27/06/2008.Still no movement on the racing front. The Sapphire chassis is still in the garage on high stands. I'm contenplating renewing the roll cage, then it just needs bodywork and a back bumper. Oh yeah, paint, suspension, engine, box etc etc.........
The other week I took a trip down to the new Aldershot raceway to see Vince Stone race in the Spedeworth 2 Litre Saloons in their first meeting at this venuue. Deane Wood has done an excelent job with this little track and although very basic, the facilities are impressive for a track in it's infancy. The track itself looked nice and smooth and quite fast. But by far the best part about it was that I left my house 5 minutes before start time, and got there intime to see the first race!
The only other racing related news is that the Transit passed it's MOT last week. Apparently the tester had to check that the engine was running when he did the emmisions check, it was that good!! I wonder if I'll get a rebate on the Road Tax bassed on this result? Hmm, thought not.
11/11/2007.Having not raced at all this year for various reasons, work has begun on the Sapphire chassis bringing it up to date and loosing a bit of weight. Details to follow.
On the website front, the whole thing needs a bit of a revamp. The site where I stored my photos has gone down the tube so to speak so none of the links where photos are involved are working. I'm currently sourcing an alternative location for them so hopefully they'll all be working again soon.
Having been away from the racing for the year, I feel that I'm "out of the loop" as far as developments within the formula are concerned, so my return to racing next year will be very much with fun in mind!
12/07/2006.As usual much has happend throughout the year so far, but I've had trouble finding time to update the site. Racing wise (we're just doing shale this year) has seen a reasonable start to the year at King's Lynn resulting in a promotion to blue grade. Other than that, we've only ventured out at Mildenhall the once, at the English Championship, and managed a couple of laps and loads of damage.
On the domestic front, Suzanne gave birth to our second son, Jonathan, in early June, and since then we've been adjusting our lifestyle to suit.
Next meeting for us will be Lynn on 5th August .
01/02/2006.Work has comenced on the refurbishment of the old car. The body has been completely removed and the old front and rear bumpers, along with both sets of side rails have been removed. I have some modifications in mind which will bring it more in line with the newer chassis and hopefully reduce the weight a fair bit as well. I've taken a few pictures of the work done so far and will be adding to these as the work progresses. They can be veiwed on the photo site by following the "Photo Archives" link on the left, and clicking on the "Old car rebuild" album.
30/01/2006.The official fixture list has been added to the "Forthcoming Fixtures" page, link on the left.
28/01/2006.Firstly a quick summary of the end of last season. We made our track debut at Spedeworth's Bovingdon raceway and although I spent most of the day off the pace, a lively final meant that I managed to score my only points of the day with an eigth place. Then it was off to the Belle Vue shaleway up in Manchester where we had our most successful meeting of the year with a 4th, two 3rds, and a 2nd, including a 3rd in the final, and an all too rare trip on the control car in the illustrius company of the world champions from the last three years.
Finally we headed off to a much more local Wimbledon Arena where I was reunited with an old friend, namely the Plough lane fence in the first heat, courtesy of 3 Derek Howard and then just tried too hard in the second race aiming for a gap that was never there up the inside of Jamie Sampson and only suceeded in spinning him and half spinning myself, only to be collected by the rest of the field, thus ending both our races early and collecting a whole load of damage too.
So that was the end of another season. I was more active this year attending 17 meetings and travelling a bit futher afield than in the last couple of years. Plans for the coming season are to have a quiet year. I will concentrate mainly on shale meetings, which will this year be confined to only King's Lynn and Mildenhall, with disappointingly no meetings at Belle Vue, Sheffield or Coventry. Car wise, I will start the season in the newer 2 door Sierra whilst the old Sapphire gets a rebuild and diet, and then the newer car will get it's rebuild. So roll on March 4th, and the King's Lynn season opener!
13/09/2005.I started work today on straightening the damaged bodywork sustained at the Northampton meeting.To see a photo of the damage CLICK HERE . I was actually dreading trying to get this all back into shape but it actually straigtened out ok ( CLICK HERE ) and all should be fine for our second track debut in as many meetings next Sunday at Bovingdon.
12/09/2005.This last weekend, the Saloons returned to Northampton International Raceway for the first time in about 5 years, in support to the F2 World Champioship. Having never previosly raced at NIR, the AMPM Racing team was making it's return for the first time in about 17 years having only previously watch a couple of F1 meetings here back in the 80's! With the track being a fast tarmac circuit, I knew that any success would be limited, but I just wanted to race at this track at least once during my career. I wasn't to be wrong either, with about 20 red and blue grade cars and just 4 lower yellow graded cars, myself included, the racing was to be fast and furious.
Race 1 was to be a bit disapointing when a plug lead got knocked off a few laps into the race and I had to retire. Race 2 was much better and I managed a 17th place finish but crucially managed to stay on the lead lap which I was pleasd with. The fianl was to come to an early end when I slowed to avoid a stationary Dave Aldous, who was sideways across the home straight, and I took a huge hit from behind and somehow I managed to end up in the wall on turn 2! I managed to get it going again but had to retire half a lap later with broken steering.
Although I was fractionally off the pace, and results didn't go our way, I enjoyed racing on the superfast raceway and I reckon it is well suited to our cars. Hopefully we'll be back there again next season.
4/09/2005.Following a month away from the tracks, during which time we had our yearly holiday getting away from it all in the peacefull Lake District, it was back to racing with a bang and the 2005 World Championship at Mildenhall in Suffolk. Having dropped to 45th in the world rankings, I was seeded onto the inside of row 4 for the last chance qualifier. With 6 cars going through to the world final, I had a reasonable chance of going through, although I had never raced the new car on the Midenhall shale before. I got off to a good start moving up a couple of places but then on lap 2 was taken out of the running by 438 tony Lay, with an uncompromising attack on the inside rear wheel resulting in a spin, and I was left facing the traffic. I managed to find reverse gear and back it up the home staright amongst all the traffic and spun it round and got going again without too much of a delay.
I had however dropped right down to 18th position but the car was handling well and I soon started to make places back up. I had no idea where I was but felt by the end of the race that I had done the best I could under the circumstances. Little did I know but I had finnished 7th, just one place short of qualifying for the second year running!
The World final was a reasonable race with the Championship being retained by 402 Shaun Webster, which is thoroughly deserved as he is by far the top driver at the moment, and has been a good champion travelling many miles to race each week.
There followed three allcomers races, in which I raced in the first. After a diasterous first half of the race during which I was spun twice and kept getting put onto the wet outside line, the second half of the race prooved to be good for me as the car was working well and I strung together some good laps to eventually come in 9th. With the car reasonably damage free, we decided to load up at this point and watch the last allcomers, and keep the car for next week, when we will be making our Northampton debut. In the last allcomers, our travelling companion, 710 Vince Stone finnaly had some luck for once and lead the race for about 7 laps until he was spun. It was the best he's done in a long while and was awarded the Hardest Tryer award which was thoroughly deserved. Well done Vince.
