Curborough Sprint Report - 15/06/08 (Official)
OK so here goes.
Got to Curborough about 07:15am and signed on immediately, then unloaded some kit and sorted the Nova out, removed plates put timing splitter on etc.
On the way there, I had noticed that I was low on fuel, but I wasn't too concerned as I wouldn't have wanted a full tank anyway.
8:30am comes and we have the drivers & safety briefing - so then racings gets underway.
Being car number 60, I was a fair way down the list of cars, so we went up to look at all the other cars going around.
An hour passed, so I wondered back down to my car - to find the marshall looking for me and said they I should have been up the top... strange... as nothing was heard over the tanoy (as they call groups of car numbers up)
So, first practise run of the day, I set off with a bit of fighting with the steering wheel (more than usual) to keep the damn thing in a straight line, got to the first very slight left hander, let off a little which is what I did every time last time, to find me facing the other way - very odd feeling, went too easy, too fast... could be because of the new 1mm toe out on the rear driving me around? Got back on to the circuit, and did an appauling 44secs, very annoyed.
Came in, had a look around and still wondered why I wasn't able to catch and hold the slide - we didn't do anything here, so I thought, maybe I just have to get used to it.
Another couple of hours passed, and I was more prepared this time around, gloves on, camcorder rolling, and I was aware that the back end could try and steer me around the bend moreso, so off I went again for my second practice run, and again - it was almost uncontrollable slide, but I managed to hold it - wasn't a smooth run at all, very 'all over the place' but managed to beat my previous personal best by 0.7s with a 35.94 @ 93mph, this was good - but it was only practise, so doesn't go towards the Championship.
Again, wasn't feeling particulary confident with the car due to the previous days findings, but I'm not going there. And with everything done by eye - the car felt a bit jeloppy style. Despite beating my personal best, it wasn't smooth, it was quite erratic which is what was concerning me.
Another hour or two passed where we had lots of talks about what to do, what not to do, and everyone tried to convince me to slow down, slow in hard out, as opposed to my hard in, harder out.
First timed run of the day, I thought, nice and smooth, don't go hell for leather... so I set off again, was difficult keeping the car in a straight line, through the first left hander with minimal slide (but I was only going a fraction of the speed imo), then into the mole hill, felt good, turned in a little too early, clipped the inner kerb which sent the passenger side sky high, and I very nearly almost rolled it over, but during the corner I was in hesitation whether to try and still get around the markers, or bail out onto the grass. Here is the footage again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF9kwb3ifDA
Looks very sedate from the outside, massive thanks for Adam & Michelle recording from different angles, and thanks for the standing ovasion, not just from my awesome pit crew - but the whole crowd :cool:
Drove back into the paddock, threw my steering wheel onto the grass and went for a walk alone whilst I was cooling off, not necessarily scared, but adrelaline was pumping and I was fuming that I got it wrong again, why wasn't it doing what it was doing last time I was here, why I am struggling even to get one timed run in.
OK, so again, lunch time was here, so we looked at suspension, I had 3 guys telling me it was too stiff, and I had two people saying I should stiffen it up. So I decided to see what I was currently running, at the front 300lb springs with 10/28 hard, and on the rear 450lb rear springs with 15/28hard. So we slackened them right off to get it back to zero, and we'd start again.
During lunch we walked the course, to try and fathom out whether I did hit the kerb or not as it's not clear as day on the incar video - turns out I did, and I was hugging the molehill too much, so the guys advised me to run right wide and come in aiming for a straight line down passed the molehill into the following right hander.
OK, we'd gathered where I went wrong, by this point my Facet Redtop pump had completely stopped working, wasn't even vibrating away as they do, I checked the fuse and wiring - all fine... great. Then my injection pump started to pack up because it was being over worked by having to not only fraw fuel from the tank, it was having to pull it through another dead fuel pump, up the length of the car, through the swirl pot and then into the engine, which left me with suspicious as to whether I'll make it around.
2nd timed run of the day, after my near-roll, I decided that I was going to do a nice smooth slow siting lap, however it was timed, So at the start line, car started to die... fuel... great... off I went coughing and spluttering, car felt appauling, so I went around, did the wide line at molehill which imo didn't work as well as it was going to in our heads, I left it late to turn in, which meant I was experiencing alot of cocking the leg up, and some understeer to boot, after the fuel obviously swishing about, I was left with no acceleration, and down the main straight it was coughing all over the place, which left me with again, an miserable 44seconds or there abouts.
Came in the pits, injection pump after the swirl pot had died, so I fitted my spare, put that on, put some more fuel in, and within minutes, that also was failing and I had erratic fuel pressure, due to how much it was being over worked, having to pull it such a long distance, as usually they are mounted within 2 foot of the tank.
So I decided to retire, I accepted the fact this "wasn't my day" so I told the Clerk of Course that I wasn't running again, we got the car back running by winding the FPR right up just to try and get somewhere around 4.5bar, however it was fluctuating between 3, and 5 because the pump was on its way out.
The drive home was very boring, everytime I put my foot down, it just bogged down and almost died - so two new fuel pumps, and a re-set up of geometry is needed before my double lapper in July, closely followed by our Donny trackday.
Last but certainly not least, I would really like to thank the following people, not only for turning up and supporting me, but for helping out, offering advice, and generally mincing about - I'll let you decide who did what...
dhdev (Oli), Adam, nova ian & kat, m17tty, LiquidPug, Rob Hirst, Al (ace-media) along with all my family that always supports me in such events. It certainly doesn't go un-noticed! :thumb:
Not sure if this has been upto usual standards of reports, but there hasn't been much to rave about.
Hope you enjoyed reading, none the less :)
