Latest News
16Oct
BSC RESULTS CHANGED
No sooner had I polished all the results on the portal, than I spotted an odd writeup for Round 42 at Castle Combe. It sounded from the writeup that Steve Broughton was persuaded to miss his final run off, because of a coolant leak from a driver that had finished the course ahead of him, which might take 30 minutes to clear up, and that would mean the 6pm curfew would come in to affect, preventing them from taking their run. I raised this as a query on the BSC page on FaceBook, and it transpires there is an NCR that states that classes wont be counted unless all drivers are allowed to take their runs.What happened next was the coordinators scrubbed round 42, and this had the knock on effect of reducing a drivers best 29 scores out of 42, down to best 24 out of 41, which meant a few people had their positions changed in the final standings.
It is only correct that the NCR rules were applied. The round should have been scrubbed at the event, not a decision four days later after a facebook post. This is a national Championship afterall, and the rules are there for a reason. Luckily the top three drivers didnt change their positions, I kept my 9th place, and it was just 6,7 and 8th place that moved, moving Steve Broughton up from 8th to 6th, and Grahame Harden down from 6th, to 7th.
The results have been updated on the portal.
12Oct
BSC stats updated
The 2026 data is now imported in to the mySQL database, and the https://www.zetecinside.com/bschistory/index.php reports modified to show the 2026 data.10Oct
Data breach
During the build up to the Anglesey sprint, my entry wasn't shown on the entry list published by the organising club. I did email the competition secretary and they did confirm that I had an entry, but there was no explanation as to why my name wasn't shown on the list. Examining the entry list on the webpage, you could just make out that there was another line showing on the form, beneath the first displayed driver, so it looked like an html formatting issue. To satisfy my curiosity, and I've been developing web pages for over thirty years, so I know a few things to try when debugging html and css, I simply right clicked on the web page, and selected Save As and saved the page to the Downloads folder on my desktop PC.You can do this on all websites, using Internet Explorer / Chrome / Firefox / Opera, all browsers support the feature. What the browsers do, is save the web page you are viewing, along with all the css (style sheets), images, java, and everything that's needed to show the web page in the browser, they're downloaded and saved to your computer.
This then allows you to open the web page in an offline mode. So without being connected to the internet, the web page is shown from the local files saved to your computer.
So I right clicked and saved the entry list, with the intention of checking for my name in the html. What I found was a lot more than just my name!
The club in question was using a web form provided by a company called Jotform (eu.jotform.com). What you would expect to find inside the downloaded files, is nothing more than the information shown in the form. Name, License, Expert, Make, Model, Class, and CC. And that information was in the downloaded file.
However, the downloaded file, rather than being a few hundred kilobytes large, was several megabytes, which peaked my interest. Right clicking on the web page, and opening the file (view page source) using notepad++, shows the raw html that is what makes up the web page. And when I scrolled down the text file in notepad++, I found there was rather more than Name, License, Expert, Make, Model, Class, and CC.
I found some very disturbing information.
All drivers shown on the entry list:
Identity and Personal Details:
Full name
Date of Birth
IP Address of the computer used to complete the form
Contact Information:
Email address
Mobile Telephone
Physical Address
Motorsport and License Information:
Competition License Number
License Type
Driver Experience
Club Memberships
Championship Registrations
Vehicle Details:
Make and Model
Engine Capacity
Vehicle Registration Number
Vehicle Colour
Class
Fuel Type
Financial and Transaction Data:
Transaction ID
Stripe Submission/Order ID
Payment Method
Amount Paid
Payment status
GDPR defines:
Under UK GDPR / EU GDPR, Personal Data is defined as any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual.
In this submission, almost all of the entries linked to the driver constitute personal data and must be protected.
1. Core Direct Identifiers & Contact Data (High Protection)
These directly identify the living individual or allow direct contact.
Full Name:
Date of Birth: Note: DOB allows precise age verification and identity checks, requiring strict safeguards)
Email Address:
Mobile Telephone Number:
Home Address:
2. Technical & Network Identifiers (Explicitly Personal Data under GDPR)
Under GDPR Recital 30, online identifiers are explicitly classified as personal data when they can be linked back to an individual.
IP Address:
3. Licensing, Motorsport & Official Identifiers
Identifiers assigned by governing bodies or organizations that uniquely trace back to the driver.
Competition Licence Number:
Licence Type & Experience Level:
Club and Championship Affiliations:
4. Vehicle Information (Indirectly Identifiable)
While a vehicle model on its own isn't personal data, details linked to an owner or individual record are protected personal data.
Vehicle Registration Number (VRN): (Considered personal data because it maps directly to an individual driver via DVLA/event databases)
Vehicle Details linked to the driver:
5. Financial & Transactional Data
Under GDPR, financial records linked to a named person must be protected and restricted on a strict "need-to-know" basis.
Stripe Transaction ID & Submission ID:
Payment Information & Status: Amount (), Payment Method (Link/Stripe), and Paid status
What happened once I discovered the issue? I reported it immediately to the club, who immediately removed the links from their web site to the entry list. I also found two more of their entry lists affected by the same issue, for older events from 2026. These were also reported and the links were removed.
A week later, the issue was resolved, and all the personal data was deleted. They asked me to verify this, which I did, I saved the forms, but I found no personal data was downloaded.
