Oops - Ouch - Damn

Saturday 1st September 2007 - The Friday practice session was somewhat sacrificed in an attempt to help my 'boet' rebuild and refit his L20 motor. The weather wasn't exactly playing game either but I managed to get a few laps in during the last session of the day. Saturday morning we qualified at 09h00 and the weather was really best suited for ducks - wet and cold. So it was off with the slicks and out with the intermediates. Yip rain / drizzle is an equalizer no matter who rides. I eventually qualified 18th on the grid at a qualifying time of 1:42:00

The first race was ran at 11h50 and the rain had cleared and the race line was dry. So it was off with the intermediates and on with the slicks. I somehow managed to get a good heat cycle in on the warm-up lap resulting in a good start. I got ahead of the class E cars by diving through the middle and lead the class for the first lap after which Fred in the 3.0 XLE Cortina eventually passed me going through turn 4 on the second lap. Not much else happened during the race and I finished 2nd in class E in that race behind Fred. I did however manage to improve my time from my previous race event which was clocked at 1:36:4 vs a previous best of 1:36:8







1st Lap still ahead of the XLE

Heat 2 and I was determined to try even harder to get as close to a 1:36:0 as possible. My pull away was not as good as the 1st heat but was more competitive. I had Derek (Anglia 1600) and Fred (Cortina 3.0L) all around me with a few Alfa's tucked in as well. Into turn 1 and it felt like month end shopping at the hypermarket till point with everyone determined not to give up their place. I held the inside line going through turn 1 and moved over slightly to the middle heading toward turn 2. Somewhere between changing from 3rd to 4th gear and with the adrenalin pumping big time the right foot did not co-ordinate too well with the left foot and the Dati hit 9000 RPM plus and died. My race ended in turn 2. @#$%^&*

A quick check back in the pits indicated no compression at all. Sunday we stripped the head only to find cylinders 1, 2 and 3 exhaust valves looking rather like fully opened carburetor butterflies.

So its back to basics again.

1. There are 8 laps to finish the race.
2. Trying to do it on lap 1 is not a good idea Ian.

See you on the grid next time.