25/07/2005.The weekend of the 23rd and 24th July saw the Saloon stockcar circus move on to Smeetharpe Raceway, Taunton, for the British Championship. Saturday night saw 5 qualifying heats in very changeable weather, with each driver partaking in three races. I was programmed to race in heats 2, 4 and 5, and with two 12th place finishes in my first two heats, it looked as if the last chance race on Sunday was beckoning. Then in heat 5, I had an epic battle with 425 Richard Baldwin on a track which was slippery but drying and my setup really came good. This resulted in a 7th place which was good enough to see me through to the Championship on Sunday.
I got a good start to the British championship in which I picked my way through several pile-ups, and managed to move up from my 25th position grid slot to 15th. I managed to hold this position for several laps until on lap 10, I lost the rear fenceside wheel, causing a stoppage in the process. Close examination of the wheel, which was of the Weller racing variety, it appears that I took a knock at some point on the rim which weakened the centre of the wheel resulting in the middle ripping clean out.
A further heat and allcomers race failed to produce any significant results for me, but overall, it had been a reasonable weekend, even if the weather had done it's best to spoil it.
18/07/2005.Unfortunately, a poor turn out of just 9 cars made the trip up to Buxton. It's a bit of a shame really, as the track is well suited to saloons and 25 cars round there would be quite entertaining. I hope Buxton stick with the saloons and are rewarded with some better dates next year, maybe even a champioship, as I think its the least they deserve for giving us a go. Well done to those who turned up, especially to my two fellow yellow graders, 167 Richard Cosby, who's been giving tarmac a good go this year, and 417 Fred Powel, normaly a shale only man, but thought that he'd go up to Buxton for a look as he'd never been before, and brought his car along with him!
Saloon Stock cars big traveller's, the Websters (401 &402) and Richard Baldwin (425) were enjoying a more local meeting for a change, as both are from neighbouring Yorkshire!
As I said before, the aim for myself was to try and stay in the track championship, in order to gain some more valluble world ranking points. With two 6th's and a 7th, I managed to move up to 6th in the track points championship, and gain 15 world points, which is a big gain for me. We came away happy, even though the car didn't handle all that well and despite the fact that we felt the crowd had been let down by the number of cars, which affected the racing.
After the meeting, I was chatting to former world champion Dave Aldous about getting the car to handle better. we were talking about tyre softener, and how it can tranform older tyres, and thus save money by reducing the need to continually buy new tyres. Now previously I had been against the use of tyre softener, but Dave made quite a lot of sense and so this morning, I was on the phone to Randall Motorsport to order some softener, a durometer (for measuring tyre hardness) and also a new Gaz shock absorber for the fence side front.
12/07/2005.With the scorching hot weather we are experiencing at the moment, it's been difficult working on the car. I had planned to replace the top rail of the front bumper which will involve a lot of cutting and welding, but after 5 mins with the face shield on, gloves and a long sleeve jacket to protect from the sparks, your not only soaked with sweat, but knackered as well. Therefore, repars this week have been limited to the essential ones, a few patches to the bodywork, a repair to the rear bumper driver's side corner and a tidy up with the paint brush. I've also changed the diff from the 3.9 to1 I was running at skegness, to the 3.77 to 1 that I'll need at Buxton on Sunday.
Having done the first Buxton of the season, and gained enough points to be 10th equal in their track championship, I need to attend again this Sunday, which is our last visit there this season, in order to keep or improve on my track championship standing, and thus gain some more world ranking points. That's the plan anyway, and with the meeting falling between the UK weekend, and the British championship weekend, there are only 13 or so cars booked to race.
11/07/2005.With Chris having only just returned from his honeymoon, it was just myself and Rich that made the 5 hour journey up to Skegness for the Uk Championship weekend. We got a good place in the pits and saved a space for Vince Stone 710 and set up camp. There were five heats, with each driver racing in three, and I was given heats 1, 2 and 4.
Heat 1 started really well and I got a good break and led for about 4 laps. However, after about 10 laps, the car just seemed to go off, and it started to push on in the bends, something we were not to cure for the rest of the evening. However, I managed to hang on for 7th place which was to ultimately see me onto Sunday's grid for the main race.
Heat 2 and Heat 4 both saw me struggle with an ill handling car, bringing it home in 16th place both times. During the evening, the team, which included Walker Laing down from Scotland for the weekend, worked on the setup of the car but to no avail.
Unusually for Skegness, the racing was finished by 10.30ish and after the now customary barbie, it was a visit to the disco and the bar untill the wee hours of the morning.
On Sunday morning, we discovered a leak from a cracked gearbox tailshaft which necessitated a gearbox change, and I played with the ride height of the drivers side rear suspension. First up was the Last Chance Qualifier, which was to be Vinces only race of the weekend, and for the second championship running, we could watch, rather than race in it having already qualified for the Uk Championship. Vince innitially showed well, if not a little slow due to engine problems and the weight of his car, but then had to retire with suspension damage.
On to the Championship race, and I gridded on about the 10th row. To be honest I was never really on the pace during the race, although the changes I had made had improved the car a little and I recorded a 19th place finish.
The following race was for the Gordon Barclay memorial trophy, marking the tenth anniversary of his untimely death in a road accident on the way home from the Skegness weekend! The race was started in graded order and myself, Andy Santry and a white graded driver made a good start. On about the 3rd lap there was a huge pile up on one of the bends, causing an almost total track blockage, but we managed to squeeze though a gap and continue. Next time around and the track was now blocked and the yellow flags waved. All this meant that about 5 of us were a lap
up on most of the field, but thanks to the new transponders, the officials had no trouble keeping up with the lap scoring. After a couple more race stoppages and a good race, I managed to bring the car home in 5th position which I was well pleased with.
The final race of the weekend was the allcomers, which was a quiet affair for myself and I finished in 10th place.
All in all, another good weekend with 6 finishes out of 6, good weather, good company and some good racing.
06/07/2005.The temporary engine was fitted without any hitches and the car readied for Skegness and the Uk Championship. Keithy, aka Smiler came over and brought with him Adrian Balckwell's electronic scales so that we could weigh the car (many thanks Adrian). To my relief, it weighed in at 1188kgs, just 18 kgs over the minimum limit. A bit of a differance to the old car which weighs about 250kgs over the minimum limit!
With the car weighed and all the corner weights and cross weight information recorded, we continued with the preparation by changing the diff and touching up the paintwork.
28/06/2005.I removed the engine from the spare Sierra today and stripped it ready for fitting into the stock car later in the week.
27/06/2005.Today I stripped down the engine and removed it from the car. There was no obvious damage, but it was breathing heavily and misfiring. The block was a totally standard unit so the plan is to get it reworked and have some slightly better pistons fitted. Meanwhile, I have another 2 Litre injection Sierra on the drive, which I bought for spares, and it has a 70,000 mile from new bottom end in it which will do nicely for the time being. Then when the other engine is rebuilt, I'll swap them back and do the same with this one.
With the engine out, I gave the car a good wash with the pressure washer to get rid of all the shale.
