After a long winter break (during which saw the arrival of a new car to the MAD-racing stable in the form of Suz's Locost), the green machine finally turned a wheel in anger at Mallory Park on April 5th with me (Mike) at the wheel. The lead up to the test day at Brands Hatch on April 1st was in the usual style of everything being finished at the last minute (well that's motorsport for you) with Al, Des, JB and myself pulling a late night on Tuesday in preparation.There were lots of changes to be tried at Brands including new lighter brakes, new suspension bushes, new alternator, a rear anti-roll bar and lots of other bits of (top secret) tweakery. It was my first time behind the wheel since my Anglesey races in July last year and much had changed since then. So it was with slight trepidation that I belted myself in to Kermit and took to the track for the first time. After a warm-up lap, I started to pick up the pace, overtook a Caterham and then promptly spun across the grass onto the outside of Clearways. Great start! I'd never driven such an oversteering car and now I was slightly afraid. A quick check in the pits by the crew of Al, JB and Suz quickly found the root cause of the lairy handling being that the front dampers had been wound to zero. That'll do it then! After setting them to actually do some damping, I was back out on track and picking up speed more successfully.
JB and Al were making blind set-up changes to the suspension and I was attempting to feed back what the car was doing beneath me in an attempt to give some honest feedback. This of cause meant I needed to be on the ball.....which I didn't really manage to do all day. Still, the day ended on a high (despite an alternator bracket failure earlier on) with the decision made to skip the anti-roll bar and leave the car basically as it was at the end of last season. Roll on Mallory then.....
In the usual tradition of last minute working, I eventually finished bolting on the newly catalysed back-box and tow loops and we loaded the car on the trailer at 9.30pm on Saturday night. Just-in-time. I met up with JB and Des at the gates of Mallory the next morning and the race day had begun.
Following signing-on, I walked the track whilst JB and Des moved the car through scrutineering. Kits were out first for practice. The car immediately felt fast, grippy and fun. I put in a couple of slower laps and then started picking my pace up. What I wasn't expecting though was the coolant temperature warning flashing at me on the display after only 7 or 8 laps. Something was evidently very wrong. I coasted round for half a lap which brought the temperature down from 120C to 105C and I pulled in to the pit lane. It became clear that the car had bolied over and we had lost coolant. That was the end of practice for me.
An investigation in the paddock found the water pump inlet pipe was collapsing at higher engine revs, so that was reinforced internally with a a coil of brake pipe inserted just before the pump inlet. We were hopeful this would fix the problem. My qualifying times had me starting 13th and 11th for the two races which was a little disappointing but understandable given the short practice session. The first race quickly came round and as I lined up on the grid, I was mindful of watching the coolant temp. My first couple of laps were quite eventful with a car spinning in front of me on the exit of the Devil's Elbow in a real heart-in mouth and "which way should I move" moment. And then I came across a car parked mid-track facing the wrong way at Gerard's. Still, I picked my way through and carried on. Unfortunately, a look at the dash showed that the cooling issue hadn't been resolved and the coolant temperature was rising again. In the end I had to keep backing off the power every couple of laps to bring the temperature down and then I could race for another lap, before backing off again. Really frustrating and I didn't feel I was really part of the race. Still, I eventually crossed the line in fourth in class which was much better than I had expected given the problems.Lunchtime was spent trying to find the root of the cooling problem and more minor changes were made and we hoped again that the car would run cooler during race number two. I got a fantastic start when the lights went out at the beginning of the 2nd race and was challenging right in the middle of the pack. However, after a few laps a quick glance at the coolant temperature saw that the problems hadn't been fixed and the engine was once again running hot. I decided to call it a day after just five laps and pulled in to the pit lane and retired from the race. That was only the second retirement from a race I had made in over four years of racing so I wasn't used to the frustration of watching a race I should have been in. After the preparations at Brands I had been really hopeful of a strong running at Mallory but it just wasn't to be my day.
Thanks to all at MAD racing for your efforts in getting me and the car to the grid. Hopefully we'll have a better outcome at the next event. Mike
