Race report from Sandown 22/23rd May 2009

Ross Nicol · 05-25-09, 11:48 AM

Well here we are again, filing a report from a pretty eventful weekend.The lead up last week included fitting new front brake pads, checking the suspension settings and lots of cleaning. On wed evening I decided to remove the starter to run some checks for an intermittent problem I've had where the solenoid would tick but the starter wouldn't rotate. I eventually found the fault, the wire to one brush was not connected.Whether it had blown off under stress I couldn't be certain. As there was a small amount of polling I decided to buy a new starter which fixed the problem and the car starts much better (well it did!). Time ran away from me and I wanted to do some brake pad bedding in while driving the car around the block at the factory. Friday night was the earliest I managed to grab some time and off I went accelerating and braking my way around the block. I did about 20 to 30 braking actions at about 50
% but it did take about 20 mins to complete. I parked the car back outside the factory and had just settled into a beer with my friend Kevin when the Police showed up. They had recieved a complaint from the post office around the corner and Wanted to know what I was up to. I don't suppose there was much the cop could do as I wasn't driving the car any longer, so he departed after serving me a stern warning not to continue.
Saturday morning dawned fine as the forecast had predicted and I loaded the 40 onto the trailer at the factory and made my way to
Sandown. A variation to our normal format meant we would have 2 qualifying sessions sat morning and afternoon followed by 3 races on Sunday.I found one of the rose joints on the gear shift loose(causing a very sloppy shifter) but we had enough time to get to it and solve that issue. The morning session went off ok but I didn't seem to be able to get under 1min 22sec lap time, however the handling was ok and the brakes came up fine. Towards the end of the afternoon session the car was sounding different on the rundown and when I finished we checked the exhaust system but found nothing. There was quite a bit of oil leaking under the car and I put it down to the front seal allowing oil to spread onto the chassis and drip from there. Again I couldn't better a 1min 22sec lap time and I made a decision this would be the last race meeting for this motor.
Back to the track Sunday morning and ready for the first race. We were held up on the dummy grid for a while while a big prang was cleaned up during the sports sedan race which preceeded ours. We were to have 2 warm up laps and as I started around the first lap it became apparent my throttle was jamming open and not allowing the motor to drop to it's normal idle speed. I figured this must have been the reason for the different run down sound on Saturday. I blipped the throttle relentlessly to see if the problem would go away but it didn't and we cam round to form up on the grid. I called over a flag marshall and told him I would pull out but it was too late and I chose to start and give it a go. I found The brakes would still pull the car up even though they were fighting the partially open throttle. I was holding my own and the car was handling superbly. I was into the race by about 4 laps when I started up the back straight. I can't remember exactly which gear I was in most likely 3rd when all of a sudden Bang! then nothing. I got the car off the track in case there was oil coming out of the car and coasted to a safe spot. I had a feeling I would not be running any more on that day and when the flatbed truck dropped me off oil was still emanating from under the car.
So my old nail of a motor that I have abused for a good few years now has gone (see the pics below) Now I am forced to get the race motor in to continue this season. I can't wait.By the way I packed up and came home early and mowed the lawns. The things you don't have time to do when preparing for a race meeting.

Ross

Russ Noble · 05-25-09, 03:40 PM

Ross Mate, does it hurt?

The front seal was never going to cope with that!!! Thank god it was your shitter motor and not the good one. Also that it didn't let go while you were over here, that would really have had us burning the midnight oil.

Sorry to hear of the misfortune, what are you going to do with that old motor?

Keep on smiling, when's the next race?

Randy V · 05-25-09, 04:12 PM

Ross -

Thanks for the report... I read along top to bottom, not cheating to read ahead or look at pics till finished..
If there's a ray of sunshine in any of this, it's that she didn't let go so badly as to oil down your tires. Then you may have had a very difficult time getting her slowed and finally stopped..

curious that it was the front of the crank.. Cast? Wondering about your tension on the oil pump drive. I'm kind of a nut about those things..

Looking forward to seeing the remainder of the autopsy on this poor baby...