Clubs do need to be more careful in what they publish to the internet. Had I not brought it to their attention, the breach would still exist, and all the 100+ drivers personal data would be freely available to allow undesirables to perform phishing attacks and heaven knows what else. Motorsport UK needs to provide a portal that allows clubs to host events from, keeping all the information in one place, with guard rails in place to ensure the information isn't accidentally released to the internet.
9Oct
9th place it is then
I wont be going to Castle Combe tomorrow. There is nothing to gain from burning more fuel. I'll save my money and spend it on upgrades instead. I've only done 22 run offs, finished all 22, and I've got a number for next year. I wonder if I can do it with even less rounds in 2027? Its the best 29 that count, from 44.I do wish they'd change the rules to eight weekends, fastest time of the day gets 13 points, 11 for second down to 1 for 12th. Simpler, cheaper, more attractive to others to have a go.
6Oct
Anglesey New PB run from Saturday
I'm undecided yet if I'll go to Castle Combe for the final sprint on Saturday. I'll keep my eye on the weather and decide on Friday. The trip to Anglesey cost me over £140 in diesel, what with it costing £2.00 a litre now. And if I dont go, my 9th place is safe.4Oct
Anglesey Sunday
I didn't have the best nights sleep, having to go to the toilet several times with a severe stomach upset. And the day didnt go much better either, with on and off light rain showers, enough to make the track very damp, I only managed a 6th and a 5th in the pair of run offs, scoring good points, and securing my 9th place. However I didnt take a spanner to the car all weekend, she was perfect, and I had 10 trouble free runs in total. Very enjoyable.I was 4th in class again, so picked up two engraved whisky tumblers from Longton over the weekend. I set off at 4pm to travel home, and after 3 3/4 hours arrived back in Leicester with a trouble free trip. Now to get the car ready for Castle Combe this weekend.
3Oct
Anglesey Saturday
I had an amazing day, I finished 2nd in the first run off with a new class record, but was beaten by Pete Goulding by 1/10th of a second, also under the class record. Still 24 points wasnt bad. On the second run off I recorded another 46s run, and was 5th, with the first five all in the 46s. Drat.The weather was perfect though, and the car was amazing. I ran on the same set of tyres all day and only cleaned them this evening after we finished. I'll be trying again tomorrow to get my first run off win of 2026.
Taken with my EOS RP and RF 50mm lens
2Oct
Anglesey sprint
I made it to Anglesey, eventually. Only 15 minutes after I left home, I was stuck in a 75 minute long delay on the M1 just north of Loughborough; so much for getting to Anglesey for 4pm. I eventually arrived at 5:15pm, unloaded the car in to garage 13/14 which I'm sharing with Grahame Harden. I had the car scrutineered, and after cooking myself dinner, I changed the setting in the Plex SDM-330 dash to send the data over can at 100Hz rather than 20Hz, so I will see if the paddles still get ignored when I pull them.The weather is awful tonight. 43mph gusts of wind, and sideways rain, its meant to be better over the weekend though.....
28Sep
Air time
I had the dive tank refilled on Sunday at Stoney cove. The tank will need re-certification over the winter as it runs out in March 2027. The Focus ST was MOT'd on Friday, its first MOT, which it passed, and the BMW 335D had a full service last week, with new oil and filter and a visual inspection, and she's just covered 60,000 miles and is still a joy to drive. Sadly the costs of fuel are rising quite rapidly in the UK, and its now averaging £2.00 a litre, which means no more heavy right foot moments, or ok, maybe still one or two per fuel tank, but certainly use Eco mode and cruise control for the majority of the journeys now.The van averaged 40mpg on 300 mile trip on Saturday, which for a 4WD LVW Transporter is actually pretty good. I'll get no where near that kind of mpg when I drag the trailer over to Anglesey on Friday afternoon.
Here are some of the 1100 photos I took of the British Hillclimb Championship finals at Prescott last weekend.
21Sep
Prescott BHC final
Congratulations to Matt Ryder on his third back to back win of the British HillClimb championship! I took 1090 photos at Prescott yesterday, and I am now working my way through them all.My entry for Anglesey is confirmed, and I will be car #16. I cleaned the front tyres at the weekend, with just the rears left to go.
15Sep
Plex polling frequency checked
Checking the transmit frequency of the Plex dash, it is sending the paddle up/down signal 20 times a second. I can increase the polling frequency, which I will try for Anglesey, and I'll see if it misses any more downshifts.
14Sep
Ethan Faulkner crowned 2026 champion
Well done to Team Faulkner for getting Ethan to the top of the championship this year. Even though he'd never driven Knockhill before, he took all four run off wins and broke the class record numerous times at the weekend. The eight drivers only had 6 runs over the two days using the anti-clockwise track. One practice and then two timed runs each day. Just goes to show the level of talent he has to turn up and dominate like that.
The 2026 British Sprint Champion, Ethan Faulkner (Force TA 1600)
I'm still 10th after the weekend, and guaranteed a top 12 number this year, despite only doing a handful of events (18 out of 42 run offs, best 29 count) at Anglesey-Blyton-Lydden-Kirkistown-Snetterton, and for a fraction of the money that others have spent. My next outings are Anglesey and Combe in October (6 more run offs), where I could theoretically finish as high as 6th. I know that's not going to happen but I can dream of winning all the run offs and setting records :D
12Sep
Monza weekend
We started off on Thursday, arriving at Birmingham airport at 1:30pm for the 5:30pm flight, dropping the car off in a nice end space in car park four. The Ryanair flight to Milan Bergamo airport, which is North East of Milan, was due to depart at 17:35, but it was clear the flight was delayed when I checked flight radar and could see the flight from Italy had left 90 minutes late.
