July 31 Race Report – Much Ado About Nothing
Two weeks ago I treated Blossom to new boots, replacing Dunlop Direzzas with Bridgestone RE55’s. I gave them a test run on a practice day and declared myself happy with them after running low 1:29’s first time out. (My best ever lap time at Killarney is a 1:27.5 or thereabouts.) The rest of the practice session I spent trying to film Ant Cocks in his maiden outing with his new Harper Type 5. I decided that the tyres were right, they felt right, and all was well with the world, as I fully expected that come race day I’d be slightly quicker with the sense of occasion that a race day brings.
I could not have been more wrong. In timed quali I went out and managed a high 1:29, despite feeling like I was going well. But all was not lost. Well, not yet anyway. I had Paul Schwartz (CAV GT40) gridded alongside me and Hennie Trollip (Lotus 7 replica) ahead of me, so I knew what I wanted to achieve in the first heat. For as long as I’ve been racing, I’ve been chasing Hennie.
After quali, I put some croissants in “the oven” to heat them up. “The oven” being under the bonnet, on top of the exhaust manifold. As I did so I noticed that there was a bolt-shaped hole on the manifold and that one of the nuts on a stud was about halfway to the end of the stud, which I was pretty sure was not 100% as it should be. After brekkie, and once things had cooled down a little, I replaced the missing bolt and tightened everything up. There was evidence of some blowing, and I was hopeful that I had been losing some ponies as a result.
Heat 1 started with a great deal of busy-ness as three of the Class A cars fell off the racetrack and then scrambled back on. Paul got a good start, and Hennie and I were scrapping away behind him for a lap until Paul overcooked it in Turn 2 and allowed me and Hennie through, with Craig Harper (Harper Type 5) behind us.
For as long as I could, I held Hennie back, swapping position with him once or twice, but when he got past me into Turn 5 I knew he was likely to get away for the simple reason that he always manages better drive out of Turn 5 than I do. After that, Craig found a way past and I was left in no man’s land for the rest of the race.
Craig had been ticked off for an oil leak in parc ferme after the end of heat 1. At least some of his oil leak was from the dipstick tube. Blossom has been leaking oil too, and despite nipping up the sump bolts, replacing the tappet cover and tappet cover bolt gaskets, the leak has remained, so I took the opportunity to learn from Craig and replace the O-ring on Blossom’s dipstick tube too. (As it happens it’s a job that’s about as complicated as putting one’s socks on, so I was happy to break my “no fixing in the pits” rule.)
Heat 2 was even worse. The field was spread out at the start, and as a result, I could not rely on bunching to help me to get a good start. I had benefitted from a reversed grid for class D, but the cars behind me all came through in quick succession, leaving me lapping in splendid isolation. I drove as hard as I could, but not only did I not make any impression on those ahead of me, worse yet, my lap times were down. In the slower corners the car was very understeery, and it felt like I was waiting and waiting for the front to turn in so that I could get back on the power.
Power does not seem to be an issue as I am still able to buzz the rev limiter on the short straights, I just need to find a quicker way around the slow corners. As I am running the new tyres on the same pressures as I was using for the previous set, it looks like I need to experiment with tyre pressures to get the right set up for these tyres. On the plus side, the O-ring replacement has finally cured the oil seepage.
Video can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAf3RLH5xZ0
