Hi guys
Well I was back out on track this weekend at Castle Combe for my second race meeting of the year (the third of the Welsh Sport and Saloon Car Championship). We had a 32 car grid!
It was a gorgeous warm sunny day ☀, well mostly, we did have a few spots of rain in the early afternoon, though it only lasted 5-10 minutes.
Qualifying: Position: 32nd; lap time: 1:44.693
It didn’t go well, I only managed 5 full laps during the 15 minute session, as the misfire materialised again (yep the same one I had in testing at Llandow), reducing my power output to basically 3 cylinders instead of 4. I was in and out of the pits to try to secure the wires from the vibration, but it wasn’t lasting 😔.
Got back to the paddock area, Tony opened the bonnet up to see if he could reposition the wires and tying them to a different part of the engine to see if the issue went away.
A few minutes later the water hose split and sent lots of hot seaming anti-freeze water everywhere, which was quickly sorted out.
We do rolling starts for our races, and each one this weekend was poorly executed, as the field was strung out instead of being nicely compact, a little frustrating, but you just have to deal with it the best you can, and the organisers have to do what they have to do to keep the racing on time as best they can, I don’t envy them. I can understand Race 2, as we were pushed for time, but even so the back of the grid were still coming round Bobbies as the front were going over the start line 😕.
Race 1 was shorten by 2 minutes as well, but so were most of the other championships racing on Sunday as they were running late, due to an incident earlier on in the day.
Race 1: Finished: NC; Lap Time: 1:49.273
Though I saw the chequered flag I was not classified, as I hadn’t done enough laps. On the green flag lap the car was fine, but the misfire came back at the start of the race. I came into the pits to see if the issue could be sorted to at least give me enough power to go round at a reasonable pace, but it wasn’t to be in the end 😔.
Got back to the paddock and had the coil packs changed, in the hope that would fix the problem.
Race 2: Finished: 21st; Lap Time: 1:40.234
Better race 😄, even though the race was shorten by 5-6 laps, due to the lateness of going out on track and with the track having a 6:30pm curfew. I actually got to race with another car for a most the race! Still with a slight misfire, but nowhere near as bad as before.
We believe the misfire issue could be due to the battery dying – well it is 3 years old – and it struggling to provide the correct power to the coil packs.
Overall mixed emotions from the weekend, mostly frustration, but that second race has given me hope for better things for the next race at Pembrey in August.
I’m staying positive, as we may have finally found the problem to my issue. When a new battery is found, I will be back out testing, to confirm if it is or isn’t the battery, fingers crossed that that is the problem and I can enjoy the remainder of the season 😊.
Until next time.
Take Care and God Bless
Vez
veritybanksracing 