With zero information from Ryanair staff, and everyone stood in line at the gate to get on to a plane that hadn't arrived, staff suddenly appeared, checked passports and we boarded a different Ryanair aircraft, and sure enough left BHX about 90 minutes late. A different aircraft meant the extra leg room emergency exit seats I'd booked were absent, so I made do with my knees pressed in to the seat back, and keen to make up time, the pilot pushed the little 737-800 as fast as she would go (600mph), and after 100 minutes, we crash landed at Bergamo airport.
It was a hell of bang when he threw it at the tarmac. I'm told this is a typical landing for Ryanair. It woke everyone up and we were soon disembarked and heading for the Schengen security checks, with our suitcases and rucksacks. Now this part I'd not been looking forward to, with several hundred people ahead of us in the queue, this could take some time. After 20 minutes a group of us were asked to move in to a different room, where we were invited one at a time to see if our British Passports would work on the passport machine, and after a dozen or so people tried and failed, we went to the terminal, and luckily our passports both worked. We were through in about 30 minutes, leaving the rest of the passengers standing in very long queues waiting to have their passports checked manually.
The package we'd bought included a chauffeur driven taxi to take us to Milan, and sure enough Francesco was waiting for us in arrivals, and lead us outside to his black Mercedes people carrier. We were then whisked away down to Milan, a journey in the dark which took approx. 40 minutes on the motorway toll road. Arriving at the hotel, we checked in, and made our way up to room 411, both quite tired from the journey from the UK. Because of the delayed flight, a lot of people had arrived at the air port and couldn't catch their trains to their destinations; some were getting quotes for Ubers, others were considering renting cars. We were just relieved that the taxi for our journey, was already booked and paid for.
Day 2 - F1 Practice
The next morning we got up at around 8:30am, got changed, and made our way over to the Milan Centrale railway station to get some food from the café and find the platform for the 9:40am train that would take us to Monza station.
I'd already bought the train and black-line shuttle bus tickets, online, so we just had to show the QR code to get on to the platform, and then make our way over to the long line of Formula 1 fans to get on to the Milano Centrale to Locarno train (RE80). The trains are quite modern, and clean, and as regular as clock work, and always running about five minutes late. After we departed, the train was fairly busy, the majority of fans were wearing their Ferrari shirts and hats, we arrived in Monza station about 15 minutes later.
We then disembarked and followed all the signs which took us in to the carpark at the station to catch the black-line bus to the Monza Autodrome. Wow, there were thousands of people ahead of us, all standing in long lines in the car park, and we quickly took the decision to walk the three miles to the Autodrome instead of standing in the baking hot sun for an hour waiting for a bus.
We weren't alone, there were thousands of others also walking, and I'm glad we did, as we walked through the centre of Monza, seeing the wonderful buildings, and shops, and memorabilia stalls, while we walked and chatted with an American couple who had flown over for the race.
This is the route to walk from Monza Railway station to Gate A at Monza.
The buildings soon disappeared, and we went through a turnstile and in to the Monza park, winding our way through paths which took us around a large pond that had turtles and huge Koi fish inside, and the scenery was brilliant.
Armed with a map, we split away from the main group, and headed North towards Gate A, which is where we needed to gain entry to the circuit as that was the closest gate to the grandstand where our seats were. After another 15 minutes of walking, we'd gone through a security check where they'd looked in our bags, and climbed a bridge which took us over the main route in to the circuit for the officials and drivers etc.
Another 15 minutes of walking and we'd reached the Gate A entrance, and in front of us was a large area filled with stands, selling food, drink, merchandise, and there was a DJ playing, with loud music.
We showed our F1 tickets I'd saved on the phone, and when these had been scanned we were allowed to climb in to the massive grandstand. Our seat numbers were O-478 and O-479, and where we entered the grandstand the seat numbers started at 1.
As it was a practice day, people generally sit where they like, and we climbed up a few rows and sat down, and we could see into the garages for McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. It was a great vantage point.
After a few hours of watching the track action, I went off alone to see if I could find our seats, and after walking the entire length of the massive 26 Laterale Destra grandstand I finally found them. They were the last pair of seats, on the very top row, with no one sat in front of us, and nothing to the left of us. Amazing seats, probably the best ones in the grandstand.
I walked back to Dawn and we both headed up to take our positions, and weren't disappointed with the views. We were right opposite the start line for cars in the fourth row, and we could see directly in to the Cadillac garage, and all the way down the pitlane using the binoculars that I'd taken with me.
After watching the first F1 practice, and the F3 and F2 and Porsche cars in action, at 3:50pm we headed back to find the black-line Bus to catch back to Monza railway station. It took around 50 minutes to walk the 1.5 miles to the black-line bus, then 20 minutes by bus to travel the 2.5 miles to get to Monza station, a short wait for the train to take us back to Milan Centrale, and were back at the hotel by about 5:40pm. So just under two hours, with not much standing around.
With the long walk in the morning we had tired feet, and needed showers because walking in 34C is enough to make anyone sweat, so after getting changed, we went in to Milan to get a meal, and bumped in to some friends we knew were going to be at the event, but had no idea where they were staying. A plate of lasagne later, and several beers, we headed back to the hotel, and found an Aldi supermarket to buy snacks and drinks for the next two days. Our alarm was set for 6am Saturday morning, as we wanted to get to the track early to beat the queues and catch all the action at the track.
