekend. Total distance covered during the weekend was 11 * 4.7Km = 51.7km. Converting that to mpg gives approx 7.3mpg!!
