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My Latest BSC Scores

Event	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	11	12	Total
Position	6	6	2	3	1	2	2	2	2	6	6	1st
Points	20	20	25*	23	26*	24	24	25*	25*	20	20	252
Class Record			Yes		Yes			Yes	Yes
FTD					Yes
Quicker			-2.08		-3.86			-2.69	-3.19
Weather	Wet	Wet								Wet	Wet

Note: Round 10 cancelled.
* = +1pt for setting new class record

Latest News

Mods

I removed the Koso fuel gauge and wiring loom today, as it simply wasnt working accurately enough. Since I now have accurate consumption figures from the ECU shown on the dash itself, the Koso fuel gauge was just an annoyance, so its gone. I also stickered up the rweps, with fresh number 4's and some #britishsprintchampionship stickers, ready for Lydden in just over three weeks time.

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Rear wing end plates

The RWEPs have arrived, and they're big, which is what I wanted. The hole patterns I drew in Fusion 360, 100% match the holes in the DJ wings, which is good as I spent ages measuring their positions. And accuracy is key as the end plates serve a particular function, so they needed to sit in the correct position. I'll sticker them up, and will take them to Lydden, where I might debut them. I just have to make some shorter stays where they attach to the rear diffuser to stabilise the rear wing. I'm currently putting a game plan together for Lydden. Watching last years video back I can see a few places to carry more speed, and capitalise on the trail braking. Every video I watch from last year, looks slow, so after Lydden I'm expecting a similar improvement at Kirkistown in August, weather permitting.


I've created a heat map, showing the finishing positions for all drivers, and non-finishes in the form of DNF's. The colour pallete was tricky to determine. I ended up using a website, http://hclwizard.org:3000/hclwizard/, for the palletes, which are applied using a small piece of VBA that I've written in Excel.

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N.Ireland trip, August 2022

The 500 Motor Racing Club of Ireland, Kirkistown entries opened at the weekend, and they are very good value compared to the other sprints that we go to. Just £190.00 for the two days, on the double lap format. I have entered, and the ferry is booked. I am on the 7.30am crossing on Friday morning, and will be driving the 320 miles from Leicester to Cairnryan on Thursday evening, when the traffic has died down. The return ferry from Belfast is the 23:30 hrs crossing on Sunday, which means I can travel non-stop when I reach Scotland at around 2am, which is the same as last time. The ferry costs the same as last year, an eye watering £360.00. With diesel costing around 186pence per litre, its not going to be a cheap trip by any means 😯, I think its around £200.00 of diesel for the return trip, but if you're not in it, you cant win it, so I have to go.

On my first visit last year, I won my first run off and broke the class record, which I inted to do again for an extra bonus point.

The full entry list will be here when published.

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Revolution Magazine

Well, its my first time as championship leader in the results section in the MUK Revolution Magazine, and they didnt even use a picture of my car. This monthly magazine goes to all MUK members, so it gets distributed far and wide. So to put the situation right, I've changed the picture to one taken by Photographer Anthony Mitchell 😎


^^^ That, fuels my motivation 🤬

Speaking of fuel, the consumption figures last weekend at Pembrey were again, shown accurately on the dashboard, to the point where I am removing the LCD fuel level display, as it no longer serves any purpose. The car used 6.1 litres on Saturday over 3 runs in the dry, and 6.632 litres Sunday, which was a wet event and I did four runs.

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Wiggly lines

I think I prefer this visualisation now I've added the images :)

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Aero disks at Pembrey

The rear wheels on Saturday featured removable carbon fibre disks, which I fitted to reduce the wake/drag from the rear wheels, and given I was 3.19s quicker I reckon combined with the other aero mods introduced at Blyton, they made a positive difference. They dont weigh any more than a few grammes, and are fastened to the rear axle using M20 plastic cable gland nuts that I sourced off ebay. Once fastened in place, the red spring clip that prevents the wheel nut from coming off, is fitted, and that doubles up in ensuring that the covers cannot fall off. I fitted them discretely on Saturday morning, but soon people were noticing them, so I then stuck the white Union flags on. I did have a really slick design in vinylt that I'd drawn, but my supplier let me down and they still haven't arrived. So the white flags will do.