Day 3 – F1 Qualifying
Up again at 6am, not to miss the first train to Monza (6.44am), the Milan station is much busier today, with the majority of people wearing Ferrari red. We grabbed some croissants and coffees from the Café at the station entrance, and managed to get two seats on the train and after a rapid 15 minute trip we arrived at Monza. We again followed the signs for the black-line bus, which lead us out into the station carpark, this time with not too much congestion, and after a short wait we were soon on the bendy bus on the way to Monza park.
The bus wound its way around the Monza roads and after 20 minutes we arrived at the black-line drop off point, which is in the south east of the park.
Everyone was walking North towards Gate G, which is the same route we took, but just after we passed the food and souvenir stalls, we went left and then right and walked alongside the throng of people, but on the left side of the hedge. When we got to the cross road, we then split from the Gate G traffic and headed west towards the main entrance. If you hadn't crossed in to the field to walk in parallel with the road, there is no way to turn left, because the road is fenced off, which is why you need to take the route I described above.
After another 0.5km we then turned right and headed north again, towards Gate A. There were a lot of other fans around us, and avoiding the Gate G entrance saved some time as we would have had to walk through the centre of the track to get to the grandstand, and it would be quite a detour to then get to Gate A.
After crossing the footbridge again, and going through various ticket and security checks, we were soon at the 26 Laterale Destra grandstand, taking our seats. Some people were already sitting in them, but they moved when we asked them to. Prior to taking our seats, we filled the six empty water bottle's we'd brought with us, at the water station behind the grandstand. What was surprising was, despite drinking litres of water during the day, we never once needed the loo. I think most of the fluids we drank came out as sweat, as it again reached 34C in the afternoon with little breeze.
We watched the Formula 3 18 lap Sprint Race (with earplugs), the Historic F1 Cars Demonstration, then the Porsche Supercup qualifier, and then came the third and final practice for the Formula 1 cars. Next there was the F2 Sprint Race. There was always lots to see and the PA system above us was, thankfully, quieter than it was at the other end of the grandstand, so we could enjoy the experience a little more. Nothing worse than having a commentator shouting in your ear for the entire duration.
At 4pm, it was the main Formula 1 qualifying which was quite exciting to watch, there was an air of tension when the Ferraris looked like they might not get through to Q3 and a huge sigh of relief from the crowd when Lewis squeezed in by 0.003 seconds. And it was great to see Gasly take pole, which took everyone by surprise. His pole lap was warmly welcomed by the crowd.
After qualifying had finished, everyone started leaving. We bought a Ferrari flag and a Ferrari umbrella, to give us some much needed shade in the afternoon at the grandstand on race day, and then we headed back to the hotel, which with the bigger crowds took around 2 3/4 hours.
The biggest delay was the size of the queue for the bus. But the queue never stopped moving once we joined it, and after 40 minutes of shuffling from one foot to the next, we were on the bus heading back to the railway station. A lot of people opted to walk to the 3 miles to the station, the opposite of our walk on Friday morning, but our feet were too tired so we just shuffled and used the transport. At the Monza station the car park was absolutely rammed with people standing in line, and that took another 20 minutes to get a train, which sadly didn’t stop at Milan Centrale station, and instead went to a station 5 minutes to the south east, Milano Lambrate, so we then had to rush across to platform 12 to get the next train which took us back to Milan Centrale. Not an issue, and we were with several hundred other fans in the same boat (train). This added a further 20 minutes to the trip back. We had no option at Monza other than to get on to the train, there was no other train waiting to take us back. Another ten minutes later and I think we’d have been on the direct train.
It was dark by the time we got back to the hotel, so I nipped out to get a KFC from the station, and while I was choosing what to eat from the menu, they closed. At 9:15pm! I then tried McDonalds, but the queue there was massive, so I went back to the hotel and we ordered room service instead. Thats always a safe option, and sure enough hot food arrive 15 minutes later. We were both very tired and hungry, but looking forward to race day in the morning.
Day four – F1 Race Day
Again, up for 6am, this time the station was really busy, with standing room only on the train to Monza. The queue for the bus at Monza was greater the yesterday, but still manageable, and once we arrived at the Autodrome by bus, there was considerably more fans inside the park.
We walked over to our grandstand, and sat out the FIA Formula 3 feature race, it was just too loud. The cars use normally aspirated V6 engines which are 3.4L and exceptionally noisy, so we grabbed some food and filled the water bottles, and when they finished, we move to our grandstand seats at 9:10am. They were again occupied, and this time there was also a line of people stood behind the top row of seats, presumably they hadn’t paid the 1000 Euro ticket prices to be in the stands, but no one seemed to mind. We took our seats, and placed our rucksacks behind the seats, kicked off our shoes and settled in for race day, binoculars and cameras at the ready.
The grandstands were far busier, and the 30 lap Formula 2 Feature race was great to watch. Sadly, the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup race that followed, was cut short after two crashes on the second lap, and after a very long delay the decision came to abandon that race. The F1 race was due to start at 3pm, and during the morning we could see the teams warming up and practicing their pitstops and wheel changes. We were then treated to Sebastian Vettel driving Michael Schumacher's 2001 Ferrari F1 car, which was amazing to see, and everything unfolded directly in front of us on the grid.
