Engine starting was perfect but my siezed front brake problem , as at Llandow , reared it's head again to spoil the day
At Eelmoor you get 2 practice runs plus 3 competition runs that count. First practice , I started poorly (still finding the new pedal arrangement & ceramic paddle clutch hard to feel -- ON or OFF
) then braked way too early for first turn in . Crossover was tidy but it accellerated so quick down the short back straight that 2nd was on the limiter well before the hairpin so slow into it . Shot along the next straight but lifted again too early for the crossover SO result was 59.9 sec's
Last year here in the wet I did about 60 sec's from memory
but my best ever time here was 54.79 sec's in the dry/warm.
Didn't think too much of it at the time but when parking in the grassed area paddock after my run -- the car didn't roll on at all and it's sloped a little (never put the handbrake on anyway )
So after the 2nd practice I twigged , because I had to get into 2nd gear and accellerate to get to the paddock(3rd gear was going to stall it
) The moment it was out of gear , without touching the brake , it stopped dead
There was another very strange thing too . After the 1st practice I measured fuel into the 2.5 gallon tank to check what each run would use including queing at the start(there's no fuel gauge now
) It took 3/4 gallon
and the run is 0.9 mile plus tickover queing for 15 min's ish
Then Dean showed me his video of my start which showed clouds of black smoke --------- still don't know why ---- it didn't do it on 2nd practice. I thought TB ecu's were supposed to give perfect fueling
Now I miss the carb's even more
2nd practice still only resulted in 59.6 sec's with an unimpressive start again but better everywhere else. However , as some said , not bad with the brakes jammed on
After spending time farting about with the pedal box then looking at the ' cooked ' pads , I mentally gave up and thought it was wiser to take it home rather than go for the 1st competition run , to see it sieze again possibly doing more damage. At least they'd cooled down enough to load it onto the trailer.
Something for me to puzzle over when time permits. Really not confident about the bias pedal box set up now even though I took ' good ' advice to put it together , rod differing lengths etc etc and cylinder sizes front rear .
Thanks to ANDY , DEAN , MATT , NEV' and my son for support plus Bob , a friend of mine. Two other racers also tried to help which is typical of the club race scene.
Winning cars were 400 and 300 bhp 1st / 2nd with the 3rd position being a 6R4 at 58 sec's which I really should have beaten if on form