dbRacing- WRDA Race Report Pembrey 31st August 2002

Race Report - WRDA 31st August 2002

Practice

The Welsh Sports & Saloons car championship was session two of the day, and the first opportunity for me to take the car on the track following the damage at Silverstone. Unfortunately there had not been sufficient time to accomplish everything in the short time available and the first problem showed itself at scruitineering. The impact at Silverstone had caused damage to the seat mountings and the car would not be permitted to take to the circuit without the necessary welding repairs.

I set off round the paddock, looking for teams who may be willing to help and quite quickly found Norman Ricketts who competes in a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina in the Classic Thundersports championship. He offered to help and with the loan of the power generator from the Porsche hospitality unit he very quickly accomplished a very professional repair. The seat was replaced and with just one minute to spare I lined up in the pit lane ready for practice.

When we were released onto the circuit I spent the first half lap just making sure that the car was safe and the brakes, steering etc. were working fine. I then started to get some lap times, but though 1:10's came up very easily, the car just did not seem to be handling right. Worse than that was the groaning noise as I went round corners. On about the 8th lap the groaning suddenly got louder, vibrations were passing through the car and it also started to misfire. I immediately headed back to the paddock with a suspected engine mounting failure.

My suspicions were confirmed when I opened the bonnet when I saw the intercooler resting on the offside suspension turret. I had about 15 minutes to make a temporary repair before the Porsche Classic qualifying, none the less I had managed to qualify in 12th place ahead of the Sierra Cosworth driven by Graham Cole and behind the Rover 216 GI and Honda Integra type R of Pete Slater and Larry Phillips respectively.

To continue the raceday in chronological order you can go the the Porsche Classic race report here.

Race

I just managed to get the replacement engine mounting fixed and the undertray back in place when one of the marshals came to remind me that if I wanted to take part in the race I had two minutes to get into the collecting area. Cutting things fine is obviously getting to be a habit.

The green flag lap confirmed that the new engine mounting and adjusted front wheel bearing had solved all the nasty noises emanating from the car and so I set myself up to have a good race, at the same time taking my very first opportunity to see what sort of lap times I could realistically post later on in the Porsche race. The lights turned green and I made a good start passing a couple of cars on the way down to Hatchetts Hairpin. This corner has a deserved reputation as a place for contact as by design it is very slow with a 120 degree angle. All the cars negotiated it successfully and for the next two laps I pursued the bright orange B & Q Warehouse sponsored Honda Integra R driven by Larry Phillips. Along the way was Graham, Hollis in his mk2 Escort rally car. I doubt I will ever forget his full-power slide on the exit of Spitfires and entrance to Dibeni bend. Apparently this was not only his style at that part of the circuit but on almost all the circuit - and very popular with the spectating public it was too !

As we completed the fourth lap of the race I carried more speed through Honda curve and passed the Integra. The rest of the race was quiet, aside from being lapped by the top two Radical cars though Larry Phillips was quick enough to make sure I retained concentration and worked my lap time down into the 1:08's. I crossed the line in 7th place overall, second in class, though more good news was to come as Clive Hayes (WRDA Chairman) and fellow competitor Cindy Pearce came over to the Porsche Paddock and presented me with a "Driver of the day award". We then had an enjoyable motorsport chat and I might well be competing in more WRDA events when they visit their more northern (at least from their perspective) circuits at Silverstone and Oulton Park.