26/06/2005.With Chris being on his honeymoon in sunny Barbados (it's alright for some!), just myself and Rich made the trip to King's Lynn this last weekend for the National Championship.
The cars were divided into 5 groups and each driver raced in 3 out of the 5 heats, with the top 24 points scorers going straight through to the Championship on Sunday, the rest having to slog it out in the last chance qualifier for the remaining ten places on the grid. I was programmed for heats 1, 3 and 5, which is the best scheduling to get as it allows you plenty of time to sort out any damage between races.
Heat 1 was going well and I was upto about 3rd place, when I was spun out on the home staight, and then spun again on turn 2. However, both times I managed to get going quickly and there was enough going on elsewhere between the other drivers for me to still record an 8th place. Heat 3 was going well again and I was upto 2nd. Unfortunately, my eyes were watering due to the heyfever that I've been suffering from lately so I thought I would open my visor a small amount, hoping the air would dry them. However, this just served to let the dust into my helmet, and hence into my eyes making them twice as bad and as I sruggled to see, I slipped down the order
to finish 7th. In heat 5, I kept my visor firmly closed and despite plenty of action, managed to grab a 10th place.
All this meant that I had qualified in 18th position for the final with no need to race in the last chance qualifier. We had our customary barbeque and then retired to the bar until the small hours of the morning, then back to the van for some shut eye.
On Sunday morning we had to repair the front fence side bumper. After some deliberation over a temporary repair, we decided to do a proper job and replace the whole corner, and the newly purchased generator came to the rescue once again, powering the grinder and welder, not to mention the kettle for the odd cup of coffee!
Onto the National Championship race, and following a parade lap, (including a photo with some very nice trophy girls!) I gridded on the 9th row, next to 382, Danny Hunt, who was the reigning champion. I got a very good start, avoiding many pile ups and rose up through the order to I guess about 5th. At this point the race settled down but I struggled a little with the handling of the car, and also thought it was going a little slower than the previous night. Hence I dropped back a few places but it came on strong again towards the end and then started to sound sick with two laps to run, but I managed to keep going and I finished in a great (for me anyway) 8th position, and with it earned an extra 12 world ranking points to go with the 12 for attending the meeting! However the engine had had enough and that was to be the end of our meeting.
On the whole, it was a good meeting, with some good racing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The 8th place in the championship, and the world ranking points that go with it were a bonus, which have greatly improved my enthusiasm and I'm now looking forward to the next weekend, which is the UK Championship th Skegness in two weeks time.
17/06/2005.Barry Weaterhead of BWP Live has sent some photos of me getting caught up in the action at the English championship at King's Lynn back at the end of April. CLICK HERE to veiw them. Thanks Barry.
09/06/2005.The main reason for making the long trip up to Buxton in the Peak District was to try and get a place in the track points championship for that track. With only 13 cars attending on the day, a single top ten finish would be enough to see me into the top 20 points scorers, and hence obtain some vital world ranking points.
The day didn't start well as I flattened the batteries trying to start the car just to get it off the trailor. The engine had flooded, something that had also occured during the week previous at home and I've put this down to be the new fuel pump being too powerful for the carburetor float valve.
With the help of a battery charger borrowed from the Chris Murfin 807 team, and the lucky fact that I'd taken my newly purchased generator, we charged the batteries and got a push start round the pits by a recovery truck with the fuel tap selected off. This cleared the engine of all the excess fuel and eventually it started, even if it was a bit spluttery at first. Once the engine was warmed up, there didn't seem to be a problem with starting.
Due to all this messing around, I just got out for practise before the time was up but only got 3 laps, so didn't exactly learn much about the setup, other than it felt ok.
Then just before the first race, the heavens opened up and it rained heavily, provoking some frantic action in the pits changing from dry to wet tryes. The rain actually worked to my advantage and held the fast chargers up for a little longer than normal and I managed to come home in 7th place.
The rest of the meeting was dry and I finshed out of the top ten in race 2 and recorded a 9th in the final.
Although again not setting the world alight, the car stayed reliable and my two positions meant that I grabbed a joint 10th in the track championship, and with it 11 world ranking points. In order to maintain this position, I will need to re-visit Buxton again in July for their second meeting of the year, which is also their final meeting before the world ranking points cutoff date.
June is looking to be a bit busy on the domestic front, what with us having a conservatory built and my brother's stag do and wedding on consecutive weekends, meaning our next meeting will be the National Championship weekend at King's Lynn on 25th and 26th. As I didn't do the National last year, due to it being in Scotland, this will be another welcome addition of some more world ranking points for attending, and who knows, maybe some more for a placing in the championship. That all depends on how well the new car goes on shale though! We shall see.
20/05/2005.With the revival of the "Surf's Up" article in the "Unloaded 7.3" magazine, I thought it was about time I revived this site.
Work comenced in earnest last November on the new car, which was suposed to be ready for the opening tarmac meeting this season, at Ringwood on Good Friday. That deadline came and went and I was forced into using the old car at Ringwood, which as usual proved to be a disaster. It was very slow compared to everyone else and to top it all, it had absolutely no brakes due to a faulty brake servo. I don't mind racing with poor brakes, but when a red flag is thrown and you find you can't stop, it gets scarey
and could endanger other drivers or track marshals. We tried to source a replacement in the pits to no avail and were forced to retire from the meeting early. Back at home we fixed the problem and readied the car for a trip to the King's Lynn shaleway on Easter Monday. We also vowed never to take the heavy old car out on tarmac again!
Easter Monday was a little better than Ringwood had been and we competed in three races, but we still returned home with zero points, and a smashed gearbox to boot. By now my enthusiasm was beginning to wain but I plodded on with the new car.
Next up was the English Championship at King's Lynn. I had contemplated using the new car, and it was almost finished, but a weather forcast early in the week prior to the event of rain persuaded me to take the old car, which is good in the wet, especially on shale. However
it turned out to be a very dry meeting, but by the end of the night I was still glad I'd taken the old car. It turned out to be a great night's racing, with 53 cars racing producing a fair bit more contact than recent meetings. I quallified for the championship with a top ten finish in my heat and although I started well in the final, a half spin whilst trying to pass 311 Steve Newman (all my own fault) resulted in a finish just outside of the top ten. Another top ten finish in the alcomers race and my enthusiasm was restored, although we returned home with a very battered car.
With this renewed enthusiasm, the new car was readied for it's first outing at Arena Essex. This was our first visit to Arena for 3 years and the old car never went well there. I set the new car up very basically using the springs off the old car and it seemed to handle ok, but it didn't set the world alight! In fact I was pretty dissapointed with the speed and my lap times and only recorded one 11th place all day. however the prop shaft was vibrating quite a lot, and there was a doubt whether we had the correct gearing so following some repairs during the week, it was decided to make the long haul up to Buxton on Sunday.
25/01/2005.Photo's of the new car taking shape can now be found on the "Photo Archives" page under the title of "New car 2004/2005".
Update.Just for the record, I failed to qualify for the World Championship by just one place when I finished 5th in my last chance qualifier (only 4 went through). I then had a couple of months break from racing during which time I started work on the new car and then in November we attended the ORCi Championship at Swaffham which proved to be yet another meeting plagued by engine misfires!
