Blackcat racing news

With a limited program this year we dragged the Tuscan out for rockingham. It took a couple of days prep to get the car ready as It hadnt been run since it blew another gearbox in July 08 at Angelsey.

With britcar taking all the testing on the friday there was no time for us to try the car before qualifying late on the sat.

a couple of laps to bed the car in, which included running down the pit lane a couple of times to find some space, and just as I was about to push for a lap a spinner at turn 1 laid down lots of oil.

Needing to get a decent lap time in I still had to push through turn 1 which was very hairy as the car moved across the oil. Kevan in his brand new Tuscan Speed Six  found out just how much and wiped the back end off on the concrete wall.

I was fairly pleased with 1st in class and 6th on the road.

Race 1

a good start would see me upto 3rd on the road ahead of the next class B car Tom Stewart in 4th. My race would be short lived though the throttle cable snapping at the end of the first lap, leaving me to coast back to the paddock on tickover.

Race 2

It looked like a good result was going to be hard work. starting last on the grid and 25th due to the dnf in race 1. When the lights went out I just nailed it, going fro zero to 90 in just under 7 seconds to launch  my self up the order. the end of the lap would see me 5th overall and second in class.

a race long battle with Tom would see plenty of overtaking resulting in me taking the win and 4th on the road.

Not a bad day in the office

After the Crash(s) at Cadwell Park we had 2 weeks until the biggest TVR Event for 60 years. The 60th Birthday celebrations at Rockingham.

The car was pulled apart, bits were sent off to be fixed or replaced, and the car was ready ( just) for the qualifying  session, although we missed practice.

Qualifying saw us 5th on the Grid 1st in class by almost 1 second, on a 30 car grid.

A great start has us running 3rd overall for the first two laps until the gearbox exploded and we coasted to a halt.

That was the end of our Rockingham weekend, and we also then missed the final two rounds of the season at Oulton Park  and Rockingham. Instead concentrating on  the 2008 season.

The engine was completely rebuilt by  castle race engines and i picked the car up from them on the friday, to take to cadwell for friday night testing ahead of the race on sunday.

Cadwell was a little damp, but I headed out and the car felt fantastic with lots of grip and a very tractable engine.

In the third session pushing on hard, the Throttle pedal jammed open at 135 mph into a 50 mph corner. Despite my best efforts ater killing the engine there was no way i could make the corner.

I hit the tyre wall and went straight through it, ripping the bonnet off and setting fire to the front of the car. The fire was quickly put out using the on board extinguisher, and the car dragged back to the paddock.

The car was a mess but the chassis looked ok and the wheels pointing roughly in the right direction.

We took the car to carzone in louth who lent us their workshop and with the help of Andrew Varrall and parts from many of the other competitiors after about 60 man hours we got the car in good enough shape to race it on Sunday.

We missed qualifying as we were still putting the car back together so started the race from the back of the grid.

As the race started I over took 4 cars off the line and then Andy Race up the inside on the 2nd corner. Another lap saw another car dispatched and we were now on the tail of the class leader!

We were all over the back of the car in front and much quicker. I came out of the hair pin and lined him up for a move out of Barn corner.

Then suddenly the front of the car disappeared in a cloud of oil smoke which quickly turned to flames. Before I had time to think the car spun on its own oil and headed into the barriers again, this time on fire before the impact.

Once again swift action by the marshals put the fire out, but covered the engine bay in dry powder. Dry Powder is good for putting fires out but is also very corrosive, as we would ind out later.

So once again this year another DNF, after what should have been another win.

It took a good few weeks to track the Pembrey problems down. It was an intermittent wiring problem on the crank sensor and a missing lock nut from part of the  throttle linkage between the throttle bodies, very small problems but very difficult to find.

With the car fixed and running like a dream on the Saturday, it was straight down to Snetterton that night.

In qualifying the car felt unablanced and was difficult to drive, putting me across the grass a couple of times, and a spin after the hairpin.

After one reasonably good lap the oil pressure light came on and I coasted to a halt. The handling problem had been oil on the tyres, the Valley gasket had failed dumping engine oil everywhere. We could have risked the engine after replacing the gasket but not wanting to damage the engine we pulled  the car and didnt race.

Very disappointing as I’d made pole position by over 1 seconds on the chasing class B pack.

It took a good few weeks to track the Pembrey problems down. It was an intermittent wiring problem on the crank sensor and a missing lock nut from part of the  throttle linkage between the throttle bodies, very small problems but very difficult to find.

With the car fixed and running like a dream on the Saturday, it was straight down to Snetterton that night.

In qualifying the car felt unablanced and was difficult to drive, putting me across the grass a couple of times, and a spin after the hairpin.

After one reasonably good lap the oil pressure light came on and I coasted to a halt. The handling problem had been oil on the tyres, the Valley gasket had failed dumping engine oil everywhere. We could have risked the engine after replacing the gasket but not wanting to damage the engine we pulled  the car and didnt race.

Very disappointing as I’d made pole position by over 1 seconds on the chasing class B pack.

Disaster After the car ran perfectly at Mallory park, we got to Pembery to discovery the race battery was flat. Then we discovered a leak on the fuel rail. That was quickly fixed with a new ‘O’ Ring. But the car still wouldn’t run on all 8 cylinders.

We put the car out for Qualifying, and did just the 3 laps required to qualify. With the car running on 3 cylinders, I actually managed to out qualify 2 other cars much to my surprise.

With much work before the races We managed to get the car to start up on 8 cylinders but drop down to 5 after about 20 seconds. as there was no way we could risk running the engine like that we had to pull out so 2* DNS was the result for Pembrey.

Any Chance of retaining the Overall Title is long gone now, but with other teams in Class B also having problems, there is a slim chance of retaining the class B title.

Disaster After the car ran perfectly at Mallory park, we got to Pembery to discovery the race battery was flat. Then we discovered a leak on the fuel rail. That was quickly fixed with a new ‘O’ Ring. But the car still wouldn’t run on all 8 cylinders.

We put the car out for Qualifying, and did just the 3 laps required to qualify. With the car running on 3 cylinders, I actually managed to out qualify 2 other cars much to my surprise.

With much work before the races We managed to get the car to start up on 8 cylinders but drop down to 5 after about 20 seconds. as there was no way we could risk running the engine like that we had to pull out so 2* DNS was the result for Pembrey.

Any Chance of retaining the Overall Title is long gone now, but with other teams in Class B also having problems, there is a slim chance of retaining the class B title.

Qualified on Class Pole 3rd on the Grid

Race 1 :- 1st in class 5th overall

Race 2 :- 1st in class 5th Overall fastest lap in class

Job done…

Qualified on Class Pole 3rd on the Grid

Race 1 :- 1st in class 5th overall

Race 2 :- 1st in class 5th Overall fastest lap in class

Job done…

Qualified on Class pole 3rd on the grid

Race 1 :- DNF after battery teminal broke.

Race 2:- Started 16th on grid finished 3rd in class 4th overall