It’s been a while since I wrote anything for your enjoyment. Mostly this is because I’ve been involved in a play at a new theatre group – Cold Comfort Farm, by Sewell Barn Theatre. They had me rehearsing 4 or 5 nights per week for several weeks, but the result was a great show and a full audience on every night. Hurrah! The other reason is that there hasn’t been much worth writing about…
I last wrote to inform you that the Donington was cancelled due to rain and track drainage problems. That was disappointing, but not as disappointing as being told that the replacement round was to be held at the British F3 meeting at Donington on the last night of Cold Comfort Farm’s performances, and as such I couldn’t make it. I gather it was a nice day that went well, with Jeremy Timms taking a very dominant victory in his car (with engine now fixed) ahead of Neil Harrison. As such, Neil is sitting pretty with 82 points (with one round left to drop), Jeremy is on 60 points (with no rounds left to drop) and I’m on 40 points (with no rounds left to drop). Therefore it seems fairly unlikely that the championship is within reach unless I win every race, get all remaining fastest laps, and Jeremy and Neil fall off once or twice – and that ain’t gonna happen.
There was also a non-championship round at Mallory Park that I didn’t attend, in which David Cox and Barry Smith beat the Dallaras of Jeremy Goodman and Amnon Needham.
Work on the car has continued thanks to Martin, which has been a rebuilding of the master switch system so that we have a cockpit off switch, a rollhoop off switch and a rear mounted on switch. We’ve replaced the dashboard as it had a fault, and made some proper cooling duct extensions to increase engine temperatures – F3 engines run very cool (55-60°C) to reduce the onset of detonation, but normal engines produce more power closer to boiling. We’ve also make some tracking bars to increase the repeatability of our toe settings.
Other than that the usual preparation has taken place, and we are all set for Silverstone in a few days time. It’s the boring National circuit, but we still have to give it our all and try to win. We even have garages for the event, which makes it a bit nicer! Jeremy and Neil are entered as usual, with Kevin Mason yet again entering his F300 Dallara (which he has done before, but turned up with his F396 on the day), so the competition will be as before. Here’s hoping that I can match JT and NH when it matters.
After that we are intending to enter the ClubF3 race (or BRSCC F3 if you want to use the current official name) at Snetterton, which will allow us to run the car at low ride heights and ascertain the difference in performance, as well as our competitiveness against F3 spec cars.
Then we’ve just got Croft and Snetterton Mono rounds to look forward to before the championship is over.
Slightly related, we are also going to drag out the Lancia Fulvia racer for a demonstration trackday at Snetterton with the Fressingfield Oily Rag Club. I’ll be driving, and the intention is to put a passenger seat in it and let my cousin experience what circuit driving is like – I’m sure he thinks it’s a slightly quicker version of driving on the road.
If you can make it we’d love to see you at Silverstone, so support club racing and make a day of it.
Reports, photos and videos to follow as usual afterwards.