Sebastian Vettel celebrates after his drive of the Schumacher 2001 Ferrari.
Lewis is pushed to his grid position for the start of the F1 race.
Sitting opposite the start line gave us a great view of all the action on the track. I had no idea that so many people mingle with the mechanics and drivers, quite how Martin Brundle manages to negotiate the crowds to get to talk to drivers? It looked complete chaos. We spotted Damon Hill, Nico Rosberg, Montoya Senior. The live band before the race start blasted out a couple of songs, then we had the Italian national anthem, and several flypasts by the Italian Airforce, painting the sky green white and red.
The race started on time at 3pm, and we watched all the cars line up, go through their launch procedure and take off. It was quieter than I expected, and we didnt need ear plugs for the race at all. When LeClerc went off at Parabolica, there was a huge groan from the crowd, and sure enough the race was stopped. After 40 minutes or so, it was restarted, so we got to see a second start. And again, the cars lined up, and then were told to do an extra formation lap as Tsunoda wasn't lined up properly. So another start, lots of noise, and they were away. And then aside from the commentary in English, we were entertained watching the helicopter chasing the cars around the circuit, the pit stops, and the cheers for Kimi as he carved his way through the field. It was an exciting race to watch, we knew George was going to be caught by Kimi, it was just a question of when.
During the race we saw the Tifosi taking the huge flags over to the centre of the circuit. They were being carried very carefully, and using the underpass, they disappeared out of sight, waiting to be brought back out after the race had finished.
After it had all finished, we saw the patient Tifosi invade the track.
We then made our way back to the bus stop to get back to Milan. The queues weren't too bad, and we were soon at Monza station, however, this time we ended up on a train with hundreds of other fans, not heading to Milan Centrale, but Milan Garibaldi, which meant we had a walk of a kilometre back to the hotel, but we passed through a stunning part of Milan, which was full of families dining out, and was such a treat to walk through.
After a nice walk and a Gelato from the Grom Gelato shop, we were a back in time to get a KFC, shower, change, and unwind for the evening. We were tired, but full of joy. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Day 5 - Going home
No reason to be up at 6am meant a lie in, and we were packed and waiting in reception for 12pm. The chauffeur arrived around 12:40pm and we were taken back to Bergamo to catch the flight back to Birmingham. No delays this time, the flights depart from Gates B which forced us through another passport check, but there were no queues, the flight was on time, and we landed back at Birmingham airport, walked to the car park, and drove home.
8Sep
What a weekend
It was a perfect weekend spent in Italy, at the Monza Autodrome, seeing Kimi Antonelli win in front of his home crowd, starting from last place! The first Italian winner of the Italian GP in 60 years, and at the same time we were celebrating my 60th birthday. It was meant to be :DWe walked 40Km during the weekend, and have tired feet, such is the commute from Milan to the circuit and back each day. But if there is one thing the Italians know how to do, it is moving over 400,000 people over three days using public transport.
Nothing put a dampener on the weekend, the atmosphere was incredible, everyone we spoke to was having a great experience, and the weather maintained 34C the entire time, which made for a hot and sticky but incredible experience. I'll put a full report together in time for the weekend.
As a little taster, this is video I took from our grandstand seats, of the Tifosi taking over the track after the race had finished. The emotions from the crowd were amazing.
Tifosi track invasion
1Sep
Monza calling
I am off to Italy on Thursday, with Dawn, to watch the F1 at Monza. It'll be the first foreign race we've been to, and I'm expecting it to be exciting, and tiring, probably very tiring, but we've got everything booked and planned, and expect to be at the circuit all three days, with grandstand tickets which place us on the pit straight. Expect lots of photographs.Here are all the runs from Kirkistown, in two videos. I'll do the same for Snetterton in the next week or so.
25Aug
Youtube video
This is the video of my 78.01s run. I took the first corner almost flat on this run, and flat on the next, and she leapt off the line with a 2.01s 64ft. I did manage a quicker launch on another run, but the most satisfying thing is that all the starts were 2.0s which goes to show the work on the launch has paid off.It was my first visit to the Snetterton track since 2023, so I was a little, rusty, and it was great on Sunday to start with a new PB, and then another, and another. I've really found my confidence now, everything is working so well, and I'm looking forward to the next outing.
Speaking of outings, I've a trip of a lifetime lined up next week. More details after the weekend :D
24Aug
Records fall at Snetterton
I had a very good weekend at Snetterton setting a new PB of 78.01s. I arrived around 2:30pm Friday and grabbed a spot next to Grahame Harden in the paddock. I didn't unload the car from the trailer, it was even scrutineered inside the trailer! On Saturday we had a couple of rain showers in the morning, following a lot of rain on Friday evening, and I eventually recorded an 81s run in the afternoon, which I wasn't especially happy with. On Friday morning I changed the rear brake pads, also for PF11's so the first practice run I was bedding them in. After a few runs though they were amazing, and I was recording >2G deceleration, which really helped with my confidence. On Saturday afternoon Steve Broughton demolished the track record with a time half a second inside the Calders previous '100' record. Sat in the trailer, it was amazing to hear him take Hamilton's and Palmers flat on both laps.The evening was spent chatting with friends at dinner, and then wandering round the 2CV 24Hr paddock, trying to take some arty photos of the cars driving in the dark. Not as easy as some may make it look.
