Yeah it was me, the knocking noise didn't warrant me slowing down.....wrong, I thought as the tail section of the exhaust bounced across the grass at Graham Hill bend
Cheers for the kind comments Raz, I'd be the first to admit I'm a bit OCD when it comes to the car
Great to see you there mate and hope we're racing at the same event soon....
As for the er...race, well qualifying went well after waiting for 5 minutes for everyone to sort themselves out, I cautiously headed out onto the circuit, this approach lasted until the first corner, from then on it was business as usual and flat out
after I'd done my 3 laps needed to race Mark Barton's Sabre 6 parted company with its oil filter, as you can imagine this put a fair amount of oil on the racing line and the red flag came out.
After a 20 minute wait we went out again, I decided not to go for a fast lap as this would mean going onto the oil and it was not worth the risk so the rest of the session was spent racing with a Ford Falcon...which was fun
Well until the incident mentioned above stopped play....
My 3rd lap was quick enough for 12th out of 37 which was a pleasant suprise, everything was looking good!
Raz noticed a small patch of oil under the cooler, it looked like one of the hoses was weaping, so they were tightened and as everyone was having dinner behind the car at the time I thought starting the car to test the joint was not a great idea....
Pulling up to the grid, someone mentioned I was leaking oil, I jumped out and sure enough there was a trail down the pit lane and a big puddle under the car, oh dear I thought (not my actual words
) a quick push back into a Sunbeam Alpine
was followed by a push back into the garage and frantic work to remove the split oil cooler from the circuit...Unable to find a strap wrench for the filter I decided to knock it around with a chisel, in my haste the hammer met the radiator core and added a water leak to the equasion
At this point an admission of defeat to the marshals was followed by a 15 minute walk around the paddock.
Then it was time to watch the action, and Danny who was running just outside the top ten had just handed the Sabre over to his second driver Neil, who on encountering a slow moving BMW just over the brow of paddock bend had to take avoiding action which the tyres disagreed with throwing him into the gravel and ending another Reliant charge...
Mark Barton had more mechanical problems with the Sabre after 26 laps, but John Leslie managed to get a cracking result in his Sabre finishing 15th and 2nd in class
Overall a good weekend despite the massive dissapointment, the car's going to be up there and I can still win my 1st race
,
which is at Mallory Park on Spring bank holiday monday....Can't come soon enough.
Paul.
like dropping off the end of the world!
