Pembrey 8th of July 2001

Circuit guide

For an excellent Pembrey guide from Ten Tenths Motorsport click here.

Race diary:

OK, let's get one thing straight before I start.

BUNCH OF AAAAAARRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew, much better. Well, you've probably surmised by that little outburst that Pembrey wasn't exactly a great success. Actually, let me re-phrase that, Pembrey - was shite!

Things had started well enough. I'd been working abroad for the 2 weeks before Pembrey and thanks, make that BIG THANKS, to my brother (especially you bro), Karl and Martin, the car was straight as a die and now sported a full roll cage (see the build diary for details). So I flew into Gatwick, drove back home to find the car waiting on the trailer, legged it round the house for 10 minutes then hitched up the Trooper and hot-footed it down to Wales - phew!

Stu (that brother of mine) had booked a B&B pub nearby, but there was nowhere to park and a lot of pissed Welshmen (and women, although they were hard to tell apart ;) - joke!, so we decided to drop the car off in the Pembrey paddock and go back to town in Karls van. Much safer. The preceding week had seen loads of rain at the circuit so any grass in the paddock was sodden. In fact, I was surprised to see that the Trooper hadn't sunk overnight when we returned in the morning! The usual suspects (who are all mad ;) had set up camp and were busy getting trench foot, so we left them to it and buggered off for a hot meal and some beer. Then some more beer. Then some more. Then one more for before bed. Tip: Don't book into a pub before a race!

So, somewhat bleary eyed we made our way to the circuit for about 7am and tried unsuccessfully not to disturb the happy campers. Before unloading the trailer, I thought it would be a good oppoertunity to walk the circuit. Now this is GOOD ADVICE for any racer, after all, if it's good enough for the Formula One boys then it's good enough for us capiche! Pembrey is built on an old airfield so is a flat as a witch's tit. There's a good variety of bends with a hairpin at the end of the start straight - so first corner accidents are commonplace. The biggest trouble is, that there's very little in the way of landmarks to give you braking points. Hmmmm... some fun to be had here then. The weather was drizzling but there was no standing water on the circuit. So after making some mental notes regarding the lines and braking points we plodded back to the paddock to get set up.

Glenn Boyer and Dominic O'Donnell (and James, Dom's brother) were up and about as the paddock were starting to rise. Well, they'd probably woken up to the Trooper Chugabus as we'd driven in - oops. The usual pisstaking commenced and we got prepped for scrutineering. Given the amount of incidents recently, the scrutes were taking a bit more notice than normal and a couple of issues were raised (and again by Mike Topp in a driver briefing before the heat).

1 - The fuel tube union on the top of the carb (a brass nipple which is either a push or screw fit) had been causing trouble as it was possible for this to be shaken loose hence, spurting go-go juice all over the engine bay! This had caused a fire only the day before so we were advised to either fit a screw-fit type of lockwire the tubing jubilee clip to the carb to stop it coming adrift.

2 - Fuel tank positioning. Although in 'The Book' the fuel tank is situated right at the rear of the car ala. Westfield, Caterham etc. This is daft from a safety point of view as a rear shunt can collapse the tank with obvious consequences. Thus, we were advised that any repoisitioning of the tank further forward (over the axle for example) would be entirely acceptable by the scrutes.

So duly scrutineered we waited for practice.

Once again we had a large grid which initially necessitated 2 practice sessions. However, due to a couple of no-shows, the organisers made the decision to combine both into a mass outing. Now I really question the sanity of this. I think we had about 32 cars out all trying to put in a good lap and constantly getting in each other's way. Given that there's a lot of novices in the series and most hadn't been to Pembrey, you've got to learn the circuit pretty much as you go whilst still trying to set a good time. This helps no-one and I hope that a solution can be found in the future giving us all a fighting chance. Anyway, back to 'lucky' No. 13. The car was running great and the work that Procomp had done on the rollcage made me feel a lot more secure. They'd put my harness in upside down which was irritating but not disasterous. So I fired her up (that car is DEFINITELY a 'her' - totally unpredictable, expensive and mad once a month ;) and everything was pukka. We gathered in the assembly area (once I found the sodding thing) and made our way out. The track had dried up a bit but it was with some trepidation that I took those first couple of laps especially in light of the Snetterton accident. Still, the times came down quickly, a 1:24 became a 1:19 then a 1:18 then a 1:17 then... duba-duba-duba-duba-duba-duba the engine was misfiring. Damn, damn and damn, I thought it might be a dropped HT lead but it didn't 'feel' right. I trundled round for a couple more laps with no effect then decided to come in as I'd done more than the mandatory 3 laps. Back in the paddock the bonnet came off. We checked the HT leads, no problem there, the coil, fine, the dizzy, not that, compression, fine, plugs OK, spark good - so what the hell was it? A quick call to James (he who builds my engines) suggested that we should check the valve clearances. So the rocker cover got whipped off and the feeler guages came out. It soon became apparent that No.1 rocker finger was miles out. James had warned me that the adjusting nut on the rocker finger can in some cases 'back off' causing this and this seemed to be the case as it was easy to turn with a spanner. So we re-set the clearances and reassembled. Firing the engine up again got an improvement but not quite right. We had plenty of time so I decided we should check them again. Rocker cover off once more, Stu (you sharp eyed bugger), noticed that No.1 pushrod was bent! You could tell as you spun the rod as it followed an eliptical path - that's a technical way of saying it was shagged. Aha - that must be it (we thought) and nabbed a rod from the spare engine that we've now made a habit of bringing. Rocker reassembled we fired her up again and things were much better. I wasn't convinced that it was quite right though, but put it down to paranoia and left it as it was for the race.

