Building, racing, crashing race cars with the 750 Motor Club
It’s definitely the finishing straight now, barring some horrific problem. First up is that I finished re-installing the transmission. As a consequence of careful design and planning, cough, it all fitted fine and will hopefully work OK.
Luckily, the gearchange lever on the ’08 engine is in almost exactly the same position as on the ’07 engine so no change was necessary here. You can see my super-long gearchange cable snaking around the engine in the photo here.
Last weekend was the first of out visits to Snetterton this year. We were running on the 200 circuit which is pretty much the same sort of layout at the original circuit, albeit with the hairpin at Montreal which is huge shame after losing Sear and the left hander at Murray’s which is a replacement for the original Russell chicane. It’s a shame to lose the original Coram corner and, also, Jim Russell’s name from the circuit. The interesting bits of the new circuit are all on the 300 circuit, as I tested on earlier this year.
Forgive me, it’s been ages since my last post. I have no decent excuse other than worrying about a PhD thesis to write… I haven’t actually written it you understand, just worried about it.
So, at long last it was time for the J15’s race debut. In fact it was two debuts as I’d entered the Allcomers race as well as the RGB race so as to get a bit of track time. That meant scrutineering at 0730 but, as you’d expect, I’d woken up by 0530 anyway and after struggling to get back to sleep I gave up.
And in particular, “where the heck have you been?”
Well, I’ve been busy. I realise that’s not a good excuse but I really have, honest. I’ve just finished teaching a 4 week long class to a set of Masters students (and writing the exam they have to take) and I’ve been trying to concentrate on getting my thesis written. Problem is, I keep thinking of more things that ought to be in there so I’m actually going backwards on that one.
Continue reading ““The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things…””
The last races of the season took place at Oulton Park, a great circuit in Cheshire where it always seems to rain. However, this time on the journey there it didn’t rain so much as monsooned, if that’s a noun that can be verbed. That is, it absolutely threw it down. When we got there the car, which is carried on an open trailer, was not so much wet as impersonating a bathtub.
Another race weekend at Snetterton, with an annoying final result. Oh well… Back to the beginning, though. The schedule was for there to be an RGB race on the Sunday only. However, the club had opened up the Bikesports race to us and, dutifully, a whole stack of us had signed up only for the race to be over-subscribed. That meant that there was now a non-championship RGB race and a championship one. The qualifying for the former was to be run with the Bikesports chaps.
Last weekend it was time, yet again, for the club’s August bank holiday meeting at Silverstone. This is the one meeting of the year when all the racing formulae are at the same meeting so it’s very busy, and bustling. I’d decided not to test as I know the circuit rather well. However, after swapping the clutch I thought it’d be useful to do the Allcomers race which was absolutely first thing on the Saturday morning, so as to check that everything was working.
Well, it was time for another race at Pembrey, only the second time I’ve ever been to the circuit. As such I signed up for the test day. That was to turn out to be a waste of money.
Before going on about that though, I suggest you go off to the 750 Motor Club web site. On the front page, at the time of writing, you can see the TV programme on the second Brands meeting earlier this year in which I feature a fair bit.
Well, I’ve just got back from a very mixed race weekend at Cadwell Park. Weather wise it was a glorious weekend, almost too hot. However, the on-track aspect left a lot to be desired and I need to buck my ideas up. (Thanks to Austen for the photo.)