My sponsor, Fractory, are now manufacturing the replacement lower front suspension brackets that I've drawn in Fusion 360. I'm getting them made in 7075T6 which should make them bullet proof. Delivery is expected the first week in July, in time for fitting before the trip down to Lydden Hill in July.

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Run off video from Saturday

This is my best run from Saturday, where I knocked 3.19s off the class record. I did leave plenty on the table though, one more go eh :D

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Four timed runs become three

The journey over to Pembrey was better than expected. The organisers said the gates weren’t opening until 6pm so there was no hurry. With lighter traffic than usual for a bank holiday Friday afternoon, I think I only stopped once in traffic on the M4, the Jubilee weekend have given the UK an additional bank holiday on the Thursday so most people had made their journeys to wherever they were going.

Blue skies for most of the way down, I was making good progress until a passing family on the M42 flagged me down, pointing at the trailer. I rapidly stopped in one of those painted yellow laybys on the Smart Motorway, which was running 3 lanes instead of the 4, hopped out of the van, and had a look at the trailer. The nearside was fine, but as I crossed over to the offside, I noticed a set of black lines on the tarmac that I’d created. Sure enough, the rear tyre on the trailer was completely destroyed; there was just small sections of carcass remaining. I wonder how long ago it had failed? And why? It was obvious that the valve had failed, because half of it was missing, along with the tyre pressure sensor that screwed in to the top of the valve. That was a total waste of money. A Michelin TPMS system, which fails to tell you that you’ve got a flat tyre. I won’t be fitting that back again.


Anyway, 10 minutes later and the spare wheel is fitted and I’m back on my way, with my fingers crossed that I don’t have any other problems.

I arrived around 5pm, and after a short wait, the queue started moving towards the paddock, where we found our spaces pegged out. Once I’d parked up, I unloaded the car, gazebo, etc, I fitted the front wing, and looking at the front suspension, noticed that one of the bottom front suspension brackets was sat a rather jaunty angle. Hmm, on inspection, with the front wheels off the ground, the bracket was pulled away from the chassis rail. And when I lifted the wheel, the top half of the bracket moved. Not good. So I removed the bolt from the rod end where it goes through the bracket, and it fell apart. This is the second time I’ve had a Radical part fail. And I only had one spare, so I spent 15 minutes fitting that, with Graham Porrets assistance as he lifted the wheel for me to allow the bolt to pass back through the holes in the fresh bracket.

I inspected the same bracket on the opposite side of the car, and that looked ok. So, it was safe for me to continue. With the car in the garage at home, sat on all four wheels, the bracket was pressed firmly against the chassis rail, so there was no way of noticing that it was knackered. I wonder if in the process of testing the wobbly front wheels, the vibration had cracked and eventually broken it?


With the front wing and body work fitted, I then walked the National circuit layout. I then cooked myself some food, and retired to the van for the night. The forecast for Saturday was great, perfect even, and I was looking forward to driving the National circuit again flat out. To while away the time I opened Autodesk Fusion 360 on the laptop, and drew a new suspension bracket, far stronger than the Radical part, and I was already planning on getting them machined asap.

Saturday

Saturday morning, we were out fitting slicks and preparing for the day’s competition. Terry Holmes asked what layout we were using, as three cones were still blocking the route around the National track. Hmm. Then at 5 minutes to 9, the paddock marshal told us that there had been a mix-up by Motorsport UK, and they hadn’t issued the track permit for the National layout. The permit for the clubman’s had been issued, and that was the circuit layout that we would have to run. Some drivers immediately complained that they hadn’t had the opportunity to walk that layout, but the organisers said we would be first out at 9:00, and by around 9:07 we’d started our runs.

There was a risk that we would have to run the less popular Clubman’s circuit both days, but BARC Wales were on the case, and chased Motorsport UK all morning, to get the correct permits issued, and sure enough by lunch time they’d received the national layout permit, so that would be run on Sunday instead of Saturday. What a nightmare!

