June 2019
30Jun
5th fastest qualifier
No problems at all at Aintree. I beat my 2017 PB on my first practice run, then continued to improve. I was 2.1s quicker on my first timed run, which put me in front of Championship leader Pete Goulding. I made a mess of my 2nd run with a 5th gear sideways moment going in to Village, which resulted in a slower time, but with the second run after lunch, and the temperatures rising ever higher, Pete also went slower, so my T1 time of 40.44s was enough to qualify me 5th for the run offs, and win the 1600SST class ahead of Pete, with a new class record in the process.
As this was the first time there'd been a 1600SST class run at Aintree, there was still technically no class record for Pete and I to try and beat to get bonus points in the Run Offs. So for the first run off, Pete and I agreed to turn down the boost, as we had to set a mediocre time, so we could easily beat it on the second run off run to score a single bonus point each. So we both pottered round, I did a very slow 42.00 and Pete a mid 41, and for the next run we both went back to full power, and as Pete had set off before me I could see his time. He'd done a 40.65s which I knew I could beat, and beat it I did, by 1/10th. This placed me 7th in the run offs, scoring 7 points. I'm still 3rd overall in the championship, behind Matt Hillam (2nd) and Pete Goulding (1st).
I didnt need to take a spanner to the car all day. She was perfect. My top speed record was broken with 150.6mph, with no front wing wobble, and the taller 6th gear worked a treat. The extra boost in 3rd to 6th gear from 87.5% throttle was noticeable, and I'll extend it to 1st and 2nd gear for the next event.
The next event is Lydden on July 13th, which is round 10 of the BSC.
Latest News
28Jun
Aintree Round 9
A busy few nights getting the car ready for Aintree. Its all good though, and I've made a few tweaks to the wastegate settings in the ECU to improve performance. I'll post updates as the day unfolds on my instagram account. Fingers crossed.26Jun
Ford news
I've had an email from Ford(UK) that says that they are happy to allow full access to the Life ECU. We had a partial unlock agreed a year ago, but I went back and asked for full access, as we still are unable to access the logging channels we need, and CAL is pretty restricted, so we cant calibrate throttle stops, etc. The ECU will need returning to Life and they'll give us access to anything except the Direct Injection Intellectual Property, which remains the property of Ford(UK). I think the fact that we are 1st and 3rd in the BSC helped significantly, lets see if we can continue to improve and get an EcoBoost 1-2.Many thanks to Ford, Life, and **** for the continued support.
25Jun
Triple M visit
The trip over to Triple M on Monday went well. Alan and Nick checked the corner weights, and then adjusted the rear and front pushrods to balance everything out. The geo was also checked and adjusted. We decided not to lower the car, but Alan has given me instructions on how to lower the front and rear together, to see if that improves performance. We fixed a potential issue with the front hubs. I hadnt been able to tighten the front nearside wheel nut properly, and Nick diagnosed this as the threaded shaft that the single wheel nut screws on to, was itself not tight inside the hub. So they tightened the shaft up to 130ftlb and we then checked the offside front and that also needed tightening. The bolt that secured the steering column to the helicopter joint, was threaded down its full length, and the threads had worn, which was allowing movement. I could turn the steering wheel a few degrees from centre before the wheels started turning. Alan found a NAS style bolt with a smooth shank, and replaced the bolt, and the slop in the steering mech has now gone.Finally the gearbox end casing was removed, and Alan changed the 6th gear for me while I watched. I think I should be able to do it myself next time. So that means a 4% higher top speed, or 4% lower rpm for the same top speed, we'll have to see how well it goes at Aintree on Saturday. Its a low downforce course, so I'll wind off the wings and see how quick I can get round the track.
Alan reassembles the gearbox
Checking the geo and corner weights
21Jun
Diffuser mods
I've refitted the diffuser. It now has deeper tunnels inside. I've also trimmed it so it dovetails nicely now with the chassis. I just need to seal the joins with Gorilla tape. So the car is almost ready for the trip to Triple M on Monday. Just a few little jobs left to do.
18Jun
Repairs
The NAS bolts arrived from Race.Parts, I then changed all the remaining bolts on the rear suspension, to replace the few metric bolts that I was hanging on to. I've also replaced the two rod ends from the bent pushrod, which at £40 a piece wasnt cheap. I'd rather not risk them after the force they were subjected to in the impact. I've found a pair of Dallara F308-11 barge boards, which I'll see if I can fit in time for Aintree. It depends on how they attach to the bodywork, it might not be as straight forward as I'm hoping.