05/09/2004.This season has been a trying one. We've had more engine trouble than we'd care to think about, which at the time, serriously dented my enthusiasm for the sport, and indeed for updating this site. Now hopefully, that is all behind us, and having now done a few meetings without engine trouble, my enthusiasm is high enough to hopefully start on the new car which I've been promising myself for a couple of season's now.
But before that, we've still a few small fixtures left, like the World final weekend next week at King's Lynn! Due to the engine prob's, I'm only in the low 40's in the world ranking list so I'll have to compete in the last chance qualifier on the night. With over 70 cars booked for the weekend, it looks like there could be over 40 cars in this race, so it's gonna be difficult to qualify, but I'll give it a go.
Last night we made our track debut at Coventry as a support formula to the F1 world championship. We only had two races and I managed a consistant 7th in both of them. they were both very different races, with the first on a wet track following a prolonged watering and the second on a very dry track. It was a great night and we were finished and loaded up in time to really enjoy the bulk of the F1 meeting including their world final, which was retained by Peter Falding, in a steady, but none the less great drive.
I didn't sustain too much damage so this week will mainly be devoted to tarting the car up for the comming weekend.
07/03/2004.Season 2004 has now started and with a freshly revamped car (Click here for some photos of the work carried out), it was off to King's Lynn for the opening meeting yesterday. The weather had been quite wet all week and although the track appeared to be in good condition, it was actually a bit trickier than it looked. In my first heat the car didn't seem to handle very well and I only recorded a 10th place finish. The ill handling was traced to the tracking and with that adjusted, the car seemed to go much better in the second heat, although I got tangled up with 126 Willy Barnes and a back marker and ended up stuck on the tyres on the centre green. In the final, myself and a couple of other yellow graders got a good breakaway, until
a yellow flag came out for an injured 377 Mick Osler. Again we had a bit of good fortune when the backmarker behind me on the restart got bogged down as the greens cam out and held all the star drivers up for a while. So the three of us again opened up a good lead which was never to be closed down, the win going to long time racer 417 Fred Powel, myself 2nd and World Champion 499 Dave Aldous recovering to take a distant 3rd. With 2nd place came a large trophy and a welcome trip on the Trackstar control car, something I've not done for a long time.
In the allcomers, I was again going well after a slow start and had just made it up into a good position when I was spun by 511 Craig Barnet and I recovered to finish 8th.
All in all, not a bad start to the season. We were suposed to go to St Day in Cornwall today (Sunday) but we only arrived home at 2.30am and with the car suffering from flat batteries and covered in shale, and us suffering from a lack of sleep, we decided that the 6.00am departure time required to get down there was pushing it a little so common sense prevailed and we decided not to go. Next meeting is next Saturday 13th at Mildenhall.
20/11/2003.The garage is more or less finished now.The roof is on, I have some lights installed, the power sockets will get done this week along with some painting but there is still one major piece to the jigsaw missing! I took delivery today of the roller shutter door. The whole garage is designed around this door, as I wanted something that would take up minimal space in the roof when it was open. I managed to source a manufacturer up in Co Durham through a more local agent and ordered the door two weeks ago. I was quite impressed at the speed of the service and the delivery driver even phoned me twice to keep me informed of his progress and his ETA from Co Durham.
Imagine my dissapointment, having waved goodbye to the lorry driver to discover that the door was too narrow! There seems to have been a bit of a cockup over the ordering by the agent when quoting the size and the 2 parties are arguing over who's fault it is. all this leaves me without a door and the cold must be approaching fast.
On a more positive note, my van passed it's MOT today with flying colours.
04/11/2003.I managed to effect some repairs to the car (Click here for some photos of the work carried out) so that we could take part in the Horry Barnes 50 years of racing celebration evening. The organisers had assembled an impressive list of former drivers to take part in three "vetterans" races, 2 heats and an allcomers. I was lucky to get Martin Parker 304 racing my car. Martin was a red grade driver who raced along with his father and brother back in the 70's and 80's. He raced in the first heat which was for the "younger" vetterans and although he started last on the grid, he showed well to score a finish out of the top ten (we thought he was in the top ten) despite the attentions for some laps from 302 Deane Wood, who'd been my favourite driver of the era. It was weird watching Deane hammer into my back bumper for lap after lap!
Anyway, Martin appeared to enjoy himself so much that he couldn't wait to get out for the allcomers, which he duely won!, thus now making my car a race winning car!!!!
Following the vet's races, we had two heats and a final to contest and the car was really flying. It was the first ever time that I'd actually run the correct gearing at King's Lynn having been fortunate enough to purchase a rare 3.77 diff earlier in the year and have now coupled this to the P100 gearbox. I managed an 8th in the heat following a trip to the centre green and then followed that up with a 6th in the final, having been right in the mix with a couple of laps to go, only to be despatched up the pitgate turn wall by 27 Roy Fuller, in a great racing move after i'd taken him wide the previous lap, but obviously not wide enough!
It would have been a great night, and a truely magnificent tribute to Horry Barnes for all the years of effort he'd put in, if it hadn't been for one sad thing. One of the "older" vetterans, Val Seekings, suffered a heart attack in his heat and unfortunately never recovered. He was actually related by marriage to Horry, having been Willie Barnes wife's father, so it turned out to be a sad occasion for Horry. Our sympathies and condolances go out to Val's family and friends.
13/10/2003.Click here for a gallery of the damage sustained at Mildenhall at the weekend.
12/10/2003.Right. With some renewed enthusiasm for the saloons, I've started to race a bit more now and will be keeping this site up to date again. The garage is still not finished, but it does have three walls and I'm trying to do it in time for winter. Having said that, the car needs quite a bit of work as well so we'll see.
Having raced at the King's Lynn weekend (British Championship), the Skegness weekend (UK Championship) and the Taunton weekend (National Championship), we made the trip two weeks ago to Mildenhall for the European Championship. After qualifying for the championship race with a heat 9th, I managed to secure a somewhat dubious 5th place in the big race, which gave me a big haul of 36 world ranking points.
So with this sucess in mind, we drove up to Mildo last night for the Whites and Yellow grade championship final, for which I had qualified about mid grid. There was a great turnout of 39 cars including Ryan Wilson from Scotland and Phil Powell and Paul Soper from Devon. The first race was the white/yellow championship, and from the off, it was clear that the engine was not runnig right, and after a couple of spins I retired to the infield. After rejetting the carburetor and adjusting the ignition timing, I went out for my heat in what was now just a domestic meeting. But with Mildenhall being very small, and the fields of cars being rather large, it all made for plenty of action. The engine was now running much better
and I made my way up to second place with ease. Then just as I was challenging Tom Aldous 99 for the lead, I was spun out from behind. I manage to get going a gain but recorded a non placed finish. The final was all in, and 33 cars made it onto track. Again I got a good start and was up to second when again I got spun from behind and got collected by what seemed like the entire field. Eventually I managed to recover but the car was too badly damaged to continue. So after the highs of the Euro meeting, it was back to a low of "nil points", but I still enjoyed myself. The track was again in tip top condition so credit to RDC for that and for supplying trophies to all the qualifiers for the White/Yellow race. It's meetings like this that our formula needs to stay healthy, rewards for the lower grades, lots of cars and lots of action.
