Sat 1 Apr - Brands Hatch

My first race of the season - or so I hoped. After much work in the last few weeks by myself and others (thanks to Richard & Tony), the big day loomed. I arrived at the track at about 5:30 on the Fri night and set to work finishing the car off - fitting the seat, harness and numbers mainly as well as some smaller jobs.

Saturday started wet, but got drier rapidly and by the heat race was definitely dry. My luck was not so good. As we sat in the Assembly Area before qualifying, a coolant hose came off the water pump and in a cloud of steam, I killed the master switch. Although we were able to affect a quick repair and refill the tank (thanks Matt and Glenn with bucket!) the electrics were soaked.  It turned out that the master switch was dodgy anyway, and that the king lead (coil to dizzy) had given up after being doused in spray. The nice clerk of the course gave me 3 laps prior to the heat race (which I was on the back of the grid for), but this just highlighted another problem.  It was misfiring terribly. We quickly changed the rest of the HT leads, but to no avail. It appeared to be running lean rather than rich, so there was no option but to withdraw rather than risk damaging the engine. Further investigation revealed that the dizzy was not tightened down, and I was now running retarded rather than advanced ignition! Oh well, I knew there would be teething problems.

I optimistically lined up as 5th reserve for the final.  Even with the 2nd and 3rd reserves not lining up, it was not to be.  None of the reserves got a race - we would only have been successful if there had been a red flag in the first 2 laps. Anyway, I got to watch some cracking racing in great weather!  I'll be back at Cadwell with a sorted car!