First run of the year 12th Jan 08.

Well yes I did run Bryce’s car on the 5th with not much luck as it is a lot different to drive than mine. Also as he was on Holiday and my car was on the hoist waiting for new bearings….why not.
Anyway, this was the first run in 53a for the year. Another good field of cars showed up for the night which was great. I decided to run the car off the back to give the new bearings an easy birth. Which lasted the start and the first couple of laps. Slowly building speed and lap times the engine was holding good oil pressure and the water temperature was high but good. I’d put some Red Line water wetter in the radiator before heading out and it must have been helping. I spent the last couple of laps swapping places with 114R, but with less than a lap to go the red lights came on. I looked over to my right and noticed a number of people frantically pointing at the car. Tilting my head over I could see flames coming from the exhausts. Even after cleaning and letting the exhaust wrap dry out it must have still been soaked with oil from before Christmas and with the heat it set itself alight. I found out later that this had been going on for some laps.

Back in the pits out came the scissors and we just chopped off the wrap and got the car ready to go again.

The second race went a little better, the tank (Horse 38R) however looked like he was having a bit of fun with the other cars, he had just taken 78a into the wall at the beginning of the back straight and as I was coming through I saw the front wheels turning right. So back hard on the throttle I turned the car inwards gave him a push out of the way into the infield where the track was quite wet. Keeping on the dry I headed off with plenty of traction wanting to stay ahead of a possible push off the back straight. I lost sight of the tank down the front straight, unfortunately I caught up to the ex 73a and he was right on the same bit of track that I wanted, nice and tight to the corner. I stabbed the brakes but there was a fair force in the contact. Making it past him a few laps later the race was over.
Knowing that down the straights the car has good pace, I am losing way too much time and distance in the corners. So after talking with Bryce he suggested some changes to the shocks and out the car went again. The result, along with a 4th placing was a car that was much smoother, tighter and another .8 seconds faster a lap. Which is fantastic.

So where to from here, well the new fan mount and pulley has been machined and is to be mounted. We are replacing the alternator pulley with a larger pulling from a power steering pump to slow it down and the alternator will be mounted as close as possible to the centre of the engine with a really short belt running directly off the crankshaft pulley.
If all goes well we should make it to Huntly this Saturday night.

Thanks to Dave Shaw from www.petrolfumes.com for the use of the photos.

Catch ya....MadPhil