My next meeting should now be the Horry Barnes testimonial at King's Lynn on the 1st of November, providing I get the car repaired in time. What with that, the garage and half term on the horizon, as usual, I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks.
23/07/2003.Tonight saw the first ever running of the "online" National Hot Rod World Championship. Unfortunately there were a few no-shows from some of the top drivers and as a result I qualified in the top four. Each group of four had eight laps in which to set a quick time, and I managed third fastest time in my group and thus started the big race on the inside of the second row. However it wasn't to be as an error in front of eventual winner 53 Scrapman (former Scotish saloon driver Pete Bauld) saw me loose a few places. I did manage to fight my way back up to fifth by the end, which was probably about right going by the form book.
23/07/2003. After the good showing at King's Lynn, the Skegness Uk championship weekend was a major dissapointment. We had three heats each on the Saturday night to qualify for the championship on Sunday, with the top 24 points scorers going straight in to the main race. The first race on the Sunday would be a last chance qualifier with a further 8 cars going through to the final.
In my first heat I got spun out early on, and took an age to get going again. When I got it pointing the right way, I carried on only to attempt a spin on 175 Des Burton, but he managed to take me around with him. Finaly, having got going for the third time I slammed into someone on the back straight (don't know who as I was unsighted) and the resulting impact sheared 2nd gear. The front bumper was badly damaged too. Back in the pits, my team, which consisted of Mr Oi and Walker (thanks lads), managed to change the gearbox in time for my next heat. The car had felt a bit slow out of the corners so I adjusted the ignition timing slightly, which seemed to do the trick. Agian I was spun early on but got going again quicker this time.
Then the engine started to overheat and breathe heavily, so I slowed a little and recorded a non points scoring finish. Back in the pits it was clear that we could not continue with the same engine, so we started changing it for the next day.
With the engine swapped, and a temporary repair to the front bumper in place (thanks to 117 Barry Jeferys for the use of his welder), I entered the last chance qualifier and got off to a good start. Most of the yellows got caught up on the exit of turn 4 and I managed to follow Jason Jarret 75 through on the inside, for a good advantage. Then we came accross the whites, and 124 Billy Mack in particular standed in the middle of the track on turn one. I tried to take avoiding action but someone must have been holding me straight from behind as the car just went straight on into the back of him. For the second time, the 2nd gear just sheared and the steering rack was broken. At this point we called it a day and headed for home before we broke anything else!!!
23/06/2003. With the summer weekend meetings now upon us, I decided last week to turn my attentions to the car in a bid to get it out racing at King's Lynn for the British Championship this last weekend. I was originally going to go with Vince Stone, 710, as his mechanic, but when he decided that his car would not be ready then I thought I'd try and get mine ready instead.
I picked the car up from my mum's, where it had been in storage, early last week and set about removing the engine. I had previously bought a brand new Sheffield Engine Services engine from 264 Steve Olden, who was selling up all his saloon gear. It was his spare engine and had never been raced. With the engine fitted, I turned my attentions to the iron work. I had to build a new front fence side corner to the front bumper
and also change the back bumper from last years over rider style to this years double bumper style. There were lots of small jobs to do as well, but to cut a long storey short, it was done in time, although the bodywork was a little tatty.
The usual team of Mr Oi (my brother) and Smiler (Keithy) were unavailable but Vince came along as cheif mechanic. I knew there would be plenty of help at the meeting as Ray Toye (former 221) and Albert Forster (admin bod from the online racing) were coming down from Scotland for the weekend, and would lend a hand if required.
We had a good drive up to King's Lynn and on arival we parked up next to Alan Ainslie, who was making a shock shale appearance. Alan's mechanic is of course Walker Laing with whome we stay with when we go to Scotland, so we were in good company.
The qualifying format was five heats, with each driver getting three; the highest 24 points scorers going directly into the championship, with a further 8 qualifying through a last chance race on the Sunday. We had problems with the engine in the first race, the fuel mixture being too weak, and thus it running very hot. We changed some jets in the carb and managed to
get a 6th place in my second heat, which would eventually see me onto the championship grid in 22nd position, but it still wasn't right. We changed jets again for my last heat and it seemed a lot better, but a driving error saw me clout the inside marker tyres and I lost two laps.
The Championship was run in good conditions, although Trackstar had been very generous with the watering of the shale, but this was to play right into my hands. From the off I made up place after place while all the lighter cars struggled for grip. I was easily up into the top eight by the time the track started to dry but I could tell the engine was starting to suffer from the increased number of laps (25) and with 2 to go, it blew. By my reckoning, I was in about 4th or 5th at the time!
Usual 441 luck!!!
Although dissapointed, I was pleased that I'd put in a good performance but obviously that was the end of our weekend.
Today, I've stripped the engine down to find out what damage I'd done. I traced the problem to a lack of compression in the #4 cylinder and on removal of the cylinder head, I found a broken piston Veiw piston here. Fortunately, there appears to be very little damage to the cylinder bore. I pushed the car over my new pit, removed the sump and pushed out the piston. Everything else is in good condition so I've ordered a new piston from Burton Performance and hopefully I'll get it all running again for
the Skegness Uk weekend in three weeks time.
27/03/2003. Nothing much to report. Work continues on the garage at snails pace. I hired a mini excavator and skip loader and dug a hole for the inspection pit. The next day it was full of water! This has slowed me up quite a bit as I've had to enlarge the hole by 12" all round the outside, and 12" deeper (by hand; wet soggy/runny clay) and line the sides with 8" of concrete. Then I will have to water proof this and build the pit walls inside. Thank god it's been dry weather!
17/01/2003. Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone out there. Yes I know it's been ages since I last updated the site, but to be honest, not much has been happening on the racing front.
Work ceased over Christmas and the New Year on the garage, mainly due to the bad weather but hopefully it will recomence next week. The driveway is now finished and I have to start the demolition of the old garage before I can start on the site for the new one.
So what's been going on over the last few weeks. Well after obtaing a new computer at the start of November, I have joined the ranks of Online racing. Yep that's right, Online stock car racing. With games for Bangers, Saloons, National Hotrods and BRISCA F1 & F2, there's something for everyone. It's incredibly realistic and with a feed back steering wheel, you feel every hit. There are leagues for all formulas plus special one off meetings. I even have cars painted up for each game to resemble my real racer! Great fun. For more information follow the links below.
Uk Dirt (the main page for F1's, F2's, Bangers and Saloons)
Hotrods
Last weekend I took a trip up to Birmingham to visit the Autosport show and go to the banger "Civil War" at Hednesford. The show was a load of rubbish and not worth the entrance money but the racing at Hednesford was great, even if it was freezing. I went with my former team mate Andy, who is AM of AMPM Racing, and it was his first meeting for about three years. However, as he is a Notherner and I'm a Southerner, the fact that the South were trounced by the North, went down particularly well with him. However, the South did win the online version the following night!
