July 10th-28th:... Summer Holiday 2008 - Croatia 4x4 Tour
This tour has been our Summer Holiday for 2008. During this tour we travelled 3,500 miles and covered 9 countries; England, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Solvenia, Croatia, Italy and Switzerland. The purpose of this tour was to enjoy a 4x4 tour of Croatia. But, this part of the tour was a farce. Why? Because our tour guide didn't have a car... so he couldn't tour and he didn't have any maps sould he couldn't guide.... So the less said about this the better. Having said the above we met some delightful people on our tour and some of the places we visited were simply outstanding.
To sum up my opinion of Croatia I would say... glorious countryside, shame about the locals. Everywhere we went the locals went out of their way to make the tourists unwelcome. The first day gave a perfect example of what was to become the norm when our group of 10 people when to a cafe and the 'host' said... 'We don't want your kind here!'. Whether this is a throwback to the Serb/Croat war of the early 90's where Croatia felt the British and French Troops favoured the Serbs over the Croats I have no idea. I don't care. All I know is that I have not come across a population so overtly unwelcoming towards the brits save for Mugabe and his cronies.
If there was one idea that was well and truely cemented in my mind throughout our tour of Europe it was this: That Northern Italy has the most glorious countryside and, in general, the most friendly population of all of Europe. Their alps rival anywhere in the world and their locals are more than willing to smile and help tourists who need directions or assistance. I can't wait to return in 2009 to this part of the world for a friends wedding.
To see photos of our Summer Holiday 2008, please see the 'Croatia' link under the 'Holiday's' page on this website.
May 25th: Mallory Park... TinTops Race 3
My third race was at Mallory Park. I was hoping for a dry race [silly me, I forget I live in England!] which didn't happen. I was hoping to win it too! As luck would have it, it pelted down with rain all day. Although there were dry spells... these spells occured during lunch and inbetween the races... Mother Nature was certainly not on our side!
As I said in my review of Brands Hatch below, I was hoping to compete for outright victory for Class B [my class] with an outside chance of getting on the podium for Class A, the faster class. Well I certainly did better than hoped, even if the rain did make for a more even field, as I put myself on outright Pole over 1 second faster than the second placed competitor.
My theory in the rain is as follows: to finish first, first you have to finish. Following on from this, at the start of the race I went from pole to 5th in the first 3 laps. I figured, I'd let the others find out where the grip wasn't and from watching them, I'd then put the hammer down, regain the lead and win outright in only my third race! Well that was the plan... As it happened, on the 5th lap, just as I put in the fastest lap of the race and the day, I lost ALL gears. My gear linkage popped out meaning I had to watch the race unfold from a slip road.
Whilst dissapointed at first, I soon became very grateful. This is because driving standards of a couple of competitors was attrocious, so much so two competitors between them deliberately put out 5 other competitors. Two of the competitors will not be racing again this season as their vehicles were completely written off.
Due to camera niggles as well, I also don't have any in-car video footage of the day or photos. So despite a miserably wet day, I consider the day a success due to pole position and coming away with an in-tact car... particularly to fix my gear linkage problem will only cost me a 2p zip-tie!
April 27th: Brands Hatch... TinTops Race 2
So my second race was at Brands Hatch. Testing was on the Friday before and the less said about that the better. I had such a cr*p day even the woman at signing on for testing felt sorry for me and didn't charge me for the day. As a result of my Friday I thought if I can get inside the top 10 for qualifying and the race on Sunday then I'd consider that a good result.
Qualifying: This went extremely well. Between Snetterton and Brands, we'd found the reason for why PJ just wanted to spin and oversteer... it was due to Brunswick forgetting to cut off the rear bump stops on the suspension. As a result PJ had no suspension travel at all which meant i'd hit a bump and spin. The other implication was that because I couldn't lean on the suspension I couldn't get any heat into the tyres... which was a complaint of mine at Snetterton.
Midway through qualifying I came into the pits for fuel as I was experiencing fuel starvation around Hailwood Hill and coming out of Clearways onto the start finish straight. At this time Amanda told me my times were 1:01/1:02 which was good enough to get into the top 10 and compete with the Class B leaders. The Class A cars were running about 4-5 seconds faster than that which was to be expected. But I felt I had faster times to come and wanted to get under a minute...
