2014 SMRC Knockhill - Race 3+4 Pre race chat

[ClarkyBoy]

Hello all,

Thought it was time for a wee post seeing as the scottish sports and saloon racing reason kicks off this weekend!

I will do a wee race write up after each race weekend and keep you all up to date with the events - it would be good see some of you alond to cheer on your SE representative

I have the facebook and twitter pages too - if you want to like and follow - http://www.facebook.com/kjaracing and http://www.twitter.com/kjaracing

This year i will be out in the M3 kindly offered by a good mate Kev Arthur, and here it is!


Touring and M3 by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

The race dates are here...

06 April 2014 at Knockhill
04 May 2014 at Knockhill
31 May 2014 at Oulton Park
15 June 2014 at Knockhill
13 July 2014 at Knockhill
17 August 2014 at Knockhill
14 September 2014 at Knockhill
05 October 2014 at Knockhill

I will be competing in Class B1 and below is the class structure,

The Scottish Saloon & Sports Car Championship is for Competitors participating in cars in the following 7 classes (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2 , B3, B4):A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4.

Class A1
Saloon & Sports Cars (using racing tyres) with four wheel drive and normally aspirated or turbo/super-charged engines. (Caterhams and Kit cars not eligible)

Class A2
Saloon & Sports Cars (using racing tyres) with two wheel drive and normally aspirated or turbo/super-charged engines. (Caterhams and Kit cars not eligible)

Class A3
Caterhams, Kit cars and motorcycle engined kit cars. Caterhams of any engine capacity (using racing tyres), Kit cars up to 3500cc. Normally aspirated engines only.


Class B1
Saloon & Sports Cars (using treaded road based tyres) including all engine types over 2001cc, and all Turbo / Super charged engines, and all 4wd cars.

Class B2
Caterhams and Kit cars over 1401cc and motorcycle engined kit cars and Caterhams of any engine capacity (using treaded tyres).

Class B3
Saloon & Sports Cars (using treaded road based tyres) with two wheel drive, including all engine types from 1601 - 2000cc(excluding all Turbo / Super charged engines, and 4wd cars). Fiesta 2.0 ST, Fiesta Si 1800 and Fiesta S cars running to 2014 SMRC Fiesta ST CUP regulations.

Class B4
Saloon & Sports Cars (using treaded road based tyres) with two wheel drive, including all engine types up to 1600cc (excluding all Turbo / Super charged engines, and 4wd cars). Plus Caterhams and Kit cars up to 1400cc (also using treaded tyres) and excluding motorcycle engine cars of any capacity).

The Scottish Mazda MX5 Cup is for Mk1 1600cc cars complying with 2014 BRSCC MX5 Championship regulations, with the exceptions listed in their regulations. They only compete for this trophy over16 rounds. The Scottish BMW Compact Cup is contested over 16 rounds these cars only compete for this trophy.

Alongside the sports and saloon classes there will also bee the BMW Compact Cup, Mini Cooper Cup, Classic Sports and Saloons, Legends and Formula Fords!

So as you can see with a wide range of cars entered it makes an exciting watch - so come along and get involved!!

If you come along to watch you can get half price entry if you show your competitor facebook freind at the gate, so if you are freinds with me, or any of the other competitors on facebook it gains you half price entry at £6

[Dominic]

Great stuff!
Good luck for the weekend, and I look forward to the write up

[tut]

That aerial on the front of your car is going to slow you down Clark.
Do you have a list of entrants, would be interested in seeing them.

I was wondering if N3 would be eligible in B1 as it includes S/C cars but over 2001cc. However Foz is in there and the Honda is 1998cc.

tut

[StiflerMR2]

All the best for the season, looking forward to the write ups

[campbell]

Woo, what's the timing on Sunday, James and I have a pass

[Stu160]

Have fun

Stu

[C7Steve]

Good luck Clarky

Steve.

[highlander]

Hope all goes well on the day

[flyingscot68]

Cya there mate

[j2 lot]

Good luck with the racing Clarky

[campbell]

James and I are installed at KH, complete with foldy chairs and full all-weather gear.

James likes Clarky's style - "lots of sideways"

Will try to track down in paddock.

[ClarkyBoy]

Afternoon all!

I think i have just about recovered from a busy weekend - so its time for my 1st write up i guess!

So i got all loaded up and headed off to knockhill on saturday about 12 noon, had decent weatehr all the way down.. and as usual.. as soon as i turned off the main road to head for kelty.... the heavens opened!

so unsurprisingly it was very wet, very windy and very miserable. so i offloaded the car - this was the 1st mistake i made of the weekend! I took off all the starps, hooked up the jump battery, started the car 1st time, hit reverse.. nothing but wheelspin on the trailer, turns out you have to disconnet the winch too? who's have thunk it!

Eventually got the car off, got suited up and headed out for test session 1.

Got 2 laps in and there was a huge vibration from the front left wheel, there was alot of smoke in the cockpit and the car was really down on power - Great!