Lastly, and by no means least, I turn my attentions to the new season. There have been a few developments over the winter, some good and some not so good. Firstly on the positive side we have Spedeworth at last showing an interest in the formula again and they are wanting to run a number of meetings. There have been some concerns that they wanted to flood the fixture list with meetings, thus diluting the number of cars at each meeting, but a compromise of around 9 meetings has been worked out which hopefully will get the go ahead. Also good is that there seems to be very little rule changes for car construction that will involve an increase in costs.
Looking on the negative side, the licence fee has rissen by 50% to £75 for the year. Also it's nearly February and we haven't received any new rules for the coming season (which seems to occur every year now) and drivers are waiting to rebuild thier cars as there are rumours of another change to the design of the back bumper. Worst of all is the banning of rear view mirrors for three months at Cowdenbeath. The use of mirrors is a personal thing. I know a lot of drivers don't use them but I personally like to use one. If you are stuck in the fence in a venrable position you can at least see if you are going to be hit and prepare yourself for it. Or if you get a puncture and are trying to get off the track, you can look behind for a gap in the traffic to safely pull onto the infield.
But I think my main dissagreement is that they are only enforcing it at one track. I thought we were a National formula with one set of rules and one governing body!
Due to the lack of comunication with the drivers on the above subjects, Andy Santry #369 along with the backing of serveral other drivers, myself included, is trying to set up a driver committee, so that we can have some input into the rules and general running of the formula. But we need all the drivers to be behind us so if you are a driver reading this and either haven't heard about this before, or haven't filled out Andy's questionnaire, then e-mail me for information from the link on the home page.
07/11/2002. I fixed the brakes on the van last week with a new vacuum pump. I've also replaced the discs and pads as we were getting a bit of excessive brake run out. Work on the driveway has really slowed up due to some bad weather and also due to the fact that I've taken delivery of a new computer, which makes the old one seem like something from the victorian era! Somehow, playing on the computer in the warmth of the study is more attractive than mixing concrete on a blustery wet November day! I've also, at last, bought a digital camera so I should be able to get a few more photos onto the site when I eventually start racing again.
This Sunday (10/11/02) it's the second Ringwood meeting of the year and although I'm not racing, I hope to be going as mechanic for Vince Stone #710 whose racing his new Sierra for the first time. When I say new, I mean it's new to him as it was originally built and raced by Mark Mills and has since been owned by George Ward #234, Richard Beere #254, Darren Bradford #207 and Simon Davis #701. Then next weekend it's the now customary end of season meeting at Ipswich, which should see a few Scotts down. Again I hope to be going, either as a spectator or if I can talk Vince into it, as a mechanic.
Finally I'd just like to publicly send my best wishes to Eddie Darby, whose girlfriend gave birth to a 2 month premature baby boy a couple of weeks ago. Obviously things will be a bit dodgy for the new born for a while but I hope it all goes well for Eddie and his new family!
20/10/2002. I had a scarey moment on the way to work this morning when I lost all the brakes on the van. One minute they were working 100% and the next time I hit the pedal there was nothing. It actually turned out that I hadn't lost the brakes, but I had lost all the vacuum from the servo, making the brake pedal rock hard to push, with very little effect. The vacuum is suplied by a small pump driven by the alternator and it appears that the drive shaft between the two is worn out resulting in the need for a new pump and probably a new alternator! I've managed to get a new pump at a cost of £66 which I'll try tomorrow with the old alternator.
19/10/2002. As I've not updated this page for some time (3months), here's a brief run down of what's been going on. I eventually failed to qualify for the World Championship outright by 2 places in the world rankings, which equated to 3 points. That meant that I started on the front row of the last chance qualifier but I got tangled up early on and failed to qualify through that as well. Other than that, we actually had a good weekend at Taunton with some useful places.
The following weekend it was off to King's Lynn where on a dry Saturday night, following a 5th in the first heat, we blew the engine in my second heat. We changed it overnight and my 5th place was enough to qualify me for the European Championship but rain all morning left the track very boggy and although I finished the race, I overheated the spare engine.
That was the last time I raced as I am now in the process of knocking down the old garage and building a new one and digging up the driveway and laying a new "flat" one with lots of drainage for washing the car down after boggy King's Lynn meetings! I hope to be done by spring next year, but it all depends on the weather over the winter. One thing's for sure, I won't be racing again untill it's done, so there's an incentive there. As soon as the garage is done, I hope to start work on a new tarmac spec chassis, so I'm going to be pretty busy for a while.
18/07/2002. We've spent the last few weeks chasing world ranking points in an effort to qualify for the World Championship next month. We ended June with the English Championship at Mildenhall where I managed a 2nd place in the consolation, having missed my heat (see "Meeting Reports"), but I failed to score in the final which would have given me some extra points.
Then the following day we were off for our second visit of the year to Bristol where I tried to defend my useful position in the track championship. Unfortunately, it was a dry day and we struggled all day with the speed of the car and failed to score any points. This also meant that I dropped down the points championship, loosing 7 world ranking points in the process.
Three days later we were in Cornwall for the first Wednesday night meeting at St Columb, again chasing track points. For most of the meeting, it again looked like we were going to fail to score but due to a mixture of circumstances, we managed one 10th place and with it 14th in the track points championship, a net gain of 7 world ranking points. We left Cornwall around 10.30pm, pleased with our efforts, but it was to be a long night ahead of us. Shortly after leaving the track, we had to stop and fix a part of the trailer which had come adrift and was dragging on the ground. Then as we were
going over Dartmoor on the A30, we had a blow-out on the rear of the van. It sent the van and trailer totally out of control and for a few seconds we were just passengers. I really thought at one point that the van was going to roll over but it stayed upright and I just managed to gather it all together. However, it scared the hell out of myself and Keith and as we pulled over to change the flat tyre, we were both shaking with shock and counting our lucky stars. Finally when we reached Yeovilton, on the A303, the road was closed and we had to go on a 7 mile detour! We eventually got home at about 4.00am, and then Keith had to drive home from my house, which is a further 30 minutes. Thanks for your help Smiler!
Finally our travels took us to Skegness this last weekend (13th & 14th) for the UK Speedweekend. This was a great weekend for us with the sun shining all weekend, a well prepared track that was sensibly watered and 5 top ten finishes out of 6, including 8th in the UK Championship and a further 6 world ranking points to add to the 6 attendance points. It was also a great social event with Walker making the trip down from Scotland with his car. The Saturday night meeting, as is now traditional, didn't finish until the early hours of Sunday morning and although the Sunday meeting did drag on a bit, it was nonetheless enjoyable.
I have to sit and wait now until the next Unloaded magazine comes out to find out if I've done enough to qualify for the World. I'm not expecting to break into the top 24, which is automatic qualification, but somewher around 26th/27th might see me into the world final on the day, depending on no-shows.
07/06/2002. Firstly I have to thank all those of you that have expressed your condolences for the loss of my Dad. Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts.
