A little improvement... and A First Ever Trophy!

 Well its been two years since I was last at Cadwell but today I achieved a first.... I bought a car home from  Cadwell in one piece :-) breaking my succession of coolant failure, fire and 

blown engine experiences at this great little circuit

The day was baking hot  >25 deg c, so going out early for practice at 9:50 was a bonus.  I got through scrutineering fine, although this particular scrute did tell me that I couldn't have a cockpit adjustable brake bias that I could use in the race.  He wants it locked off.... I think this is sloblocks and so does Tim but I need to check the blue book.
Anyway practice came around and even by then it was blisteringly hot.  In the last three years I've done precisely nine laps of Cadwell due to various mishaps, so I expected to be rusty... but not this rusty.

I spent most of practice being amazed by how narrow it was and being constantly surprised by the speed of the events and how quick the corners, shift points etc rush at you "Bejesus a corner, now another, oh and a brake point ... missed that, cripes another corner" etc etc.  Pretty crap really but I did manage to get it together after a few laps and post a time of 1:48.76 on lap 6.  After that my brakes turned to blocks of wood which led to a couple of interesting moments at Park corner at the end of the long straight. But I really failed to establish any rhythm and never really managed to get proactive enough to attack the circuit.

I also put a wheel off the left hand side of the track at Charlies 1 with a resounding bang, so I cut my losses and cut the last couple of minutes off the session. As I wanted to check the car out, check the brakes, also  I could feel the heat from the engine bay and I was concerned that I may only have a finite number of changes in my bodge welded gearshift.

Result I had qualified 21st of 27 and my time was about a second inside my best qualifying time when I last came here with the Kwacker (which has about 25 more bhp).  But I drove pretty poorly in my humble opinion,  the big change downs under heavy braking at the Hairpin and Mansfield were probably the worst of the season.... Heel and toe not working at all well, holding the clutch out while I concentrate on braking, spiking the revs etc :-( .  Still I've moved up the grid from where I had been,  but not as far as Neil Constable-Berry (the next class B) who is now some 6 seconds ( and 4 grid slots) down the road from me with the same power. Hmm

I had however out qualified Stephen Dean who was the last of the class B field and behind me on the grid

Duncan and I set about deglazing the front pads, using a bastard file, and bleeding the brakes in the intervening gap between practice and the race.

Other notables in practice were Judy and Colin Duce (also in class B)  both losing clutches, and Neil Palmer in his new Raw Fulcrum not making practice, but qualifying at the back of the grid by virtue of racing on the circuit in the last 12 months. Oh and Derek attempted to drive the area at the bottom of the Mountain like he did with his old class C engine... Not his new class A car.  ie turn left  at end of short straight, boot it  and chuck it right up the Mountain.  The extra 60 horsepower kicked in and he shot straight on and across the exit road stopping inches from the barriers and laying down two solid line of rubber across the foot of the Mountain.  I think he somewhat surprised himself :-).

Judy it seemed just needed new frictions, but Colin's clutch basket has disintegrated,  so they fitted a new clutch and flushed out the engine as best they could so he could start the race.

The race came round and we gridded up in some of the hottest weather I've ever raced in.   Judy arrived in the collecting area just as we left for the grid and I think Fenn still had a spanner in his hand at the time!

Boy did she cut it fine.. This  was an 18 min plus one lap race.

I got a decent start (7.5K and progressive clutch) and think I gained a couple of spots at the start and ended up right on the tail of NCB.... But he pulled out about 3 10th on me on every lap and I eventually lost him  (damn).  I was still struggling with lack of circuit knowledge and lack of intestinal fortitude.  Unsurprisingly Colin Duce's run of poor luck continued and his engine expired on lap two and left oil on the main straight but had got it off the line pretty quickly.  (in the paddock later he had a big end sticking out of the side of the block :-(... he's not yet completed more than 3 lap in 3 races this season and blown 2 clutches, 1 throttle cable and an engine in the process :-(

I then had a few frustrating laps where I didn't feel I got much right at all.  The brakes went away again as they bedded in but came back to me but with fairly poor feel.  To take the load off the fronts, I dialed in a couple of extra clicks of additional rear bias using my apparently illegal adjuster.  Another first for me in a race I've never had the time of the free head space to think about this before

I let a blue Raw Fulcrim through, thinking it was Tim Gray leading ( I actually thought "Where's Derek then?) ... but it was Neil Palmer... Damn that was for position.... A couple of the faster guys I had passed at the start also regained their places and for one of them I let him through too (thinking I was now being enveloped by the pack)  I wasn't actually lapped until sometime later by Derek Jones   who was flying as usual (1:33s at which I can only boggle)

I really must lose this back marker attitude. :-(

So I had a few laps on my own trying to establish a rhythm... but never really getting it.  I was doing the Gooseneck, Chris and the Hall bends better.... but never really hooking up the important corners like Charlies or Barn.... Most most frustrating.

Another interesting highlight was finding a complete, apparently undamaged fury bonnet halfway down the main straight with no car or accident visible anywhere nearby! Colin Chapman had apparently removed it from Andrew Grant;s car at Barn and dragged it all the way to the start finish line, Andrew said at one stage it was double deckered on top of Colin's own bonnet.

After 18 minutes (and not a moment too soon as I was now melting) the checkered flag came out. And I returned to the paddock most disappointed with my performance and frustrated at my lack of skill it was only due to the fact that I hadn't seen Judy that I thought I may not be last.

 lasted until the results came out.  I had finished 18th of 23, so allowing for the retirees a nett 1 place loss on my start position (Dammit I let Neil Palmer through).... but crucially thanks to Colin Duce's 3rd DNF in a row I was third in class B.

SO I GOT a POT!   :-)

Slightly embarrassing to be awarded a pot by finishing 18th and at the expense of another competitors engine..... but hey I'll not be giving it back :-)

Better still I took another 2 seconds off my quali time..doing a best lap of 1:46.7 only 1 10th outside my best ever lap with the kwacker and its extra horsepower. But I need to find at least 6 seconds (1/2 a sec a corner if I'm going to move on from here)

So the take home messages are.

1. You can't flush a sump  and oil cooler out adequately without fully stripping the engine. Put it on the trailer.... kiss good bye to your race fee.... but save the cost of an engine
2. I'm  as fast now as I was previously with more power so hopefully this is an indication that I'm getting better. But I need to do much more
3. I need to test at Cadwell next time, in order to get better circuit knowledge... I need much more practice on this tight circuit if I'm going to get closer to Neil CB
4. Lose the back marker attitude.... and get a better rear view mirror so I can judge how people arrive at my back door and see if we are racing for position or not.
5. I seem to have taken a consistent 6-10 grid place jump at both here and Brands
6. I need to fit some brake ducting or get higher temp pads, with better bite and feel.

So a frustrating and rewarding weekend... but hey did I mention that the car is in one piece :-)
and I got my first ever trophy
Fab.