D.N.F. Three crushing letters for a racer. I should've known the weekend wasn't going to be a good one when the M25 ground to a halt at junction 6. I'd only got on at 5 and was going around to 15.... Four hours and two excursions into greater London backroads later and I was finally making progress, until the M6 ground to a halt too. So what should've taken five hours from Sussex to Oulton Park in Cheshire took 10. You never go anywhere quick in a '66 VW camper towing a trailer, but that was ridiculous. Still, it's not a bad place to be and you get plenty of friendly waves from people in other cars!
We were scheduled for early Saturday testing to give Ian and I time to learn the circuit.
I say "learn" but it's more a case of figuring out which way the first corner goes when you leave the pitlane, and Oulton Park is one with lots of corners: twisty, tight, undulating and with lots of camber, it's a great circuit. A couple of unforgiving corners (Druids and Lodge) mean it's not a course to be taken lightly though. Lots of marks on the circuit, grass and armco attest to that. A strung out weekend (testing early Sat, practice and qualifying late Sat afternoon and racing late Sunday) meant we had plenty of time to fettle the car, which we took full advantage of.
The trusty pit crew of Mav, Wendy and Billy under Ian's direction saw an oil change after Le Mans, new plugs, getting the oil temperature and pressure guages working, and removing a few more unnecessary items to reduce weight, plus a wash to take off all the French bugs had the car ready.
But the biggest change we made all weekend was to stiffen up all the Koni's, which had unbelievably been set on their softest settings. The car as bought from the States was a typical American 356 racer: massive front rollbar, soft torsion bars and Koni's set soft all round, so it understeered like buggery. Very safe, but not very quick. As neither Ian nor I had raced a 356 before we assumed that's how they handled as we had no reference points, plus we didn't want to start playing around with a race car settings after 3 races.... But, stiffening them to reduce body roll, and changing from L to M series Dunlop Racing tyres have transformed the car. Now it actually goes round corners rather than rolling over and transferring all the weight to the outside rear tyre, which then heats up and gets overwhelmed. Starting out on L spec Dunlop's was a mistake on my part. Because I hadn't committed to the Guards series and some series require the harder L's, I'd figured that was a good decision. What I didn't realise was that the M's are almost an inch and a half wider! Same numbers on the sidewall: 5.00L Dunlop Racing, CR65; but a big difference in width. And obviously a lot stickier and softer. With a lot less roll, the other tyres were now doing more of the work too, which meant the car went round corners a whole lot quicker, ideal for Oulton.
Unfortunately we've had an issue with the gearbox puking oil out the breather since Le Mans - it's not over-filled, but I expect because of the rev's we're doing that it's foaming really badly, but for whatever reason we ended up with oil on the clutch, which got progressively worse through practice. But not before Ian out-qualified one of the 911's in practice though. Being a drag-racer Ian also made a great start in the race, leaping another 3 cars before the first corner. An MGB muscling him wide on the first corner saw him have to put two wheels on the grass, and the advantage was lost, but he was already on the pace when he came around for the first time. Unfortunately the car didn't come around again. I have to say that's not a nice experience, seeing the stopwatch click over the expected lap time and your car not appear.... There's the dread of a shunt, then the thought that he's bent the car or blown something up, but there was no way of knowing. I dashed up to race control, to be told he'd parked it before the chicane. At least he's not hurt and the car's not a right off! Turns out the other gremlin we've struggled with (dodgy wiring) had come out to play, with the car suddenly losing all electrical power to the ignition and fuel pump circuit. It would turn over but not run.
So I'd gone all that way to not even race! We packed up quickly, said our goodbye's and set off for home. I had to stop for petrol some five miles from the circuit as the bus was running on empty, filled up, got back in, clicked off the immobiliser, and turned the key. Nothing. Tried again, assuming I had not given the immobiliser key enough time in the socket. Nothing. Cursing, Mav, Billy, Wendy (the pit crew who did an unbelievable job all weekend) and I pushed the camper, trailer and 356 off the forecourt and out the way, before trying to figure out what was wrong. 15 minutes of jury-rigging and hot-wiring later I tried the immobiliser key one last desperate time, and it started! A dodgy socket, so I had to drive the 220 miles home without turning the engine off. I'd also stupidly crushed the trailer light socket so had no lights for the trailer. Mav, Billy and Wendy showed true loyalty by following me virtually the whole way home so no-one ran into the back of the trailer. I got the 356 back up the workshop driveway on my own by starting it in gear and pulling it up on the starter motor, before falling into bed at 2am this morning.
So the silver-linings on the weekend? Well the bus ran faultlessly, doing 60mph when traffic permitted. With the Beach Boys on the iPhone and the heater on it's a lovely place to be. We had a great social time camping, doing lots of bench-racing.
A trip to an auto-electrican to rip out the only bit of modern technology in it will make me a happy boy as I've always hated those bloody things. We transformed the handling of the 356 and now have something resembling a competitive car, at least on the wiggly bits. And with a slipping clutch we outqualified a 911!
But it was a salutory "to finish first, first you have to finish" lesson. Or in our case to get the stamp on our upgrade cards which you don't get if you DNF! And a round trip of 440 miles and not getting to race at all was not what we planned! Still, that's racing.
I'm going to be on the phone to PRS or Paragon first thing tomorrow morning to book the car in for a complete re-wiring as we can't afford to not have a reliable car. Still, it was infinitely better than the chap on the first lap of his race who crashed - we didn't see it, but we heard the tortured screech of tyres at Lodge, then the awful silence as you know he's either got away with it or is sliding across the grass... before the sickening crunch of metal, glass and plastic thumping an armco at high speed. Race over and a very bent car to show for it. At least our repairs only extend to putting new wires in!
Until next time, which should be the Silverstone finals in October, happy racing. Cheers, Steve