Came back into the paddock to discover that the oil breather to the catch can had dislodged the o-ring thus not giving a seal, causing a huge oil leak onto the exhaust - stuck it all back together, waited for it to cool off and headed over to the jet wash bay tyo blast the oil out form under the bonnet and off the underside of the car, gott hat all done, topped up the oil.... looked like it had lost a litre.... which was concerning! then discovered that the vibration was only caused by a couple of loose wheel studs.. nothing major then

Anyway, headed out for session 2, after a couple of laps, more smoke, more oil leaking, i was flagged, so pulled right into a marshals post as i was sure the car was on fire -luckily it wasnt, but the car wouldnt start again as the wee battery was a bit dead, so had to get a tow back tot he paddock.

Pulled off the breather, catch can, filter, pipes and cleaned the whole lot up with some brake cleaner, sealed all the mating areas with terostat, stuck it all back together, dipped the oil to realise... it was now bang on the max level - looked like i over filled it in my hurry to get out in second test causing the excess to p1sh everywhere!

So saturday's testing left me with no confidence in the car, and on the few laps that i did do it felt like it was going to kill me every time i turned in - the new ARB's were set to full hard, which for the wet obviosuly was way too much.

Saturday night headed out for dinner and a few pints to freshen me up for the racing on sunday!

on sunday morning kev who onw the car announced that i had to drive to the track as he felt sick - self inflicted of course so i made sure to give his volvo estate auto a good shakedown on the way to the track lol

we took the car round to scruitineering after mopping up the oil and were promptly asked to check the fire ext pull cord... which snapped off in my hand, so there was a mad ruch to get that replaced, back to the scruitineering bay, which thanksfully renny just needed to have a quick look to see it was replaced and let us on our way to qualifying.

I got out on track to qaulify and still realy wasnt feeling happy with the car or the conditions but got the car round and qualified 1st in class and 9th on the grid, but the car really felt like it was trying to kill me at every turn - it was wild, and very sideways and the diff developed a rumble - not good...

Race 1

So the lights went out and the car infront of me didnt move - 3ltr twin turbo RB320 scoob with about 60 grands worth of bolt on kit - falling asleep on the line, priceless lol. i went round him and got myself up into 5th from 9th and stayed there pretty uneventful race to be honest, car was handling like a dog, but i was leading my class and cars 2-6 were all with in .450 seconds, whihc i was pretty happy with, that list included some pretty impressive metal.

The car was still smoking a bit and losing oil onto the exhaust, but a re-route of pipework and re-position of the breather filter sorted it out so no big deal.

some race 1 pics.


race 1b by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


race 1a by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


race 1c by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


race 1e by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

Race 2,

We decided to go full soft on the rear ARB and soften the rear spring pre-load to try and make the car a little more manageable, but by this time the diff was really really bad and grabbing a wheel every now and then, so the plan was to just get comfortable and lead the class, preserv the car and get it over the line to win the class and not to push myself too much to stop breakages!

I was sat on P5 on the grid there was a terrential downpour while we were waiting to go out so it was very very wet when the light went out the ginetta G50 infront of me squiremed around, i couldnt get past, so sat behind him intot duffus, where he eventually spun off the track making room for me to get through, made my way up to 3rd, which i held until the 1st time we entered the hairpin, blue evo in the class up from me (owned by Alkex bruce who passed away last year and who the raceday was dedecated to) being driven very well by George Orr came tearing past me as i passed the other M3 that was out - E46 with around 550bhp! myplan to just preserv the car had gone for that 1st couple of laps until i realised the diff was getting really really bad, so i backed off - i had made enough room between me and the guys behind me to relax until the race was over - the longest 12 laps ever, thought the car was going to pack in before the flag was waved, but it managed, onthe cool down lap there was all sorts of clattering coming from it and i managed to limp it back to the paddock!

here are some pics from race 2 - you get a feel for how bad the weather is in the 1st one!


race 2c by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


race 2b by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


race 2 d by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

So the fianl results were that i won my class in both the races and placed 5th overall in race one and 4th overall in race 2 after an unfortunate DQ of Graham Davidson in the noble who had 2 fantastic drives and IMHO was robbed of his race 2 win.

Good to see those of you that endured the weather to spectate!

[philthy]

Great write up and even better results!

Must have been a proper handful in those conditions. Good luck in the next round and hope you sort the issues, doesn't sound too much of a ballache.

[C7Steve]

Thanks for the write up and hope you get the car issues sorted out for the next race.

When is the next race Clarky?

Oh, I was pi**ing myself laughing about you and the winch.


Steve.

[ClarkyBoy]

That aerial on the front of your car is going to slow you down Clark.
Do you have a list of entrants, would be interested in seeing them.

I was wondering if N3 would be eligible in B1 as it includes S/C cars but over 2001cc. However Foz is in there and the Honda is 1998cc.

tut

Tut, the Elise with a Honda engine would fall into class A2 and be allowed to run slicks as it does nit contain a power plant from the original manufacturer. Supercharger multiplies the capacity by 1.4

Oh and i have a vid to follow.