15Jun
Chassis damage
I removed the diffuser so it can be repaired, and when I inspected the chassis I found that the bellhousing and chassis rail on the drivers side, took the brunt of the impact. [Steve Miles has confirmed he saw the marks on the concrete where the car struck the track]. I have removed the flimsy 1mm aluminium sheet that was pop rivited to the floor, or rather it was once but most of the rivets had pulled through, and I've replaced it with a sheet of 3mm thick aluminium, which now adds significant protection to the chassis rail. I've not bothered drilling even more holes in the chassis for rivets, instead I've used Sikaflex to bond the sheet to the chassis rails. I've also covered the gap were the flywheel could be seen from underneath, to help prevent foreign objects reaching inside the flywheel housing.
Yeah, that really hurt!
14Jun
Not just me then
The organisers spoke to many single seater drivers, and only Steve Miles and I had an issue. Really? This is D17 class winner Carole Torkington's account. Since the Simms, Steve Miles and I all retired from D17, Carole deservedly won the class.
13Jun
All change
I've bought a 25:24 gear to replace 6th gear, which will raise the top speed from 153 to 165mph. I've also had to buy the tools that allow me to change the gear, all sourced through Mark Bailey Racing. I'll get it fitted before the trip to Aintree on the 29th.I'm replacing the two rod ends off the bent pushrod, with another pair of NMB ARHT5E(R)'s from Race.Parts. I've also bought more NAS bolts to finish replacing all the metric bolts on the rear suspension, including the anti-roll bar joints. Thanks to Race.Parts again for the discount.
12Jun
Abingdon 2, Graham 0 continued
The anti-roll bar was bent in the impact, but I'm told its ok to continue to use it, the drop links just need balancing so there is no preload on the rear suspension. The floor underneath is very poorly, I've got to remove the diffuser and repair a large hole, and replace a section of aluminium floor beneath the engine.Following the weekend, I wrote to the organisers and suggested non-compliance with the Blue Book
Tracks and Licenses, Race and Speed Events, 2.2.3. The course must not present any unreasonable hazards to either Competitors or spectators.
This was their response
..please do not quote the Blue Book at me.
To be honest, thats all I was expecting. As a license holder myself since 1983 (you do the maths) I've learnt that there is little point in trying to change things. So I'll move on. And boycott the Abingdon Car-nival.
10Jun
Abingdon 2, Graham 0
Another suspension failure at Abingdon, on the same section of track as last year. This time, I kept right, and with the uprated pushrods, at 120mph, I'd just pulled 6th gear, when there was an almighty bang, and this time the right rear pushrod folded. I hit the clutch, and wrestled with the car, trying to keep it going in a straight line, with the nearside front wheel floating in the air, that was pretty tricky. I eventually came to a halt after the final left hand bend. This was on the first practice run in the afternoon. I was lying in first place, after coming 2nd in the morning with a new PB of 44.29s, 3.36s quicker than last year, and the BTD car of David Simms retiring with a broken clutch. The win was easily in my grasp, my only competition being Stephen Miles in the 2.0 Van Diement. After I broke down, the marshals collected me and took me back to the pits to collect a spare pushrod and the toolbox, and we then went back to the stranded car to repair it. I then drove it gingerly back to the paddock and retired.Meanwhile Smiles confirmed he'd also hit the same depression in the track and heard the bang, and on P2, noticed he'd also bent a rear pushrod, not as badly as mine, but it was still bent. He and Martin Pickles then replaced it with a new one, and Smiles' having missed T1, only had to post a semi-quick T2 to win the event overall, but he didnt return from his run. Where was he? Martin jumped in to his road car and set off to look. I knew. It was another pushrod failure. This time, he'd bent it as badly as mine.
So the damage? A bent pushrod. I've also bent the rear anti-roll bar, and badly flat spotted a front tyre. I can see no other damage, but have yet to look underneath the car at the floor.
The verdict: I went there for a win, and came home with nothing. Abingdon is not at a level safe enough for front running, high downforce single seaters. I wrote to the organisers last year and complained, and was more or less told the pushrod failure was my fault. This isnt acceptable. My and Steve's accidents could have been far far worse. They need to place a chicane at that section in the track, to slow the cars down. As for Abingdon, Stephen and I are never going back. We'll stick to proper venues, with a better safety record.
7Jun
Championship standings
4Jun
Pembrey Event Report
Pembrey BSC Rounds 7 and 8
Friday
Just as I was leaving for the 4 ½ hour journey to Pembrey in South Wales, the postman delivered the mk4 front wing brackets that I’d be hanging around for. Another 5 minutes later and I’d have missed them altogether.