So out again for session 2 of qualifying. During this period I let Nick Reynolds from Midway Garage overtake me. He's very experienced at this track and thus I thought i'd follow him and learn from him... as soon as he realised this and that I was toying with him he pulled over to let me pass! Now knowing the track I set a best time of 57.339 which was good enough for 4th on the grid [amongst the Class A cars!] and over a second quicker than the other Class B cars... so I was leading Class B! Given my objective for the day and that I felt my suspension was too soft and I could comfortably go 1 sec quicker with a harder setting [that would have put me on pole overall!] I was ecstatic! There is great in-car video footage of the second half of qualifying here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQMq13YlgI
Now realising I had a chance to win the race outright... i set my suspension set up for a dry race.
The Race: Well bugger me... as we were going out for the start formation on the grid the heavens opened... which was my worst nightmare. Although I jumped from 4th to 2nd at the start, because my car wanted to slide all over the track and not turn in, in the wet, I had fallen to last place by the halfway mark. Gutted... down but not out!
After my pit stop a dry line started to appear which meant i could start to presson a little. And press on I did! By the end of the race I'd climbed from 24th and last to 8th overall. I'd also set the fastest time for Class B cars only 1/2 a second slower than the best for Class A. I also finished 2nd in Class B resulting in my first ever podium in only my second race! Result !!!
In short a dry setting and no experience in a fully wet race cost me first place in Class B and ultimately finishing on the podium amonst the Class A cars. But what is great to know is that I've now shown the Class A cars that they've got a car and a driver in Class B who can genuinely give them a run for their money... something they came up to me and admitted after the race. Awesome!
I now look forward to my next race at Mallory Park on May 25th where, I'm hoping if the weather is dry, I can compete for outright victory in Class B and hopefully get on the podium amongst the Class A competitors as well.
Photos of Brands Hatch can be found under 'PJ' in the 'Photos' tab at the top of this page.
April 5th: Snetterton... my first ever race!
I thought i'd post up my experience of my first ever race for you all... it was awesome! As a completely new experience for my my learning curve was massive... so understandably my nerves were high!
Yesterday we had 'Team Hunter' which included a real life mechanic! Brunswidk Racing who prepared my car sent one of their employees to support me during the day from 7am when he arrived to 3pm when we packed up to go home. In that time he worked hard and did a sterling job.
So to the experience and what i've learned... having arrived at the circuit and signing on, it was enouraging that the CSCC who organised the event had an extra briefing for all those like me who have never raced at the circuit before or never raced at all. This helped me to familiarise with Snetterton as a circuit, the marshall's posts and the flags etc... Very helpful!
PJ's basic specs are circa 205bhp, 790kg with all fluids, 2.5d neg camber with 1deg neg castor and 1.5mm tow in front, tyre pressures 24psi front and 27psi rear, 25mm rear arb and tb's and front and rear shocks set to the middle setting. The weather was clear but cold for most of the day though the start of the race was wet... with drying conditions towards the end.
During practice we noticed three things:
1 - an oil leak
2 - a coolant leak
3 - mayonaise in the oil filler... oh shi*t!
The oil leak turned out the be the dipstick... as a result of riding the curbs in the last chicane the dip stick had shaken itselft loose... nothing some gaffa tape cant fix
It appears my coolant cap is mising a rubber ring... so we 'borrowed' one from a nearby Transit van which sorted that issue out.
The mayonaise... we hope this is just due to water being in the engine as the engine itself hasn't been fully run for a very long time... so we cleaned this up and went out to the race hoping all was well... which it turned out to be so phew!
During practice my times tumbled from 1:40 to 1:29 which was good enough for 7th on the grid out of 23 starters and 2nd fastest in class. I was well chuffed!
The Race: The top runners were a Honda Integra and Honda Civic... they appear to be mega buck ex-touring cars and as a consequence were running 1:22/1:23 times...
Settline into the race there is a mandatory pitstop that has to take place between the 15-30min window. For 'Team Hunter' without a pitboard... we said that with a little A6 size card [that we subsequently misplaced] my 'crew' would notify me of when to come in by shaking the card when I drove past the pit wall... that was the idea. At around the 13 min window I noticed all of my crew shaking their fists with their thumbs up... so I though I had to come in. When I came in they said 'whats the problem?' To which I replied... 'you were waving me in!'... to which they responded... 'No. We were just saying you are doing really well, keep it up!'... Oh sh*t... so i've just done an unnecessary and illegal pitstop before i was mean't to meaning i will have to do this all again!
Going back out on track I'm now last and have it all to work for... so trying as i do... I overcook it coming out of Corum and spin off at approx. 100mph.