Sunday was bright and sunny, and on my practice run I broke my PB. Staying on the same tyres all day, having cleaned them again on Saturday evening, the performance just got better and better, and my next two runs I lowered my PB twice again to get it down to 78.01s. That was only good enough for 5th in the run off. Whilst sat in the queue for my final run, which was the combined qualifier and run off, Grahame Harden had a nasty crash in the Force TA, going off backwards in to the armco at Palmers; And when we eventually restarted, I was cautious around Palmers and sure enough the car felt loose at the rear, I think that was the tyres complaining about the heat. I was 1.5s slower on that run, but glad to see Grahame was OK when I returned to the pits. I helped Jane put stuff away, whilst Grahame dealt with the officials, and then a group headed down to help them load the car on to the trailer, so at that point I knew I wouldn't be welcomed, so I left them to it and set off for home.
Steve Broughton lowered the track record again on Sunday, and took both FTD's away from Ethan Faulkner, which ended his 14 straight FTD run this year. Ethan is 100% going to be crowned champion. John Loudon didn't start on Sunday due to engine issues. Steve Miles didn't do the last run off following a rumbling rear wheel bearing. Simon Wallis failed scrutineering on Saturday and went home, the OMS had a wish bone with witness marks on it where it had been straightened, so he returned Sunday with a replacement arm fitted and was allowed to compete. Smiles had his overalls confiscated Friday, for showing wear and tear on one of the shoulders, so he had to borrow a set. I had a balaclava ruled out after it was pointed out that it wasn't a Nomex one. Note: when asking for flameproofs for Christmas, make sure they supply flameproofs, not Karting balaclavas. I had a Nomex spare and wore that both days.
A second in class on both days, and a load more points, I might just secure a number in the championship this year. I'm next out at Anglesey then Combe, so we'll have to wait and see what the others score in the mean time. No biggie if I don't, its not like I'm making a serious challenge this year.
Technical stuff: Launch worked perfectly, with the start line rubbered up so much, the wheelspin dropped to zero almost instantly, allowing the car to accelerate to 64ft in <2.0s, which was a great achievement. The traction control map is now fully sorted, I can just give 100% WOT exiting a corner, and it just accelerates like a rat up a drainpipe. The brakes were fantastic, and the air charge temperatures stayed in the high 30's, low 40's, and under control. What I am seeing is a rise in ambient air entering the turbo, after each application of the brakes. Its drawing hot air in from the brake disk from the front wheel, so I'll have to have another think about the K&N placement. Who'd have thought :D. I used the 2025 tyres both days, cleaning them on Saturday evening. They performed so well I didn't use the brand new set, and the times were still very competitive. Do we really need a spare set of tyres just for the run offs? I also raised ORFC to 6500rpm for the first practice run on Saturday, but the downshifts were clunky, so I then set it back to the default 5500rpm, and it cured that issue. I had a few missed downshifts, which appear to be the lack of a paddleDown message sent from the Plex dash to the ECU over CAN. Its either the microswitch on the back of the paddle is on its way out, or the dash config might need a slight tweak to poll the microswitch at a higher frequency. I'll dig out the manual and see what can be changed. Its not the ECU refusing the downshift, rather its not getting the downshift request from the Plex dash over CAN.
17Aug
Snetterton prep
The entry list is out for the sprint at the weekend, and I am car #16 which saves changing the numbers on the car. I've cleaned the final pair of tyres, and done a few repairs to the uhmwpe strip on the drivers side floor, after it snagged on the trailer door when I loaded the car back on at Kirkistown.The van was treated to an audio upgrade on Friday. It now has a Kenwood head unit, DSP, new door speakers, and a sub underneath the front passenger seat. Tamworth Audio did the upgrade for me on Friday, and I'm very pleased with the sound quality now. I also now have Android Auto with the satnav on the screen of the Kenwood, which will make getting around easier. The DSP took an hour or so to setup. Patrick had to sit inside the van with a microphone, to set it all up. And it really does sound very good. Once the speakers are bedded in I'll be going back for the next tune which will be tailored to my preferences. I'd like more bass, and that's something the 300W sub can definitely provide.
I've changed the front brake pads on the race car for new PF11's and I'm also making changes to the ORFC, and a few other tweaks for Snetterton. The push fit connections haven't arrived in time for me to install the cooler for the intercooler sprayer, so I'll leave that for the next event.
11Aug
Intercooler cooler
I will try to run the cooler that I made for the fuel system, on the water sprayer line to see if I can drop the charge temperature even further at Snetterton by using chilled water. I've ordered some M14x1.5 to 6mm push fittings which would then allow the water from the high pressure pump to travel through the aluminium block, which is chilled using a Peltier pump. I'll wire it so its only powered when the engine is running, I'll use one of the spare outputs from the X10 and a fused SSR. If I've got time of course. I designed the cooling block in Fusion, and the idea was to place it inline with the fuel pump that pumps fuel around the anti-surge tank with the return to the main tank. This recirculation does warm the fuel, but there is probably a better return in this case if I chill the water heading for the intercooler. It draws approx 3A when running, but I think it'll be worth the effort. The aluminium block that the Peltier pump is fitted to, gets too cold to touch after 10 minutes of the fan running.
I cleaned two tyres on Saturday, before it got too hot to work in the garage, the heatwave in the UK is making working outside quite unpleasant recently. To video the process, I fitted the old GoPro to the heat gun, so you can see the gun working close up. I'll clean the remaining two tyres this weekend. This process is performed after every race meeting, to remove the pickup from the surface. The heat gun isnt removing rubber from the tyre, it is removing the rubber picked up from the track surface. What is left is a pristine surface, and a lighter tyre, simply from scraping off everyone else's rubber.