During practice, a lot of drivers, all very experienced competitors, followed the clubman’s layout, but after the 90 left, took the first right before the actual right turn on to the Senna Esses. Big mistake! They then were forced to follow the Rally Cross circuit route rather than the actual race circuit. There were no cones on the entrance to the Rally Cross circuit, but anyone with an ounce of intelligence could see it wasn’t the right route and continued to re-join the actual circuit. Those who didn’t, span on to the grass, or filled their cars with gravel.

There was no finish line marked out either, so the event was stopped for 15 minutes whilst that was put in place.

So that was practice over and done with. I tried the black front rims again, and after getting them rebalanced, they were better, but still not good enough for going flat out on. So I stuck them back in the trailer, and ran the fresher set of tyres on the gold rims for the rest of the day. For P1 I recorded a 110.85s run, which wasn’t great, but it was just over a second slower than eventual winner Terry Holmes so it was a good omen. I ran 37 degree front wing and 35 degree rear, which was more wing than I ran on the previous visit in 2021. But the car felt well balanced.

With the gold rims on the front and the blacks practice rims on the rear, I drove even quicker, to record a new PB of 106.50s, which was also a new class record (was 107.11s). I wasn’t the quickest, just the 4th qualifier behind Terry, Matt Hillam and Steve Broughton, so I knew I had my work cut out to beat those three.

For the first run off run (Timed run 2) I fitted the gold rears with the fresher tyres, and gave it full beans everywhere. After 1 lap I was convinced, it was too ragged, and I was going to be slower. I'd missed an apex, and had braked too early for the hairpin, it was a very untidy run. Imagine my surprise after the two laps, when I checked the time to see that I’d actually gone 2.58s faster with a 103.92! I couldn’t believe it! I sat glued to the results page, seeing what times other drivers were doing, and Terry did a 102.27, Broughton 105.11, then at the end Matt did a 104! And Steve Miles (champion) did a 107.11. Brilliant, I’d finished 2nd with a bonus point and scored 25 points :D

We then stood around waiting to see what was occurring, and the rumour was that as the event was running so behind schedule, that we weren’t getting another run. Steve Brown and I climbed the stairs in the control tower to see the CofC, and he confirmed that that was the case. No more runs.

Which was a shame. I wanted more points. But it turned out to be the right call, because at 4pm, when we would have been lining up for another run, the heavens opened, and the track was quickly waterlogged.

Sunday

It had been raining since 4:30am, for a solid two hours, and when I surfaced, the paddock had massive puddles everywhere, it was going to be a wet, and challenging day.

With the front and rear wings now on Max, rear ARB disconnected, and dampers softened, the first practice was challenging. I’ve still not had that much experience at the sharp end on wets, and I was very pedestrian. I was only running the lower power calibration CAL 3, but after the two practice laps I realised that the car would be fine on full power, so switched it back to CAL 2. The first timed run came, and I improved, learning how much grip the car had in the rain, it was far more than I expected, and my confidence was growing. I had qualified for the run offs, which followed a few hours later. During lunch the rain had stopped and we had about 2 hours of drying time. Not that there was any warmth, or wind, and the track remained quite wet.

Decision time, wets or slicks!? I opted for the sticky wets, as did Terry Holmes after a discussion, whilst others quickly put their slicks on and made chassis adjustments. I lined up, and threw the car around, confidence was growing all the time, it did me no harm at all to see what the car would do. I improved again, and finished 6th. Terry Holmes won on the Avon wets, which were as soft as chewing gum. Far stickier than my Pirelli wets, and better suited than the Pirelli slicks to the damp conditions.

That was 20 points for finishing 6th.

We were then given a third timed run, which was a combined qualifier and run off. During the wait it had rained heavily again, but stopped as we lined up to go out. I was still on the wets, and with the confidence from the previous run, I threw the car around, and was again, 6th. Terry again won the run off, the Avon wets were definitely the right tyres to have. Another 20 points in the bag, which was a good end to the day.