I wanted to try something different with the mk4 brackets, and to increase their rigidity, I asked if the design could be changed, so the machining process that removed areas of material to reduce weight, could be swapped instead for machining small scallops in the sides. I believed it was the material that had been removed, that was reducing the bracket’s strength, allowing them to flex, and causing the wing to wobble. The downside is that the brackets used to be sacrificial and would deform if I hit anything hard. Now that the brackets are solid with no holes in them, the chances are that in the event of an impact, the wing will be damaged instead of the brackets, but I had little option but to try. The mk4’s also raise the front wing 10mm higher from the ground, that was another theory as to why the wing wobbled, due to its proximity to the ground at speed. Raising the wing 10mm does reduce the theoretical downforce, by a tiny amount.
When I arrived at Pembrey at around 5:20pm there was a very long queue of vehicles ahead of me, the circuit owners were adamant no one would be allowed in until the track-day drivers had cleared off, and we were finally allowed in at 6pm. The paddock area in the pits had been taken over by a huge white awning, which provided 30 or so garages for those prepared to spend £36 each, but this did include electricity, and shelter which would come in handy over the next few days. It was apparently erected for the rally cross a month before, and the tent owners had decided to leave it at Pembrey, so long as they recouped the £500 rental each time there was an event. So my £36 paid in exchange for a blue Pembrey Circuit wristband, I unloaded the car from the trailer, in to a cosy double garage that I had to myself, and rather than walk the track with the others, I spent the next 90 minutes fitting the mk4 wing brackets, and trimming the nose cone to fit over the raised front wing flaps. It was soon done, and with the crash box bolted to the car, when I pressed down on the end of the wing, it didn’t seem to deflect quite as much, so the stiffer brackets looked to be up to the job.
Saturday Round 7
After a microwave ping meal in Pete's motorhome, and a good nights sleep in the van, Saturday morning quickly came around, and it was a glorious day, with the temperatures in the mid 20’s. I was up at 6am, so I had plenty of time to walk the track, and Pembrey had run a British Truck Racing meeting a few weeks before, so there was plenty of black rubber down on the track. Not necessarily on the same line a single seater would take, but it still provided extra grip. With the addition of a rear anti-roll bar to try and cure the handling issues, the opportunity to adjust the front and rear anti-roll bars lended itself to just one practice run, followed by the two timed runs, during which time I had to drive quick enough to qualify for the T12, and not risk binning the car in the process. I’d been advised to run the front ARB and rear ARB’s at 5mm, so I set off on first practice, not sure what was going to happen, and over the next two runs, made a few slight adjustments to stiffen the front and soften the rear, to induce more understeer to reduce the oversteer. My times were coming down, so the adjustments were going in the right direction. I’d gone fast enough to qualify for the T12 run offs, but the handling still wasn’t quite how I wanted it to be. So I had to make another small adjustment to the front end, and line up for the two back to back run offs, and hope for the best. Sadly the car was still too much of a handful, with the rear end proving very hard to get under control. My best time was within 0.2s of my class record, but I didn’t beat it, so no bonus points for today. Still I’d learnt a lot, scored points, and brought the car back in one piece. And the front wing, never wobbled once. I’d reached 141mph at several points, and it never once touched the ground or oscillated. I may have finally cured it.
Late Saturday evening I stumbled on the Indycar race from Detroit, which was wet. I'd tuned in at the point where Marco Andretti had pitted for slick tyres, and he ventured out on the drying track first to see what the grip levels were like. Watch this clip of Marco showing how its done. Incredible.
Marco Andretti Youtube clip
Sunday Round 8
Rain was forecast on Sunday morning, and when I woke up to the sound of rain falling on the van roof, I could confirm the forecast was correct. Although it eventually stopped around 9am, the track was still damp enough to run wets by the time we were called to go out, and for the wet tyres fitted, the front and rear anti-roll bars are both disconnected, and the dampers softened 50%, and traction control and power settings are changed accordingly. I normally drop the power down to 275bhp, and let the TC take care of the wheelspin, and on the first practice run on the different Sunday circuit layout, I tried launch control, which didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, and tried driving around the circuit, but the traction control was on 100% of the time, the engine sounded horrible, and I knew that something was wrong. I suspected it was a setting in the ECU, rather than anything mechanical.
When I got back to the garage, the data from the ECU showed that the rear wheel speeds were >10mph slower than the fronts, so the TC was thinking I was getting constant wheel spin and kept cutting the power. This error pointed to the circumference for the wet rear tyres being incorrect, as the fronts matched the GPS speed so their circumference was correct. I borrowed a tape measure, and marked the rear tyre, rolled the car forwards inside the shelter of the garage, to turn the wheel one revolution, and measured the distance on the floor. I was about 100mm out. I entered the measured size of the rear tyre in to the ECU, and reduced the TC switch settings to let me run 0-5-10-15-20% TC, selected the 15% setting, and got ready to go out again.
