My first saloon car race of 2014 report
22-04-2014, 09:41 PM
#1
My first saloon car race of 2014 report
After months of rushing about trying to get the car ready we were finally ready to set off on sunday for the first races of the season on Monday At Oulton park supporting the British GT championship
The crew supporting me at the weekend
got there and set up for the weekend 2 of my mates have race camper vans so they became a great base for us
On the Thursday before I found out that my new race pads were faulty and I had no useable spares being a bank holiday I was in deep trouble but circuit supplies came to the rescue in not only supplying me a set but they got them hand delivered to oulton park for me via the motorbase touring car/GT team, so a big thumbs up to them..
whilst at the circuit on the sunday night I spotted a flexible brake line was leaking luckily I car a very good spares package and had a spare one in the box phew!
I picked up the race pads 20 mins before qualifying and my team fitted them whist I was in the drivers briefing.
whilst at the circuit on the Sunday night I spotted a flexible brake line was leaking luckily I carry a very good spares package and had a spare one in the box phew!
at 07.30 on the Monday morning whist seeing if the motorbase truck was open to get the pads I bumped into this fella who was racing in the GT's with the Nissan Acadamy team, I've never asked a celebrity for a selfie before but just did it on the spur of the moment lol
was a great fella and he wished me well with my racing.
Sir Chris Hoy
Anyway on to the racing
went out in qualifying on a dry cold track and soon got into the swing of things the new dog engagement gearbox was taking some getting used to but when I got it right it was awesome, the power delivery of the new engine was simply stunning and I found my self hooked up behind a seat leon cup car which is a fully blown touring car spec thing
the exact seat I was following
I managed to get dragged along behind him for a few laps which really brought my lap times down so much so that I found my self 6th on the grid with a time of 1.55 which is 7 seconds quicker than my previous best with the same car! al be it 120 bhp less
I even out qualified a 750bhp evo with slicks and wings (the black one in the pic below)
First Race
I made the worst start ever in racing and went from 1st to 4th and got swamped, found my self 9th at the end of lap 1 and pretty much stayed there till the end of the race, the gearbox was getting difficult to get into 5th which wasn't good
race 2
made a better start and was running about 7th when exiting old hall on lap 4 the car jumped out of 4th I put it straight back into gear but it seemed like I had no drive, the oil pressure warning light flickered so I turned the engine off and coasted to the side
I haven't viewed the in car camera yet but I think the oil pressure was just hot oil dropping from 7k to tickover whist I tried to find a gear, the switch is a 25psi one so it doesn't take much when hot to light it up but at the time I was playing safe the engine started and ran fine a few minutes later.
Today once home I removed the gearbox for repair so hope to have it done ready for croft in 3 weeks time
Overall a great weekend, I've built a really good car which is a vast improvement on the old spec which was the aim all along
Huge thanks to 3 companies who have supported me in the rebuild
Matt Lewis Motorsport
Matt has supported me since I started racing in 2010 and is always there to help out with parts and advice
Reyland motors
Martin built me an awesome engine and supplied the new brake discs on the car
Motorsport developments
Stu and the team mapped the car perfectly and it certainly made the right numbers
so a huge thanks to all those guys
A few pics I've found so far of race one
steve
The crew supporting me at the weekend
got there and set up for the weekend 2 of my mates have race camper vans so they became a great base for us
On the Thursday before I found out that my new race pads were faulty and I had no useable spares being a bank holiday I was in deep trouble but circuit supplies came to the rescue in not only supplying me a set but they got them hand delivered to oulton park for me via the motorbase touring car/GT team, so a big thumbs up to them..
whilst at the circuit on the sunday night I spotted a flexible brake line was leaking luckily I car a very good spares package and had a spare one in the box phew!
I picked up the race pads 20 mins before qualifying and my team fitted them whist I was in the drivers briefing.
whilst at the circuit on the Sunday night I spotted a flexible brake line was leaking luckily I carry a very good spares package and had a spare one in the box phew!
at 07.30 on the Monday morning whist seeing if the motorbase truck was open to get the pads I bumped into this fella who was racing in the GT's with the Nissan Acadamy team, I've never asked a celebrity for a selfie before but just did it on the spur of the moment lol
was a great fella and he wished me well with my racing.
Sir Chris Hoy
Anyway on to the racing
went out in qualifying on a dry cold track and soon got into the swing of things the new dog engagement gearbox was taking some getting used to but when I got it right it was awesome, the power delivery of the new engine was simply stunning and I found my self hooked up behind a seat leon cup car which is a fully blown touring car spec thing
the exact seat I was following
I managed to get dragged along behind him for a few laps which really brought my lap times down so much so that I found my self 6th on the grid with a time of 1.55 which is 7 seconds quicker than my previous best with the same car! al be it 120 bhp less
I even out qualified a 750bhp evo with slicks and wings (the black one in the pic below)
First Race
I made the worst start ever in racing and went from 1st to 4th and got swamped, found my self 9th at the end of lap 1 and pretty much stayed there till the end of the race, the gearbox was getting difficult to get into 5th which wasn't good
race 2
made a better start and was running about 7th when exiting old hall on lap 4 the car jumped out of 4th I put it straight back into gear but it seemed like I had no drive, the oil pressure warning light flickered so I turned the engine off and coasted to the side
I haven't viewed the in car camera yet but I think the oil pressure was just hot oil dropping from 7k to tickover whist I tried to find a gear, the switch is a 25psi one so it doesn't take much when hot to light it up but at the time I was playing safe the engine started and ran fine a few minutes later.
Today once home I removed the gearbox for repair so hope to have it done ready for croft in 3 weeks time
Overall a great weekend, I've built a really good car which is a vast improvement on the old spec which was the aim all along
Huge thanks to 3 companies who have supported me in the rebuild
Matt Lewis Motorsport
Matt has supported me since I started racing in 2010 and is always there to help out with parts and advice
Reyland motors
Martin built me an awesome engine and supplied the new brake discs on the car
Motorsport developments
Stu and the team mapped the car perfectly and it certainly made the right numbers
so a huge thanks to all those guys
A few pics I've found so far of race one
steve
Last edited by The Youth.; 22-04-2014 at 10:42 PM.
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How did you get on with my brake discs?
27-04-2014, 07:56 AM
#12
Well done mate it was a shame your gear box played up but that can be fixed as long as your having fun that's all that matters . I'v got a 25psi oil switch on focus Cosworth and it offen flickers when the oil is very hot but proboly like you I'v got a oil gauge on the dash so I can see Wots going on . Keep the updates coming mate well done
28-04-2014, 02:13 PM
#15
overall they seem very good to me.
Engine wise wow is all I can say, massive difference to the old engine as my lap times prove!
Thanks for all your help mate
everyone else thanks for all your comments appreciate it
steve
Last edited by The Youth.; 28-04-2014 at 02:14 PM.
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