A quick change of clothes, the car was quickly packed away, and I was away from the circuit for 5:15pm for the trip back to Leicester.

I’d had a good weekend. On Saturday I’d increased my lead by 5 points over my rival, but I dropped 4 points on Sunday, which could have been a lot worse. So in total I extended my lead from 8 points to 9, with 252 points scored from 11 rounds, maintaining my first place in the championship.

I still held both the Clubmans class record for Pembrey, and bettered my it by 3.19s. It's a shame we didnt get a crack a the National record in the same sunny weather we had the day before.

My next event was meant to be the NSCC Curborough weekend in June, but I have withdrawn whilst my replacement front bottom pickups are away being machined. I’ve beefed up both designs, and they’re being made from 7075T6 Aluminium which should make them several orders of magnitude stronger than the ones made from cheese that I have been running.

Thanks to my sponsors Fractory.com, and to my family for letting me continue with me successful season.

Lydden Hill in July is the next round, where again, I need to break the existing record, and hopefully win a run off or two.

I am now leading the Britannia trophy, I'm in second place in the Celtic, I'm fourth overall in the Hillclimb and Sprint Association speed championship, 6th in the Sprint Leaders and 10th in the Midland Speed Championship. The Sprint Leaders scoring leads a lot to be desired, and I fully understand why people aren't entering the championship.

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Pembrey record result

Still recovering from a very exciting weekend. On Saturday we only had one run off due to the event running slowly, and I finished 2nd and smashed the class record by 3.19 seconds, earning 25 points. That increased my championship lead by 5 points to 13 points. On Sunday it was very wet, and I'm still gaining experience of driving in the challenging conditions, but I managed a pair of 6th places, earnt 40 points, and dropped 4 points to my nearest rival, which left me 9 points in the lead. I would of course have preferred if Sunday was also dry, but under immense pressure, I avoided falling off or spinning, learnt a lot about grip levels in the wet, and had a trouble free day. Full write up and report to follow. I'm now drying out the gazebo and the car cover, and recovering :D

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Pembrey prep

The front wheels are now balanced, for the second time. The wheel that didnt need any weights, now has weights stuck on it. And the other rim has less weights than before. The question now is when to test them. Or even if the weather will allow it, as the forecast is rain both days this weekend. Which is fine, I like driving in the rain, but records will be out of reach which would be a shame.

Undeterred, four out of the six Ultrasoft tyres are now clean, with just the two left, which I'll tackle tomorrow.

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Pembrey prep

With the car sat on the Pirelli sprint tyres in the garage, there is a 55mm gap from the ground to the edge of the new skirts that I've fitted, all around the car, so there is no chance of me failing a ride height check. I did just fit deeper nylon strips, cut 55mm tall (50mm previously), so I think the next time I replace them, I'll go for 60mm strips to reduce the gap to the ground further. But these will still touch the track at speed as no track is without bumps, and they will find their own height, but I'm happy with the gap for now. The threaded M5 rods that suspend the floor ahead of the rear wheels are adjustable in length, so I can lower or raise the floor and skirts if I want to. I'll get some lighter and stiffer carbon rod to replace the M5 rod in time for the Curborough outing also in June.

I've refuelled the car, and comfirmed again that the fuel consumption shown by the dashboard is 100% correct. The Life ECU showed 5.26L had been used at Blyton on the Sunday over 5 runs, and I could just about get 5 1/4 litres of fuel in to the tank to brim it. So thats now sorted out the fuelling, so I can focus on my driving. The Pembrey circuit is the first two lap layout that we've used this year, so I am expecting to use more fuel during the day. Starting with a full tank, they are predicting we'll do one practice and three timed runs, so that should see me through without refuelling. For the British Sprint, that will mean the first timed run is the qualifier, the second is the first run off, and the third run will be a joint qualifier/run off, unless we're really lucky and get a run-off after the third timed run has completed. Either way, I hope to have enough fuel remaining without needing to top up.