After my second pit stop I was able to follow the lead civic for a period and I noticed where he was significantly quicker... his handling around corners is much more progressive than PJ which just wants to snap around [hence my off!]... so once I get this sorted I am certain PJ will be able to keep up with the lead vehicles.
Later on I was told that my rear end was just way too stiff which was probably a lead factor to my handling... as i say it was a massive learning curve!
To top it off I finished the race in 12th place out of 21 finishers and my best race time was 1 second faster than my qualifying time. So I was very satisfied with my result. And what is most pleasing of all is that another competitor who is experienced and has won championships before said he thought was driving was very good particularly during the start of the race when my little car wanted to skate around the corners... what a great day!
Easter 2008 [March 21-24]: Well... as far as i'm aware, aside from its religous reasons, easter is mean't to celebrate the start of spring...but not with snow! Click on 'My Family' tab above for photos of our dogs playing in the snow. Click on the 'Photos' tab and look in the 'Misc' section there for more photos of the whitewash that hit Cambridgeshire this Easter.
March 20th: Testing today at Snetterton. It didn't go as planned at all. Weather was the first dissapointment. Whereas I hoped it would just remain cold, it started out with a drizzle making the track very greasy. The MSA who informed me my license should have been ready by Monday 17th still hadn't completed the application meaning that I arrived at the track without a valid license. This resulted in a long waiting period before the MSA provided the relevent information to Snetterton officials so I could go out and test.
Test 1: A brand new vehicle mean't I took it easy for the first few laps. Just as well. Other individuals were spinning on almost every lap and I ended up with a 90d sping on corner 3 that provided and interesting moment for me... On lap 5 I decided to 'put the hammer down' on the back straight and noticed large white smoke coming out of my rear as I approached the Esses. Slowing down, I ended up spinning on my own oil when in the Esses and was immediately black flagged and pulled off. Bizarrly, after having been stopped by the marshalls we pushed the car forward and couldn't see any oil leek at all. We checked the engine bay and it was all dry too, so no leak from the engine. What we did notice when back in the pits was the top of the oil breather for the gear box was loose and we suspect the gearbox was over full and thus when I put the hammer down, this blew gearbox oil out resulting in my spin and oil on the most difficult corners of Snetterton.
Test 2: Not being 100% sure of the above I went out again and was pulled over for my tow strap hanging down. Other than this, I took it gently and all seemed ok.
Test 3: After about 5 laps, again entering the esses, something very wrong happened. When changing down into second, something let go! Whether or not it is the gearbox, diff, clutch or all 3 I don't know, it's too early to say. So once again I was pulled off and then towed into the pits. The gearbox and differ are new but the clutch isn't. Thus I hope it's the clutch and not the other two items as they're too expensive to replace and should last more than 10 laps!
So because of the above, I'm thinking I should start a new company/website called 'pullmeoffracing.com!' because under different cirsumances if I got pulled off 3 times in one day i'd consider myself very fortunate!
On a positive note, the scruitineers thought my vehicle was a credit to the series and very well prepared - so well done to Brunswick Racing! Just a couple of minor adjustments [such as strapping down the brake reservoir as an extra precaution] need to be made to ensure 100% compliance with this years regs.
March 19th: Collected PJ from Brunswick Racing. This is version 1. There are a couple of other smaller things to do before version 1 is fully race ready. These are only minor items like ensuring the heated screen is wired up along with the fuel gauge. Overall I'm very impressed with them as a company. Very helpful, friendly and I trust their work. Some photos of him from collection are included in PJ's photos page.
March 7th-9th: Amanda and I both went to North Wales offroading. This was an opportunity for us both to gain experience driving 'Monty' offroad. It also allowed us to meet other individuals who are going on the Croatia trip both with us as well as before and after us. We also met couples who are going to drive to the northern tip of Russia! It was a great weekend and new friends were made... mind you, if you're looking for warm weather.... do NOT confuse a holiday in North Wales with that of Benidorm! Click on the 'Monty' link under the 'Photos' page to see more photos of our weekend away.
2nd Feb 2008: Offroading in Derbyshire and the Peak District in the UK. The day started out early with a 6am departure to make it to the starting point for 10am. In total 13 vehicles set off in 3 seperate groups. Conditions were slippery to say the least with ice and snow on both the main roads and the beaten trails. A great but tiring day was had by all. Click on Monty's link under the photos page for pictures of this day.
Jan 2008: Pictures from my 32nd Birthday
29th Dec 2007: This website was created
