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Last  on
Curborough Sprint, June 6th 2004
Somehow I still managed to change down from 3rd to 2nd on the finishing straight, which over revved the engine to 8743 rpm. I just cant understand how I'm managing to do this. My 2nd timed run was easily the fastest of the day, and I ruined it by screwing up the gear change. Its on a straight piece of track, I've reached the rev limiter in 3rd, and I simply pull the gear lever straight back to get 4th. But I'm getting 2nd gear. It never happened once at MIRA the weekend before, so theres something about the Curborough track thats causing the problem. I've had this at Harewood too, again along a straight piece of track, changing from 3rd to 4th, same thing happens. Its just driving me nuts now. All I can think is that its a misalignement problem. If the engine is jumping around and I stick it in 4th, but due to misalignment the selector shaft actually selects 2nd gear? Most disturbing. I'm not happy that the new B&M shifter bolts directly in to the floor, with no play, so if the gearbox has twisted then the selector will be misaligned. Also there is still some play in the universal joint on the end of the selector where it connects to the gearbox, so I'll chop the UJ off and replace it with a new one.
Apart from that it was a good day. I managed to get within .23 seconds of my PB on the final (3rd) competitive run, even with fuel surge problems halfway round, due to me running the fuel low to save weight. I should have beaten my PB on the 2nd run, but for the damned gear selection problem.
It was a very hot day, and most people were going off and making mistakes, stall on the line, suffering suspension breakages, broken clutches, or just suffering from brain fade.
Times were as follows:
39.11s 1st practice
38.50s 2nd practice
37.75s 1st timed
38.06s 2nd timed
37.52s 3rd timed
Result: 1st in class.
Weather: Very warm, sunshine, some cloud in the afternoon, approx 23° C
Tyre pressures were 23.5psi [F] 21.5psi [R]
Tyres: Yokohama A032R all round
Rear anti-roll bar was on the 2nd softest setting. (5x stiffer than standard ARB).
Front shock absorbers MAX-2
Here is a PDF file with the report that appeared in Nottingham Sports Car Clubs 'Spinoff' magazine, and Loughborough Car Clubs 'Backfire' magazine.
RaceTechnology DL90 datalogger from both competitive runs. (Files are in Race Technology's own .run format, for use with DL90 software)
Timed run 1 [nn KB]
Timed run 2 [nn KB]
If you have difficulty downloading the .run files, simply right click on each link, and choose Save As. Then open the file from within the DL90 software.
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