dbRacing - Brands Hatch Race Report September 6/7th 2003

Brands Hatch Race Report September 6th/7th 2003

Practice

Following the knowledge acquired at Pembrey we had made some further repairs to the cars fuelling system, but it was still misbehaving when it was time to pick the car up from Strasse. It transpired that some new parts fitted to the car were not working consistently so David Sunderland & I spent the evening trying to get the system working better with the old parts we had already removed. Thanks for doing another days work after hours David. The result of this was that we thought the car was just about sorted, but we didn't leave Leeds until 11 o'clock and finally checked into the hotel at 4:10 the next morning. Not exactly the best start to the weekend. The thing I didn't know was that things were not going to get better.

Bleary eyed the following morning I did the first test session and the car seemed to be working fine. Considering the lack of sleep I had the previous night I decided to take it easy for the first session. For the second session of the morning I pushed harder and the sad news was that as I pushed the car harder the lack of power started to show again. We had noticed that the voltage from the alternator was looking a little low and so I left the circuit in search of a new voltage regulator. I managed to fit it to the car in time for the first afternoon session and took to the track. Good news, the car felt better, well it did for the first 4 laps. On the fifth lap I was braking downhill at Graham Hill bend when the brake pedal moved significantly closer to the floor. I managed to slow the car enough to retain control and returned to the paddock to find out what had happened. A quick inspection showed that all the lining material had separated from one of the front backing plates in one piece. This had never happened before to anyone.... except me - post race inspection after Pembrey showed that the same thing had happened to a rear pad there too.

Never mind I thought, I'll put a new set of pads in & see what times I can do in the final session. Well the final session arrived and I took to the track with new brakes. After getting the tyres warmed on the first three laps I started to push the car a little harder and on lap four I accelerated down Paddock Hill bend, except that the car didn't accelerate. Dipping the clutch & blipping the throttle showed that the accelerator pedal was doing nothing so it was a matter of getting back to the pits on tickover. A quick inspection showed the cable was fine but something was wrong with the throttle housing. Dismantling the car later that afternoon showed that the butterfly shaft had broken. Yes, you've guessed it, no-one had ever seen that before.........

The rest of the day consisted of making phone calls to source another throttle housing and putting in place "plan B" which was repairing the broken housing. Special thanks to Chris Sargeant of GC Racing for finding a replacement part and bringing it down to Brands Hatch for me, and Henry Firman, 911Virgin.com, who provided engineering advice on how to repair the broken part. He's a proper engineer you know.

Next morning started well as the hotel weren't even ready for breakfast - it must be a real surprise having a hotel at a racing circuit and finding mechanics and teams want to an early start ! I returned to the car and set about fitting the new throttle body. Everything went well, the car started first time & I went through scrutineering without a problem. According to the original timetable we had an early practice and early race. The organising club decided to change this and so we had a late practice and early race. Shouldn't be a problem should it ?

We took to the track for qualifying and I allowed the car a couple of laps to get warm before starting to push. On lap 4 I had already matched my best time of the previous day but I could hear a whistling sound. This sounded like an air leak from the wastegate, so I suspected I had not tightened something properly. A quick check under the bonnet showed one of the vent pipes had come loose so I quickly fixed it back in place and told myself off for not tightening it correctly. I left the pits for my fifth lap, but heard the same whistling noise as I and accelerated down Paddock Hill bend, except that the car didn't accelerate. No, you haven't lost your place, it happened again. Suffering from Deja vue ?

This time the engine cut out completely. The overboost cut of wire had become loose cutting off the ignition supply. A nice easy fix, but what had caused the whistling ? After a bit of searching around I identified that the metal pipe between the turbo and intercooler was lifting from the turbo. The securing bolt had "gone walkies". At the best of times working on the 924 Carrera GT can be a challenge. Who would think that one insignificant M8 bolt could be so difficult to access. More than that the threads had stripped. With such limited time between practice and race, (thanks to the revised timetable) I did not have enough time to make a proper repair and so had to try a Heath Robinson Repair. Would it work, would it last ?

Race

In a word - no.

Even on the green flag lap the familiar whistling could be heard. This meant inlet gases were escaping and I would not be getting sufficient air into the engine. The race had been extended to 30 minutes so I resigned myself to a non-race in my 924 non-turbo. At the start I was left standing, but caught the pack up through Paddock Hill bend and nicked a couple of places back at Druids. Ian Oliver got straight past me again, but at the end of the first lap I was not last. Could this be defined as success ?

Onto lap 2 and Alvaro Crego was pushing me but I managed to keep him at bay and pulled out some space through Clearways as we went onto the main straight. For yet another lap I was not last but each time Alvaro was closer. On the third lap he passed me down the straight, but I thought "this is probably the last chance I am going to have for a battle" so as he took the classic line through Paddock I braked late and dived down the inside to retake my place. Wonderful, I really enjoyed that. However Alvaro was getting quicker and on the fourth lap, after he passed me on the straight again, I had half a chance of making a heroic outbraking manoeuvre at Paddock hill bend. I decided against it and the rest of the race consisted of making sure I kept out of peoples way in my quest for finishing points.

With the race over my next problem was getting the car fixed for the next days NSSCC race at Croft. Colin Ingram, who had missed the race at Brands Hatch due to airline problems in Norway, offered to help me fix the car on our way home. In a couple of hours we had helicoiled the damaged threads and had the car back and running and ready for the race the next day. It couldn't get possibly worse could it ? read on