The ignition retard table for launch is now setup to give a less aggressive igntion cut and hopefully a smoother launch. The IGN RET table was flat with 35° retard across all points, which is what makes the longG so jaggy when accelerating. I'll try the new table out on the first practice run, and fine tune during the day. I wasnt logging launchRpmEerr, which is now logging at 50Hz during the PIT/LAUNCH burst mode, that coupled with LaunchMapErr also at 50Hz will help me see whats happening and adjust the IGN RET accordingly.

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BSC Results

I've written a little bit of PHP that queries a mySQL database I've created holding all the BSC results from 1970-2021. This is just a proof of concept, I'm working on a few ideas like adding scores to the runs so we can see drivers all time scores etc. Let me know what you think.
BSC History search engine

Skirt replacements side 2

I've finished the opposite side off, and have had to get some more M5 ball joints ordered for the floor supports. I'd also ran out of M5 threaded rod so a quick trip to B&Q was required, and a glance around the tools section whilst I was there of course. Speaking of tools, I've now got one of those cordless ratchet wrench gizmo's, with a 3/8" drive. Nothing flash, just something to use when I'm out and about, and it should make the front crash box removal a lot simpler, as it has six M8 bolts securing it to the chassis, and they're a royal PITA to get to using allen keys. I've a set of impact Hex Bit Socket Set 3/8" Drives coming, so I can undo socket head screws using the tool. Its not a bad spec for the price, two batteries and a mains charger, variable speed, 50Nm torque and 300 rpm. Plus it is reversible, and even has a LED to illuminate whatever you're working on.


Cordless ratchet from Amazon


Hex Bit Socket Set 3/8" Drives

Record Corrections

Some of the published records for the British Sprint Championship are incorrect, and the coordinators have compiled a new list that is being published this week. Retrospectively, we cant go back to 2021 to correct any errors, but this year, there's already one bonus point that I know of that is incorrect, so I'm expecting the scores to be adjusted and re-issued. I didnt spot the initial error, I had a tipoff, but if that's now lead to corrections then so be it.

Speaking of records, my times set at Blyton broke both the Class L records, set by John Graham and Terry Holmes in their V8 cars, which goes to show the progress that I'm making. My ambition is to set new records at all of the venues this year.

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Skirt replacements

The side skirts on the near side are now replaced, so I'll move the car over inside the garage, so I can work on the opposite side. I've fitted threaded rod to support the floor, because the wire ropes simply couldnt support the loads generated. They're quick release and fully adjustable, with ball joints on the ends. The picture below shows the area on the floor on both sides of the car, where the flexing of the floor has allowed the skirts to be ground away, losing valuable downforce.

The entry list for Pembrey is out. And I can confirm that I have an entry, and will be there intending to break records again.

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Repairs

The new side skirt material has arrived, in Nylon 6, from Direct Plastics. The strips will replace the sections that took a battering at the weekend when the rear floor stays ahead of the rear wheels, decided to stretch and allow the plastic to touch the ground. Not that you can see any evidence of that on any of the photographs, but the skirts are now very uneven and there is a lot of daylight under the car. I've gone for 2mm rather than 3mm sheet, so that will save some weight. I've also got a sample of some PTFE and UHMWPE (Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene) sheet, which I'll look at attaching under the front wing end plates to protect them. I've currently got some Nylon there, but its wearing away. Whereas the PTFE and UHWMPE are meant to be far harder wearing, and they dont weigh anything. More aluminium rivets are on order, so I'll get them fitted next week.

The deeper rear wing end plates are due to arrive before my next event, so I've ordered some more race numbers, which will allow me to fit everything ready for testing.

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Blyton Park on-board from Sunday

Standings after round 8

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Blyton Park British Sprint Championship report

Arrived in good time to find the parking spots had just been marked out, and I was right next to the Ginetta main building, which meant I wasn’t too far away from the 240V hook-up points. I quickly plugged the van in to the mains supply, and rolled the car off the trailer ready for scrutineering, which was very light touch, and I then put the car away, and transferred as much of the stuff out of the van, inside the trailer, so I could bed down for the night.