I decided, quite late in the day, to attend the domestic meeting at Taunton on Bank hoiliday Monday and as Chris (Mr Oi) was away on holiday, my friend Triv joined myself, Keith and Elizabeth in the team for the day. I hadn't touched the car since Arena so on Sunday while the rest of the nation was watching England play footie, I changed the diff and sorted some wheels and tyres out. I then loaded the car and charged up the batteries.
I was hoping to use the meeting as a practice for the World Championship which is to be held at Taunton in August and to be honest, we found the going very tough. It stayed dry all meeting, which although is not good for us, was probably more realistic to the weather we should get at the World. The car proved to be very slow out of the bends and although it handled well if I wasn't under pressure, if I got pushed into the bends at all, it understeered out towards the wall. We put the slowness down to a lack of power, and the lack of a 4.1 diff which I don't possess.
As for the handlig, I think that some of the suspension components need renewing as they are getting old and tired but this isn't shown up until you go to a tight track such as Taunton.
23/05/2002. I've been trying to think how to write this item for the last couple of days, but what ever I write, it's not going to be easy. Last week started with my father's health deteriorating again which naturally meant that more hospital visiting was required. Therefore I got very little time to work on the car in preparation for Sunday's meeting at Arena Essex, including not having time to fit the correct gearing. My Dad was stable so we decided to race and went with our Cowdenbeath setup, which although not ideal, was close enough to try and get in the top 20 points scorers on the day. After the first race, which I spent trying to avoid trouble, we got the sad news that my Dad had passed away at 1.30 that afternoon. Between Chris and myself, we decided to do the next race, as Dad would have wanted that, and then leave to go home and comfort my Mum and Sister. Well, after two spins and a couple of restarts, someone was looking down on me because I came away with my second 10th place of the day. I don't think I was 10th for a minute, but just this once I'll accept a bit of bad lap scoring with open arms! Unbelievably, only 16 drivers scored points and with three drivers all on 2 points (myself included), I earned a masive haul of 7 world ranking points for equal 14th on the day! As we were leaving, Andy Santry came over to express his sympathy and offer his condolences, for which I was very appreciative. Thanks Andy for that and for always asking after my Dad during his short illness!
08/05/2002. The lateset issue of Unloaded 7.3, our dedicated magazine, arrived today and the good news is that I have only dropped 1 place to 27th in the world. Next months rankings will include the points scored at the British Championship, with quite a few drivers loosing their attendance points. It will also include the points championship from the Arena Essex meeting which takes place on the 19th May, and will be my next meeting.
07/05/2002. With my father moved to a more local hospital, it was decided a week before the British Championship at Cowdenbeath to attend the meeting. I managed to buy some new brake shoes for the trailer and on investigation, the back plates, although very rusty, weren't as bad as I had thought. I had to make one completely new back plate from plate steel, but the rest were ok.
The car was in relatively good shape following the hectic Easter race schedule, and only required a few minor jobs. I welded quite a few patches to the battle scarred driver's side door skin and repainted the numbers. I also had to beat the boot lid back into shape and respray it. The rest of the work was confined to the usual routine suff such as charging the batteries, putting tyres on rims and sorting out the spares in the van.
We left for Scotland on Friday morning, stopping at Oxford to pick up Scott Keith, otherwise know as Skeet Tong, who is an exiled Scot and big time stock car racing fanatic! Skeet was to be doing some commentry on the radio mic at Cowdenbeath, and I thought that if I gave him a lift to Scotland, I might get a little mention. Serriously though, I thought I'd see if he wanted a lift as we were going passed his neighbourhood.
The journey was going well until we got up to about 20 miles short of Carlsile on the M6 when a tyre on the trailer decided to shred it's tread! We pulled over and changed the wheel and continued on up to Walker Laing's (#357), where we were staying, without any further drama. That evening we indulged in some "On-line" stockcar racing on Walker's computer. Well Skeet did some racing, while Chris and I just did plenty of crashing. Believe me, the real thing is much easier, it just hurts more when you crash!
On Saturday morning we went to get a new tyre for the trailer at a local scrap yard where Walker knows the proprietors and then went to Burgoynes Garage to see what was going on in the local hot bed of stock car racing. First thing that Gunner (Chris Latka, Stock rod #658) said to us as we walked through the door, was to ask us about the trailer tyre! News cetainly gets about these parts quickly! Apparently someone had passed us on the motorway while we were affecting repairs! We had a good look around Jock Burgoyne's new National Hot Rod, Chris Latka's new bus and Chris Burgoyne's new coach which is in the progress of being modifyed/rebuilt. We finnished our morning off with a trip to the Tully Motorsport workshops
where he's got another new saloon under construction.
We set off for Cowdenbeath at 2.30pm, arriving just before 3.30pm and got the car ready for practice. The car failed scruitineering on the rear overiders, but the scruitineer gave us until the following day to change them. As expected, I wasn't the only one as many drivers haven't received any rules for this season yet and Cowdenbeath seems to be the only track where they are actually enforcing the overider rule!
Anyway, back to the meeting and the car handled well in practice until Gordon Alexander, #71, tapped me wide going into turn 3. I let the car run a little too wide and rode the wall, bending the front wallside strut. Not a great start. We got it fixed and I was out for the first race of the evening, which didn't last very long for us, as I ended up on my roof after about 5 laps, courtesy of 170 Andy Cochrane. Most of the steering and suspension components were bent and we spent quite a while in the pits fixing them, and I missed my next heat. During this time we got some invaluble help from #117 Barry Jeffrey to whome I owe my thanks. We made it out for the last heat but I failed to qualify for the big race the
following day.
On Sunday morning we went up to Ray Toye's, #221, workshop and changed the rear overiders and did a few other jobs. We also raided his spares and borrowed a strut and a track control arm. Thanks must go to Walker and Skeet here for their help with the repairs/modifications, and to Ray for letting us use his workshop despite being away for the weekend!
Sunday's racing started much better for us with a top six finish in the last chance qualifier which saw me into the British Championship, albeit on the back row of the grid. Unfortunately, the car suffered a misfire right at the start of the British which was a result of it getting choked up during the parade lap. The British Championship, although mainly uneventful, proved to be a great race between the four main contenders with 677 Eddy Darby blowing the rest away in the second half of the race to earn himself a well deserved first major championship.
I later competed in the Gordon Barclay Memorial race but was spun out by 24 Rob Rabjohns. Luckily I avoided getting any real damage and we set off for home at around 7.00pm. This time we had a largely uneventful journey and arrived home at 3.30 in the morning.
I must say a big thank you to Walker and his wife Linda for making us so welcome and to Chris, alias Mr Oi for all the hours he put in behind the wheel of the van, and all his usual help at the track as mechanic. We had a great weekend, the weather was great, the racing was fantastic and the only dampner was that Chelsea didn't win the cup!