The qualifying times came through and I was once again down in a lowly 22nd position :( Annoying as my times were coming down by a second a lap and I was confident that a few more laps on the drying circuit would have put me up with the top 10. Still, who knows. So that put me in the heat where all I needed to do was hold position (12th) to make the final. Firing up the car to go to the assembly area all was not well :( The car definitely felt 'wrong' and the misfire was still there. Should I abandon the race? Should I continue and risk blowing the engine? Stay tuned 'til next week for..... sorry, got carried away there. Nope, I decided to go out anyway as it was a hell of a long way to come for nought and I was desperate to at least get a finish and a signature given the past disasters (i've only had 2 finishes this season!). So waiting in the assembly area with a dodgy off-beat engine note, I wasn't exactly busting with confidence. Soon enough, we lined up on the grid and I waited for the off. The usual brown trousers came into play as the lights went from red to green and we were off once more. I made a reasonable start, not great, and the car on my right slipped past. The power just wasn't there under my right foot. I tried to get over to the right hand side of the track before the hairpin so avoid being punted off the outside by any spinners, but we all made it round safely (despite a lot of locked brakes by some drivers!). A lap later and I got into the groove, the engine didn't sound good, didn't go well, but wasn't getting noticably worse so I persevered. I benefitted from others mistakes and made some moves stick to put me up a few places. There were about six cars in front who were all over the place making overtaking a brave choice with no power. I was alot better on the brakes into the bends but couldn't drag myself away up the straight to reap any benefit. Still, I managed to get some breathing space and was holding Colin Beckwith off (or is it up? ;) when as I approached the hairpin - clunk. The engined had eaten itself so I coasted to a halt on the outfield in what I tried to make a safe position.

So the next thing to go through my mind is the sentence at the top of the page. I couldn't believe it. If I'd have had a jerry can and some matches Pembrey would have seen the biggest Locost bonfire of it's life! Totally, totally, dejected I watched the race (good vantage point though) to see a well deserved victory by Glenn Boyer - good on you mate!

So another tow back to the paddock just for a change. A quick look over the car showed that the dizzy wasn't spinning and the rockers weren't moving. Guess what, another broken camshaft. I couldn't believe it. Tired, pissed off and generally depressed we loaded up the trailer, said our goodbyes and went home. Another race, another DNF, another load of bills. I really don't know why I bother.

We left before the main race but I heard subsequently of the drama that unfolded and maybe I was lucky to escape afterall? Basically the race started and was going well until Dominic O'Donnell was unfortunate enough to spin onto the grass at Dibeni which resulted in a small fire. The race was red flagged and re-started. So a few more laps and an incident at Hatchet's Hairpin saw Bill Rouillier getting T-boned by Tony Cherrington writing both cars off and putting Bill in hospital with 3 broken ribs and bruised kidneys (get well soon Bill!). So ANOTHER re-start, but a race result was not to be because Malcolm Mitton span a Dibeni and beached himself right in front of Glenn Boyer. Glenn followed suit in an almost identical spin which put him right where Malcolm was stranded, effectively trashing both cars there too :( Especially gutting for Glenn given his race win in the heat. So 4 cars that would almost certainly not be out at Silverstone. After 3 re-starts the race had been going for far too long and was cancelled with no result. Given all the recent events, incidents, warnings and briefings, this will do the reputation of the Championship no good at all. A lot of raised eyebrowns have been given to the Novices as far as incidents and driving standards go but, as Pembrey has shown, it's the same at both ends of the grid. Some of these accidents are genuine 'racing' ones and some are not. Unfortunately they're all getting lumped in together as far as the reputation of the series goes. What solution can be found is anyone's guess but it will have to start getting better - pronto or we'll all be in trouble!

Still, having had time to reflect (I couldn't write this crap for 2 days 'cos it was too depressing to re-live it), I've got the spare engine ready to go (minus one push rod of course) and a couple more that can be rebuilt. I daren't think about the money, you can't do it or you wouldn't race, you'd go and buy a Ferrari - it would be cheaper! But Silverstone is the circuit I've been looking forward to and loads of mates are turning out to watch so I can't disappoint. I just hope we can finish for a change. Stay tuned!

Qualifying

Heat

Not Classified

Fastest Lap