Saturday

After a good night’s sleep, the electric blanket and electric airbed this year have certainly made things a little more comfortable in the van, I unpacked the car from the trailer, and set her up, fitting the freshly rebuilt black practice wheels, front wing, and other bits, ready for first practice.

Glorious sunshine greeted everyone, and the day turned out to be one of the warmest of the year so far. First practice I discovered that the front wheels were still badly out of balance, despite me fitting new inner rim sections, and having them balanced. That meant I was going to have to use the fresher tyres for the entire weekend! Well, the Gold fronts at least.

First timed run, and I was in second overall behind Goulding (first blood to Pete), but I then pulled out all the stops to record a class record winning 60.00s run on the first run off, beating him by 0.03s. That time was good enough for my first run off win of 2022, and the national FTD, as on the two runs after lunch time, I was around 0.9s slower on both, as were others, as the temperatures seems to be too much for the ultrasoft rubber. I was 2nd in the second run off, beaten by Terry Holmes in the V8 Lola. No particular reason, other than I didn’t capitalise on the stuff I learnt before lunch. #disappointed

So FTD, 25 and 24 points plus a bonus point, I therefore netted 50 points in total and that moved me in to the lead of the championship, 2 points above current champion Steve Miles.

I’d sliced a whopping 3.86 seconds off my PB from the previous year, a testament to the coaching that I’d had from Triple M motorsport. Trail braking was getting more natural, and my times were showing it.

Sunday

For Sunday, on the Outer circuit, we had a very light rain shower around 7:30am, and I had to put the gazebo up. I was busy cleaning the fresh tyres on the gold rims, and didn't want to do that whilst sat outside in the rain.

The weather forecasts ranged from 6mm of rain, to a sunny day, and it was certainly looking promising whilst the clouds passed by.

I was determined to get full throttle out of the first chicane, and when I tried it, the front of the car washed out. So back in the pits I adjusted the high speed compression by 10 clicks on both front dampers, which on the following run made a good improvement in the grip. I had no time given for my practice run, but it felt quick. I then went in to battle with Matt Hillam in the 2.0 Dallara. On the first timed run I was just a second off the class record, and a second under my PB (58.27s), which was pleasing. On the first run off, I was 2nd, broke the class record by 4/10ths, scoring 25 points, and a couple of tenths behind Matt. I had gone another 1.5 seconds quicker, I was amazing myself how much pace I had.

On the next run I went slightly slower, so it was all down to the final Run Off, to see if I could beat Matt and get a second FTD. I made a great start, and following a plan-of-attack brewed by my helper for the weekend, Jamie Pursall, I corner by corner, put the plan in to affect, and crossed the line, 55.59s, putting me in to first place overall.

With just a few cars left, Matt went last, on his warm tyres from sharing the car with Steve Broughton, and he threw the Dallara around, went 0.85s quicker to get in to the 54’s, to a round of applause from all of us watching from the mound. That put me again in 2nd place. My new class record 55.59s run was an improvement of 2.69s on my 2021 PB.

So I’d scored 24 points plus 24 points and a bonus point for the new record, bringing my total for the weekend to 99 points. This moved me even further ahead of Steve Miles. I finished with an 8-point lead in the championship.

With the front end grip increased, I was more confident than ever on the throttle pedal, and the video shows I'm just flat to the floor after the chicanes. The traction control was working great. This was a huge confidence builder, and I now know that the car will cope with full throttle out of all corners :D

No problems with the car at all, I never even opened the toolbox. The fuel consumption figures showed the car used 5.1 litres Saturday, and 5.2 Sunday, meaning I’d used just 10.3 litres in total all weekend (a little over £60 of fuel!). Saturdays fuel consumption was 6.90mpg (12.498km and 5.117 litres). Sundays fuel consumption was 6.83mpg (12.727km and 5.26 litres)

The modifications to the rear diffuser had made a marked increase in rear downforce, meaning I was able to run a lower rear wing angle than before for Blyton. The printed Bosch supports on the dampers all stood up to the weekend, with no breakages. The louvres stayed in the diffuser, so I now know silicon rubber can be used to glue the printed parts on to the car.