10Aug
Shelsley record
How impressive was it to see the BHC drivers knock hundredths then a tenth off the hill record on Sunday? Congratulations to Wallace on setting the 22.20s time, on Pirelli Ultrasofts. I think that record will stand for many years now. The conditions were perfect on Sunday. New tarmac, new rubber, and a determination between the top three to win the run offs.Speaking of which I've cleaned two of the four tyres so far, with two to go. And I'm prepping for the trip to Snetterton in just under two weeks, with confirmation that I can run #16 which saves me having to get new vinyl for the car.
I've written a Python script that uses YOLOv8 to analyse the footage from the rear facing camera, to find all the frames that contain flames from the exhaust pipe. It was fairly easy to write; I had to define the ROI (Region of Interest) so the algorithm focused just on the area around the exhaust pipe, which improved the accuracy and reduced the time it took to go through the complete videos. It is running on my Lenovo laptop, using the GPU in the onboard Nvidia graphics card, and takes around two minutes to inspect each 1GB video file. The results are quite spectacular.
5Aug
Kirkistown data
The intercooler sprayer is making a huge difference to the air charge temperatures. Despite now running more boost, compared to the same track (Kirkistown) from a cooler day, the ACT now is over 10C cooler than it was from the same circuit 3 years ago. So more boost, warmer day, and the ACT today is still > 10C cooler than previously. That's free horsepower and a happy engine. I wonder if I can make it cooler still? Ensuring the outboard K&N filter was getting cold air would help.
4Aug
Kirkistown Sprint
I took my Son, Marcus, along with me, to remove some of the stress and workload off of me, and it was a very pleasant weekend. We set off from Leicester at 11:30am on Thursday, making our way to the overnight camp site at Creetown in Scotland, to get some food at the on-site pub (handy) and sleep the night in the van. The campsite came with hookups, showers, toilets, a pool and a pub, much better than sleeping in a random layby. We work up at 4:45am Friday morning, to hitch the trailer, and make our way up to Cairnryan for the 7:15am crossing, which was running 15 minutes late. Security at the ferry port consisted of "Are you going to Belfast?", er yes, "then off you go", so we didnt even need to open up the van or trailer for inspection. While some car drivers were being patted down!We arrived in Belfast at around 10am on Friday morning, and once we disembarked, we drove the 45 minutes down to Kirkistown. I collected my garage door key, we unloaded the car, and van, and then setup the bed etc inside the trailer so Marcus had somewhere to sleep for the next two nights. The scrutineer came to us, and was impressed again with how clean my car was. With no work to do on the car, Marcus flew his FPV Tinywhoop drone around the circuit to get some shots of the track, and after some food we both settled down for the night. It was surprisingly cold, given we'd come from 25C+ in Leicester, N.Ireland was a much more pleasant 16C most of the weekend, and dry, which was very welcome.
For this event I'd printed a few new parts out, and revised the tcSpinTargets table, following the awful experience at Lydden.
Starting later than we thought, it wasn't too long before I was out on the first and only practice run, and after a few corners, I adjusted the TC Adder control on the steering wheel to add 1% to the allowed wheel spin percentage in the updated table, and it immediately stopped all the traction events, and the car felt much steadier. On the next couple of runs, the qualifier and the run off, the car just didn't feel right, it felt like I'd bent a pushrod as it was not wanting to go in a straight line when I accelerated. Back in the garage I removed the engine cover and jacked the rear of the car up, and tried lifting a rear wheel, where I spotted that the damper piston was moving freely as I lifted the wheel. That's not meant to happen, the spring should be resisting movement. I then found both springs were loose, and realised the spring platforms were both free to rotate. So when I'd set the spring lengths to 99.6mm using the verniers after reassembling the dampers, I'd not locked the rings in place. No wonder it wasn't handling properly. I borrowed a steel ruler from Grahame Harden, and adjusted both springs as best I could to their correct length, and did up the lock screws. I also marked them both with cross-check. I think the dampers had worked loose while the car was sat inside the trailer, after driving 350 miles, there is a lot of suspension movement from all the bumps and yumps on the journey to N.Ireland, not to mention the vibrations from sitting inside a ferry for two hours.
On the next run, I was 2s quicker, and felt much more comfortable with the cars handling. After the third timed run, I checked the tyre pressures, as it still didn't feel 100% right, and the rears were at 21PSI and the fronts at 19psi. That was way too high. I then spotted the marks 18 and 20 on the rims. These were the rims that used to have the Avons on them, and I'd set the Pirellis to the wrong pressures. I normally run 16.5 front and 18 rear. I lowered the pressures and refilled the water sprayer tank for the final run off, hoping to set a more representative time. I'd been on the same cleaned tyres all day, I just didn't feel any desire to run the brand new Pirellis. I set off on the final run off, and the car felt great. However, after exiting the final permanent chicane on the second lap, on the final short straight to the final chicane, under hard acceleration, as the ECU changed gear to 5th and gave me more boost, there was a sudden woosh sound, and the boost left the chat. I knew straight away I had an issue, so I coasted to the chicane, and finished the course as quick as I could, returning to the pits. I still didnt finish last though.