By now, for the first timed run, the heavens had really opened, and there was standing water everywhere. So I drove to the start line, tried launch control again but on a lower rpm setting (2500 as opposed to 3000 for the dry) and was pleasantly surprised to feel that the car just wanted to go. No TC events, no power being taken away from me, and the car was brilliant, with lots of grip on the Michelin Formula 3 tyres, and no sideways moments. I recorded 125 seconds for the first run, and downloaded the ECU data to make sure everything was ok, and the front and rear wheel speeds were now identical to each other as well as the GPS speed, so that was all sorted. I felt I could have gone far quicker, I was 5th fastest overall, but there was more confidence required to get the best from the tyres. Pete had spun off, and had to execute a 3 point turn to re-join the track, recording 147 seconds so the pressure was on for him to even qualify. For the second timed run, I “manned up”, and selected the full 320bhp map. I’d never ever driven in the wet with full power, so was a little apprehensive to say the least, but I needn’t have been. It was brilliant. I improved by 2s, again on a wet track, and out qualified championship leader Pete, in his EcoBoost, by over 2 seconds. :D
So now it was a 30 minute break for lunch, and the sun was out. Everyone was discussing tactics, and the verdict was Slicks. So We had ¾ of an hour to get ready. Changing back to slicks meant reconnecting the anti-roll bars, stiffening the dampers, changing the switches for TC to 5%, LC back to 3000rpm, adding sufficient fuel for two run off runs, and waiting for the paddock marshal to call me down to the line. I made another slight change to the front anti-roll bar, continuing on from yesterday’s testing, and hoped for the best.
So, the first run off run, having not driven in the dry on the different Sunday track layout, I threw everything in to the first run off run, and smashed my own class record by 6 seconds. And I’d gone quicker than my team mate. The car was fantastic, I was able to lean in to the corners, get the car to take a set, and then just bury the throttle pedal, which propelled it so quickly around the corners.
I returned to the start area, for my next turn, and patiently waited for the remaining cars in front to clear. I knew I’d gone quicker than Pete in the sister car, but I knew as he was leading the championship I had to really pull all the stops out, and I did.
A fantastic launch, the track was really grippy now, and with confidence increasing, I zoomed around, pushing the car harder and harder. Unfortunately, about halfway around the first lap, the car died exiting a corner, and I immediately knew it was running low on fuel. I should have looked at last year’s notes and worked out the fuel consumption, and carried more fuel for the two run off runs, but I didn’t have any choice now but to keep going. The power quickly came back, I was zooming around again, flat through Woodlands, a lift before Honds Curve, a little bit sideways, a correction of the steering and she was pointing back in the right direction, foot hard down and building up to 141mph along the start finish straight. Head down, keep it flat. I braked late for the hairpin, changed down 3 gears, chucked it in, and again the power died. Foot flat to the floor, keep trying, keep going, it resumed and I rocketed off again, only four more corners, would I make it? Another big fuel surge, this time it went on for ever, I just kept my foot buried and tried as hard as I could and eventually crossed the finish line. Had I done it? Yes, I’d gone a second faster, and beaten Pete by 1/10th of a second. Phew that was close.
I’d finished 6th in the run offs, I’d beaten my class record twice to earn 9 points, which has now moved me back in to 3rd overall in the British Sprint Championship. So a great end to the weekend. After loading up I was on the road for 4:45 and back in Leicester for 8:20, ready for a hot meal and a cold pint to celebrate my score.
My next event is the Abingdon Carnival this weekend, which is two back to back sprints in one day. I was 4th last year on my first visit, and I’m going to try my very best to win it. After that I’m at Aintree on June 29th for the next BSC round (#9).
2Jun
Pembrey Sunday
A wet start, practice and both timed runs placed me 7th fastest for the runoffs. After lunch the sun came out, we all swapped to slicks, and I reconnected the ARB's, and added 2mm extra stiffness to the front, and the car was brilliant on the runoffs. Unfortunately 7l of petrol proved to be unsufficient on my 2nd run and I dropped over 1s as the engine kept cutting out. As we hadnt had any dry running on the Sunday morning, I hadnt realised the fuel surge would even be a problem until we went 20s quicker in the dry! But I still improved to smash my PB by over 6 seconds, winning my class, beating pete, and I finished 6th scoring 9 points, moving me back in to 3rd overall in the championship on 57 points. Full write up and pictures to follow.1Jun