Andrew E · 05-25-09, 05:29 PM

Hi Ross,

Sad about the crank. I was monitoring the results through Natsoft and wondered what happen to you for the Sunday afternoon races pictures sure do tell the story.

Would have liked to have been there, went on the Lotus Club early morning run to Barwon Heads (my home town) so felt I need to be there.

Time to crank up the new motor Ross!

Andrew

flatchat(Chris) · 05-26-09, 09:00 AM

Bad luck Ross --I know that feeling --good to see you're out there at least

Ross Nicol · 05-26-09, 09:27 AM

No Russ it doesn't really hurt! The fact that this could have happened during the NZ trip crossed my mind too. I'll salvage what I can out of this motor but it won't be rebuilt. The heads and the manifold are the only good bits left. The heads will need some new valves too. Yes Randy cast crank and rods. Very thin webbing around mains too. No the oil pump belt wasn't overtightened.
Andrew I suppose you won't be considering buying this motor any more. Pity, maybe the heads are of interest.

I took these further photos tonight after stripping the motor down

Ross

Neal · 05-26-09, 10:36 AM

In the infamous words of David Hobbs... "BLAMO"
Sorry to see the carnage, at least you had fun doing it!

Randy V · 05-26-09, 10:40 AM

A mess to be sure...

I'm wondering if it might not be possible that one of the pistons started failing first (as you noted it was down on power) and then the crank gave up...

Still - luckily - it all looked pretty well contained...

TimOz40 · 05-26-09, 11:54 PM

Hey Ross. That's a bummer! You had a pretty strong field to contend with there! Good to see sports car racing is still going strong.

We will be down later in the year for Island Magic.
Look forward to catching up.

Jac Mac · 05-27-09, 02:38 AM

Its been running for a while with the crack @ front of #2 main ---- left side of photo 11 (90kb) post #6. Might see signs of oil starvation on #5 rod brg when you take it off journal, but it will be hard to tell what was before/after. Real cause might go back a couple of years to when you were having problems with injection/ignition IIRC .

Straight 8 Racing · 05-27-09, 06:30 AM

Ross,

I wish I didnt but I know exactly how you feel ! How long before you are able to finish of the new one ?

Iain

Ross Nicol · 05-27-09, 09:48 PM

Iain
I'll be trying to be ready for the next round at Sandown in 7 weeks but if I don't make that meeting I have another 10 weeks before the last round in September, should definitely make that one, I hope.

Jac Mac
It's amazing how much action happened in that short space in time. I'm not really doing any analisys of what happened when. I just think I got away with treating that motor badly for such a long time it doesn't matter.

Tim
I don't have a big enough fuel tank for the 1hr race at Island Magic but I have thought about fitting one. May end up only able to get the car back together by then. I'll see how I go.

Ross

Maurice Butler · 05-29-09, 04:03 AM

Are you doing the weight loss program with the new engine, and real deal to the 'P' cars ?

Ross Nicol · 05-30-09, 11:06 PM

Hi Maurice
Yes weight reduction is part of my current plan to be competitive with the 'P.......' cars
I will be talking to Roaring Forties about
1/ A lightweight Rear and Front clip (plan to shed 50kg or more)
2/ A front splitter (aero improvement)
3/ I will fit a rear wing (similar to Iain Pretty) (aero improvement)
4/ The motor will have increased HP and Torque (details I will post after it's been on the dyno )

Funny how fate deals it's hand but when I set out racing this car mid 2003 my goal was to get the handling under control before increasing the power. I never realized it would take me till 2009 to make the transition.
I did have the race motor in for a short time previously but the handling at that stage was not good and improved results patchy.

Ross

Dodge · 05-31-09, 12:53 AM

If you need a good 3" crank to rebuild it I have a few good Bryant cranks going cheap.

Malcolm · 06-03-09, 05:56 PM

Hard luck Ross! That must have been a loud bang! You will have to set up a shelf in the workshop to put these offerings to the Speed Gods onto! Neglect these supernatural beings at your peril...... :-)

Look forward to hearing the car is back up and running soon.