After the long day, and with little sleep the night before, I wasn't prepared to start stripping the car down to find the boost issue. Instead we joined the rest of the BSC drivers, after being cordially invited to sit with them for the groups traditional evening meal, my Son Marcus and me enjoyed the pulled pork burgers and a pint of Guiness each (zero percent alcohol for me as I've not had any alcohol since February and now wasnt the time to see if my blood pressure tablets mixed with booze), and relaxed for the evening. Three members of the group totally ignored us, that's fine, that's their loss not ours. I didn't even waste my breath with a hello. But its good progresss. Its ironic they didn't have room for me to sit with them a few years ago when I was at kirkistown on my own, which is what all the fallout started from.
Sunday morning, I removed the side pods and checked hoses, fearing a split hose, but it was an easier fix than that. The hose from the turbo to the T pipe that the dump valve fits on, had blown off completely, which was a relief when I found it. Checking the other clips they were all less than tight, so I refitted the hose, tightened every clip I could find, and added the red cross-check I'd just bought from Amazon, so I can see what's working loose. I then cleaned the four tyres, and refilled the car with petrol. The spout from the petrol jug broke off, which meant I had to use a funnel to get the fuel safely into the tank, she'd used 9.6 litres the day before. I then refilled the air bottle, and connected the laptop to reset the fuel consumption in the ECU which zero's the display on the dashboard. Our first run was around 1pm, as I decided to miss the first practice run, and instead the second practice run became our first timed run, whilst still technically being our mandatory practice run. I checked the boost, and once I was happy it was working properly, I coasted around the rest of the lap. The car felt different, full boost, and the chassis and tyres working properly, this was good.
Rob Dwayne came over to say hello and we had a good chat. I love all the one liners he comes out with. I particularly liked the phrase "he'd give an aspirin a headache" which really made me laugh. Hope to see you again soon Rob.
On the second timed run, our first run off, I went another 2 seconds quicker, to record a high 114s run. However, the dashboard displayed a red engine oil temperature warning towards the end of the second lap, which made me lift off to check what was wrong. It said the EOT was 110C, which was nothing to worry about, I'd just set the alarm too low on the dashboard, and this was the first time I'd seen oil temperature that high. Such are the demands put on the engines in the 3 hours of back to back runs with little time to cool down between. After that event following each run, I removed the engine cover as well as blowing air over the car using the big orange fan, and the issue didn't reoccur during the next pair of runs.
The third run was another qualifier, but with just seven of us, I pottered around to save the tyres, and keep everything cool. Finally the last run of the day was upon us, and I tried much harder, recording a low 114s run, which was my best run of the day, on the tyres that had now performed four runs. It was my best launch with a 2.17s 64FT time which I was happy with.
During the morning Marcus and I had been putting bedding, and beds, and all the other stuff back in the van, to clear the trailer of clutter, so when I finished the final run I could just cover the tyres, and roll the car inside. All the effort paid off, as we were the first ones to leave the circuit for the ferry, arriving an hour before the ferry departed.
It was another very smooth crossing, the ferry wasnt particularly busy, and I went for a jacket potato with beans and cheese in the cafe on board, which wasnt great value for £12. It was better than the miserable food on the way out on Friday morning, though I did complain and was given a full refund, its a shame they cant even serve hot food on a morning crossing when weary travellers need feeding. Cold plates, cold bacon, luke warm eggs, cold beans, come on Stenna Line, the tickets arent cheap, get some new caterers in!
That wasnt the worst of it though. On the Friday morning crossing they put out an announcement on the tannoy, asking for the owners of the dog that had fouled the carpet in the lounge, to please return and clean the mess up! There was a stunned silence in the cafe when the announcement was made :D
After the ferry arrived in Scotland on Sunday evening, I drove the short journey from Cairnryan to Creetown, to stay a second night at the campsite. I was telling Marcus how quickly the HGVs drive along the A75, and sure enough we were stuck behind one that was sitting at the max 40MPH they're allowed to do, when two HGVs overtook us and the long queue of traffic, lit up like christmas tree's. Its an amazing site seeing so many lorries in convoy in the dark. I dont think anything can beat it.
In the morning we had showers, and clean clothes to change in to, and set off for home around 8:30am Monday. After some 7 hours or so, with a stop off for a Burger King on the M6, we arrived home, unpacked, and I then took the van and trailer back in to storage.
I picked up a 3rd in class award for Sunday, which was nice to receive. I was 2s slower than my PB of 112s, but although I was driving quickly, I was in 'get it home in one piece' mode, which was the main objective of the weekend really. Don't got to N.Ireland and do any damage. Get there and back with my son, have an enjoyable time, don't get stressed about anything, most of all, have some great memories, and chat to the locals, and make more friends. I ticked every box.
The van covered 700.1 miles for the round trip, it was faultless, the Forge intercooler makes it much easier to climb the steep hills, and it averaged 25mpg. I just wish the air conditioning worked better as the temperature outside climbed to 31C when we got back to the East Midlands, and the sound system could not be heard over the racket from the M&S tyres. The trailer was faultless, no tyre pressure issues this time, and it was plain sailing there and back. As the warden at the campsite said, when we arrived Thursday evening, 'nice rig' :D
Thanks to the 500 Motor Club of Ireland for putting on another fantastic event. And congrats to Ethan for taking two more FTDs on his way to winning the championship. He really is uncatchable.
Photo by Jimmy Graham (thankyou Jimmy, it is amazing)
My To do list: Upgrade the sound system in the van :D
