9th April Snetterton - Not a 100% successful start to the Season
ie wasn't able to race..... more about that in a bit.
Following reasonably major winter rebuild consisting of the following:
Rebuilt Head, Rebuilt Block, New Air Intake, New Clutch. New Wings, Doors and Tailgate, New Fire Extinguisher, Paint Job. Rebuilt Suspension, New Tyres.... that's about it for now...
Having made the 5+ hour drive to Snetterton, had to sit around for about an hour before being let into the garages, - bugger, - no refreshments available on-site while we were waiting. anyway enough moaning.
Got car unloaded and stuck in garage, put battery on to charge and went out to find our B&B - nice place, found cracking local pub , in bed for 22:00 - very unusual for me...
First race of season is always a bit of a nervous one - what have i missed that the scruit will pick up on, - as usual - I forgot "the bit of tape over the battery + lead".
It has been said in the past that I only do that so they can find something ;-)
Otherwise no problems with scrutineering. - as usual.
Anne-Marie put on a nice new set of Yokohama A048 (soft) tyres... and set up pressures etc.... this was going to be interesting. never used these before, heard they are good.
Qualifying:
Went out for qualifying not 100% sure how the car was gonna run, had it on the rolling road last week and got the massive total of 98 BHP...
Took it easy for first 3 laps - wanted to make sure i scraped off all the stuff on the tyres before i went too fast and fell off. Anyway spotted Anne-Marie on the pit-wall with the stop watch and decided to have a go... Car seemed to run really well - all temps and pressures etc in the green and stayed there... tyres worked really well, no amount of massive under-steer in the corners, got the back wheel off the ground a few times, and was able to pull away without wheel spin from the chicane.
All in all not a bad qualifying session, was getting 1 second a lap faster as it went on. final best time was 1:36.919 as compared to 1:44.747 last year - so a decent improvement.
Crossed the line after chequered flag, and the drive shaft broke !!!!!! argh !!!!!!!!!. thought at first I had broken the gearbox, i had been fighting to get it into 5th on the back straight and got it 4th - 3rd a couple of times - ouch !!! bit scary at over 100 mph.
Spent a couple of hours trying local scrap yards to get a replacement - no luck, home for an early bath...