Snetterton Race Report August 2nd / 3rd 2003
Practice
Snetterton was to be the first race with my new suspension on the car. Pre race testing at Oulton Park had been hampered by the misfire which had first showed itself in the NSSCC race at Cadwell Park. The cause of the problem was initially thought to be a failure in the ignition timing pickup sender unit but the car had performed faultlessly on the rolling road. Before Snetterton testing we had done more work on the car and the fault was traced to contaminated petrol. Many new parts had been fitted and we thought the problem was solved. This was not the case and during Friday testing I spent most of the day trying to get the engine working properly. While the rest of the UK was bathing in hot sunshine Snetterton was raining with dark clouds above it making it almost impossible to determine if the problem had been eliminated as it only showed itself at high revs.
When it came to Saturday morning qualifying the weather had changed and it was hot & sunny - perfect for seeing if the misfire was cured. I set myself a target time, and with a good handling car had hopes of being near to the front of the grid. Alas, it was not to be. Despite being up too early for the Harvey Boys (Tony Brown / Ian White) and getting to the collecting area first to get the most tracktime the misfire was still present and it showed itself all too easily on the Revett straight as even the class 3 cars were quicker. Even so, my qualification time was good enough for 6th in class and I had Colin Ingram and Paul Coombs behind me and the class 1 car of Paul Fuller just in front.
So, back to the paddock to fit a fuel metering head Strasse had robbed off one of my 924T engines... and which Wayne Jackson had kindly diverted from his direct route to Snetterton to collect for me the night before, picking up a potential speeding ticket in the process.. I fitted the metering head but the car refused to fire up, so I had no alternative but to do the first race without a fix to the misfire.
Race 1
It had been a long time since I had been so close to the rear of the grid and I took my position in 17th place. When the lights changed the car shot forward and I matched the pace of Colin Ingram in his 911SC on the row alongside me. This was an exceptional start for the 924GT. It all came to nothing though when Paul Fuller leant on John Williams who in turn unavoidably touched Tom Segrue in the white 944S2, causing his to spear off the track with a broken steering component and causing mayhem all around. The thing about this sort of situation is that you either win or lose big time. In this case I lost out and ended up dead last behind Derek Gregory and Ian Oliver. Even passing Derek Gregory was a challenge as in straight line speed terms he was almost as quick as I was in his 924S and I only really gained on him at the end of the start finish straight. With Derek behind me the next target was Ian Oliver who again was at least as fast as me but I made the ground up round the bends and eventually passed him under braking for Sears several laps later. By this time Colin Ingram, still coming to grips with his 911SC, was almost the length of the Revett straight ahead of me, and yet I was still able to close the gap. In doing so I gave him a wake up call and he found additional speed but by the end of the race the gap was down to just 6 seconds and our lap times were within 3/100ths of a second. I finished 7th in class and 17th overall, the same as my starting position.
With this meeting being a double header with the second race the following day I had time to do more work on the car in an attempt to improve or even eliminate the misfire. I had just about decided to set off for home (about 4 hours away) to collect another metering head and more bits to try on the car when I remembered that Colin Ingrams GT was probably idle at his house. After a quick word with Colin & Janet they offered me whatever parts I needed from their car to try and get mine working correctly. The short drive to Cambridge was much more appealing and that meant I even had time to work on the car that evening.
The situation that evening was quite dire. After fitting new parts to the car it would not even run properly, but as the light was fading and we had a dinner appointment to keep we left the circuit with my mind still firmly focussed on the details of K-Jetronic fuel injection systems.....
The next morning I worked on the car for about an hour and then realised that with Colins' metering head the way the car was running was just like an old tuned car on Weber carbs.... very lumpy on idle. I decided to simply weaken the mixture to see if that was the problem and immediately the car sounded better. The black smoke from the exhaust confirmed it was still too rich so I adjusted the mixture again until it "sounded right". I remember the scenes & stories of tuning experts from the 60's and earlier tuning and balancing multiple carburettor cars by ear alone. The experts didn't use complex electronic instruments in those days, and here I was doing a similar thing in the 21st century. My main concern now was that the car should not be too lean otherwise it would overheat & probably blow a head gasket.
With the co-operation of the Clerk Of The Course I obtained permission to take part in another qualifying session to make sure the setup was better. I went out onto the track, did a flying lap and then came in to make an adjustment. After four adjustments the car was as good as it was going to get and I was ready for the second race.
Race 2
At the start Ian Oliver made a good start and got ahead of both me & Colin Ingram. Colin was the first to find his way past and I followed him through on the second lap. Colin was the next target but the next group of cars including Paul Coombs were still well within grasp. The straight line speed improvement I was enjoying in my car allowed me to pass Colin under braking at the entrance to The Esses and my next target was to be Coombs.
The race was scheduled to be for 24 minutes and for the next 20 I was glued like a limpet to the back of Paul. He was holding me up, particularly round the bends at Sears and Riches but I could not match his straight line speed even with the benefit of slipstreaming him. I made a number of attempts to pass him. On one lap I tried under braking at the end of the Revett straight but was just not brave enough. I had a better opportunity to pass him on the inside at Riches but although I was alongside him with my front wheel level with his door he shut the door quite firmly as I was forced onto the grass. The back end started to come around but I judged the amount of opposite lock to apply and planted my foot hard on the loud pedal and retook my position behind him inhaling his oil smoke.
The final 3 laps were interesting. We both overtook a slowing David Rothwell who had made room for us but as I tried to take advantage by passing Paul down the straight he moved across and gave me the choice of being the filling in the sandwich of braking. Yet again my attempt to pass was frustrated. I had the opportunity again at Riches but John Williams got in the way. Coombs had been able to pass him on the straight but though I was in a good position to take John round the outside at Riches he braked late and forced me to brake hard and tuck in behind him. With John still ahead the battle in front of us was that between Rob Williams and Tom McHugh. Tom hit Rob up the rear causing him to go off into the fields and now Coombs was just 10 yards behind Tom though the delay with JW meant I was now 20 yards adrift. I pushed hard, but with a high engine temperature I was unable to make up so much ground on Coombs when Tom McHugh went off at Russell. I thought I had gained another place but when I got round the other side of Russell Tom McHugh had kept control of the car and actually taken the course of the pre 1990 Russell kink and joined the circuit on the start finish straight. He lifted to allow Coombs past so as not to be seen taking an advantage, but kept enough speed to finish ahead of me.
In all the confusion I had no idea where we were in the placings and had mixed feelings when I learnt that I had finished third in class and would be going home with a pot. If I had succeeded in passing Coombs earlier, then it would have been a first, not third place pot !
While in parc ferme coolant could be seen leaking from the car. I thought the head gasket had failed, but no, 20 minutes of following Coombs had taken its toll on the car. The front end was potmarked with all the stones he had thrown up and one of them had holed the radiator. Here's some pictures of the car and prizegiving.
Looking at the lap times afterwards confirmed that the work done on the car had given me 2 seconds a lap additional speed, but this was still over 1.3 seconds slower than my 2002 times. Had I been able to match that pace I would not only have won the class, but also been in the thick of the class one cars.