Whilst on the centre green doing his bit on the radio mic, Skeet took some great action shots with his camera, a selection of which can be seen by CLICKING HERE
10/04/2002. It has been a busy opening to the season for me. We managed three meetings over Easter at Ringwood, Bristol and King's Lynn. Although the car went well at all three meetings, it was slightly off the pace whilst the weather was dry which highlights the need to lose some weight from the car and to improve the engine power. With the next meeting for us possibly being the Britsh Championship at Cowdenbeath, the need is for this work to be done sooner rather than later, but unfortunately things are against us.
Firstly my Dad is in hospital the other side of London with a serious illness and most of my spare time is spent visiting him. Secondly
the trailer either needs revamping or renewing as there are no brakes on it at all. The back plates on the hubs are completely rusted away and as it's quite old, I haven't a clue what type they are, so replacing them is going to be a difficult job.
For these reasons, it looks increasingly like I will not be attending Cowdenbeath and I will lose my attendance points (12 points) from last year's British Championship and my attempt to qualify for the World Championship will be confined to the last chance qualifier.
11/03/2002. We've had reasonable start to the season with two points scoring meetings to date.
The first was at King's Lynn on Saturday 2nd March, which was the first meeting of the season. This was a change for me as I can't remember the last time I made it out for the first meeting of the season! The car went well and I got an 8th in the first heat, although we all thought that I actually crossed the line in 4th. We were only 99%
sure so we didn't question the result. Then I was spun out of the next heat and the head gasket went whilst I was in 3rd in the final, with 5 laps to go. I thought it was more than just a head gasket which was why I didn't make it to Taunton the following day as planned, but although I was disappointed that I missed it, I was pleased that there wasn't anymore damage to the engine.
I changed the head gasket during the week and also changed the oil and filter, the cam belt and checked the valve clearances.
Then it was off to St Day in Cornwall yesterday (Sun 10th March) We left at 04.30 in the morning thinking it was a 6 hour journey. In fact it was only 5 hours so we arrived in good time. Practice was held in the dry and the car was off the pace and handling badly. We made a few adjustments after consulting Keith over the phone and improved it, but it was still slow, probably due to the weight. Then it rained and it was bussiness as usual as we went back to shale settings and the car was just fine.
However, I was a little disappointed at my actual results of 10th, 9th and 10th, as I made a huge mistake in the second heat which sent me from 2nd to last, and I made a couple of mistakes in the final which cost me about 3 places. None the less, I scored enough points to give me 11th in the track championship, which in turn should give me some additional world ranking points.
We parked next to Steve Santry (the World Champion)for the 3rd meeting in a row and chatted all afternoon about racing, which was most enjoyable.
To round off a good day, I got very little in the way of damage and we listened to Chelsea beat Spurs in the cup on the way home!
26/02/2002. Ok, so for those that have been patiently waiting for an update, here's what's been going on in the AM.PM Racing camp over the last couple of weeks.
I decided to give the car a bit of a tidy up for the new season as well as change the gearbox mount (the box split last time out because the engine moved during an impact) and implement the new rule changes.
News of the rule changes filtered through to me over the winter but I decided to wait for the official version before I commenced any changes. Well, I'm still waiting for the official Saloon Stock Car Association rules to come through and we are just 3 days from the start of the new season. However, I did receive an Autospeed version of the rules, complete with missing diagrams and some confusing descriptions.
For example, Rule #6, Bumpers (rear). "Only ONE horizontal bar is permitted but to ensure an even contact area between cars, rear bumpers must include a 6" maximum height fence hoop/overider on each side constructed from a minimum of 40x40x3 RHS or 40x3 tube. These hoops must be supported by a raker of the same material from the ironwork and extend to meet on the top surface of the rear bumper. (As per illustration)"
Well, considering the illustration is missing, is it any wonder that we get so many different variations to rules. I mean, who writes these things? What is a fence hoop? What is a raker? If it's only got to be maximum 6" high, can it only be 0.5" high? One on each side of what? Each side of the car? Each side of the bumper (ie. top and bottom)? What's all this "meeting on the top surface of the bumper" all about? And as for cars having an even contact area, I've been racing saloons for 11 years and when a car hits you from behind, believe me, you don't care whether it's made even contact or not.
I just hope it's got to look something like the back of Gordon Alexander's car, otherwise my car's illegal! I wonder how many cars will have overiders this weekend?
The other rule change is a hoop around the prop shaft, which already exists on my car.
That just leaves the tidy up. So far I've replaced the bodywork on the passenger side of the car and given it a coat of primer. Most of the driver's side bodywork has been replaced but it's still bare metal. All I need now is a nice wind free, dry day to get it painted! That's where the problem lies as it's not looking too good at the moment for the rest of the week. So if you see me racing this weekend at either King's Lynn or Taunton, and the car's still in primer, then you know why!
04/01/2002. I have now bought my own domain name which is www.ampmracing.co.uk You will still be able to access this site from the old address and for my regular readers I would suggest that you carry on using this method. The reason for this is to keep the price down, I have bought the domain name through a company that puts a small advertising header accross the top of the page. I can pay an extra £9.00 a year to remove this header but the main reason for buying the domain name is to simplify the address for sign writing on the car and van and to tempt new readers to the site. Qutie often people ask me the address of the site and when you start spouting out a long complicated address, they turn off. Maybe some of you could let me know what you think.
04/01/2002. With Christmas and new year now just a memory, I've got time to reflect on all that has happened over the last couple of months.
Work on the kitchen carried on at a frantic pace right up until Christmas eve when it was decided that we were suitably staight to enetertain the 10 guests we had coming for Christmas Day. All the new units were fitted with just the floor, ceiling and tiles to do in the new year.
With Christmas over I decided to try and do the Wayne Osler memorial meeting at King's Lynn, but I had to fix the car from the November Ipswich meet first.
I set aside the day after Boxing day to repair the car. All I had to do was drill out the sheard bolts which bolt the flywheel to the crankshaft and replace them with new ones. This was done relatively easily and I decided I had time to fit the correct gearing for King's Lynn which also involves a gearbox and diff change. After finishing this, I was quite pleased when the engine fired up first time, having sat idle outside for a month and a half. Finaly I removed the batteries and put them on charge.
The King's Lynn meeting was on Sunday 30th of December, but I had to work half a shift beforehand, starting at 6.30 in the morning. I met the rest of the team in the carpark at work and we left for Lynn at 10.00am. There was a great turn out of 32 cars, which was helped by the extra travelling money supplied by the Wayne Peckham 603 team. Wayne Peckham had been qutie close to Wayne Osler, having been his next door neighbour and I was pleased for him and Wayne's family that it was such a good turn out. It proved to be a good meeting for us (see meeting reports) but ended a little prematurely when the gearbox was split open at the tail end of the second race. We left before the meeting's end as I had to be at work early again the next day, and I got back to Farnborough by 9.00pm.
Two days later I suddenly remembered that I hadn't drained the water out of the engine, and although it was frozen solid, I'm lucky that it appears that I haven't done any damage. I also noticed that the air filter had come completely unbolted and one of the bolts was jammed down inside the top of the carburetor. The air filter must have just been held on by the bonnet!
My plan of action now is to finish the kitchen and then give the car a qiuck refurb ready for the season opener in early March.