Looking forward to the next event where I can defend my 1st place. Commiserations to Pete Goulding who crashed badly in the sister car on Saturday on the second run off, resulting in a DNF; fortunately, Pete wasn’t injured, and the car should be repairable in time for Pembrey if he can get the parts, including a front upright, upper and lower front wishbones, various suspension clevis brackets, brake line, camber shims, wheel speed sensor, and damage to the body work ☹

A very big thank you to Jamie Pursall of JP Racing, for the support over the weekend. You definitely helped with the strategy and building my confidence.

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Coaching leads to improvements

I had a coaching session last year with Alan Mugglestone,in the MX5, where he was trying to get me to learn how to trail brake properly. Putting that in to practice at Blyton, I knocked a whopping 3.86s off my PB on the Eastern Circuit layout, and again, 2.69s off my PB on the Outer Circuit layout. Thats a massive improvement. I highly recommend a chat with Alan if you want to see similar improvements.

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Records fall at Blyton

An amazing weekend at Blyton. On Saturday I won my first T12 run off of 2022, and was 2nd in the second run off, and I convincingly broke the class record, with a time quick enough to take the National FTD. Only Colin Calder has lapped quicker than me around the Eastern, which was the same circuit I won my first ever National FTD, back in 2018 in the wet :D

And on Sunday, I was FTD for a few minutes on my final run, until Matt Hillam shaved a second off his earlier time to knock me in to 2nd place. I did demolish the class record again though, and finished 2nd in both run offs. Netting lots of points, in fact, I'm now in first place in the British Sprint Championship, 8 points ahead of current champion, Steve Miles.



I'm still recovering, I'll post up video and a full report in the next 24 hours.

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3D supports

The 3D printed sensor supports for the Bosch linear sensors, arrived, and took a few minutes to fit. They clip nicely on to the nuts on the head of the dampers, but do need cable ties to keep them secure. I tapped the 5mm holes with an M5x0.8 tap just to make fitting the M5 screws in easier. Very pleased with the end result. From Fusion 360 to physical print in less than a week. These are PA12 Nylon, SLS printed, and dyed black. Thanks to 3D People for the rapid turnaround.

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ECU mods

Made a few changes to the ECU Map today. The fuel consumption injector scaling has been reduced from 15.12ml/S to 12.55ml/S. This is after refilling the fuel tank with 7l of race fuel, and the consumption figure from Anglesey for the Sunday showed 8.387 litres. The calculated consumption figure was therefore approx 17% high, so reducing the scaling by 17% will hopefully produce a more accurate usage figure at Blyton this weekend.

And finally I've reduced the recovery off time for the alternator from 5 seconds to 2, to allow the alternator to be turned off again after 2 seconds rather than 5, so long as the battery voltage has recovered above the set threshold.

I've fitted a 12V brushless DC fan (with finger guards!) inside the car, which I can use to keep myself cool when sat in the queue for the start line. I've had several of the 60mm fans for a while, and after finding a PCB which allows PWM to control the speed of the fan, I can switch it on and off when I need to cool down. The small PCB is housed in a plastic box, and is fed from a fused 12V switched supply. The fan has four wires, and I've used some Deutsch connectors to allow me to plug the fan in, if its a warm enough day to warrant it, and remove it for the colder days. 60mm fans are used in Computers to keep the electronics inside cool, and the speed can be varied from off, to 15000rpm, according to the temperature measured by the thermocouple plugged in to the PCB. I've not used the temperature control, as there are two other outputs which have a fixed speed, according to the adjustment of the potentiometer on the PCB itself. A set and forget exercise.

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Sensor mount

I have drawn a sensor mount/support which will be fitted to the Intrax dampers. This is designed to clip over the 22mm wide M14 nuts that are fitted at the top of the dampers, and a cable tie can also be fitted through the mount, incase they dont want to stay on. Using an M5 screw, the rod end is then secured to the top of support post.

I've sent the .STL file off to 3DPeople for printing, hoping to get them back next week. I opted for SLS printing with the black dye finish. According to Fusion 360 they'll weigh under 10 grammes each.

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