From all apearances on the OUTSIDE it was reported
our two races appeared to be fraught with excitement, with
ever-changing fortunes brought on by determined (but fair)
challenges, all at a pace enough to raise the pulse two-fold.
...........Just as it was from the inside then!
There were about four bunches of cars down the line all having
clean fun and each giving the public (and the drivers) their moneys'
worth of excitement. It's too simple to say 'it's just one race'.
Great to see Simon Hadfield, in a Lotus 51 give the
top boys and girls a run (how does he do that in an ol' banger like
that ?- I'm never going to complain about mine again..) and returnee
John Timoney joining us.
The remarkable thing was that only two cars dropped
out from BOTH races. John H-Harlow with a
mysterious miss (he changed almost everything to get rid of it) and
Gareth Paul who decided to 'go marginal' on fuel...
Without looking back at the records, this could have been a non-attritional
first.
Qualifying however, wasn't the same story,
young Lee Dwyer came back on the back of a lorry,
not to be seen again and in another incident, was it the case of too
many into the chicane? (four I heard) when Colin Wright
suffered the worst with a flip-over, and one of his rare outings
with us this year was over.
I rang his home the next day and was already far down the
well-wisher list (tweaked thumb and pulled muscle) and his wife says
to pass on thanks to all who phoned. Close bunch aren't we? Hope to
see you out later in the year Colin.
Our Saturday night BBQ just about worked with
an under-sized and erratic burner...Thanks to the good offices of
'the ladies' for the preparation (read organisation) and
Andrew Mansell/Chris Sharples/Chris Fisher braving the
smoke and flames for the cause. Thanks for the donations toward it
chaps - in particular the two French francs in the collection hat.
Don't know if it was someone with a sense of humour or
whether it was two of you buggers!
An Appeal - to make life easier (hiring
is dear) we need to BUY a decent 6ft gas burner - if you see a good
2nd-hand one on your travels (new, can be over £2K) let us know
please. We now have a small budget for one.
Fantasy Raffle. We had our raffle and although
I hadn't any idea that there actually was a prize (didn't check with
the captain first) we had a winner in the form of Jon Sykes
for the pretend set of tyres we may have had courtesy of our
AVON sponsors. Well done and although this prize was
later confirmed further ideas for 'fantasy raffle prizes' include a
fully-kitted out yacht in Monaco Harbour and many more daft
thoughts.
Next up we have the wonderful Brands GP
Circuit. Can't have enough of this one and what a programme
we'll be sharing with all those posh cars the grown-ups go round in
- don't have as much racing fun as us but I guess they get a buzz
out of them...
WE lead the field out at 1pm on Sunday closely
followed by all those Big Bangers and Cosworths. Here's to good
racing and if we make an enormous impression we could be raffling
for a Yacht in the harbour yet....
Pembrey BBQ. As things are a bit unfamiliar in
that neck of the woods we won't be having a HFF Barby. We've been
told however, that there are good catering facilities and that
something on a larger scale than our merry band may be organised
when we get there. We are aiming to have another sausage-sacrifice
at Oulton Park. Join us? Start saving your French francs.......
STEEL CRANKS AND THINGS.
I've had some feed back ref steel cranks and it has been mainly
positive. Phrases like 'preserving the formula' and 'keeping the
costs down' have been made along with 'making a lot of sense for the
future of the series'.
The returns have been only from a small proportion of you and
against the full number it represents about 10%. Whether it's worth
going forward on it we won't know until more offer their opinion as
it's a big issue. It does throw up another aspect which widens the
subject - one of flywheel weight - apparently the regulation
weight is one cause for crank breaks and expert opinion considers a
kilogram less would have a big effect on the life of cranks. ie
this, from one of our number, "On
the steel crank front, the other way to achieve longer life from a
crank I am told (by Neil Bold) is to allow a reduction in the
flywheel weight - its the inertia that creates the hairline cracks
-" to the move to steel however, he goes on to say "I think a move
to steel cranks will just add to everyone's cost and this is not in
the spirit of the formula".
Another (and very informed opinion I might
add) also adds, "The crank and, also, lets include the
flywheel, are the Achilles heel of the FF engine, the poor old crank
being quite happy at 3500 RPM in a road engine, then being asked to
go to almost double that in a race engine. The weight of the
flywheel is one of the biggest problems, it's inertia being one of
the biggest causes of crank failure other than crashing over the
kerbs.
I (Along with a lot of other Team owners in
the modern Championships) believe that a sensible option would be to
allow the use of a steel crank (same dimensions) and a slightly
lighter flywheel (same flywheel, material etc just machined down -
an easy job at the next engine rebuild). This is not for performance
gain but more for some bottom end reliability." He continues,"We
did a poll on who would like steel cranks and lighter flywheels with
the modern drivers. 85% were in favour".
And another; I
would support a move to steel cranks but we should go for cast steel
cranks and not billet steel cranks as the cast ones from the photo's
I have seen are identical to the iron cranks so no power advantage
would be gained. What about the weight limit of the crank? If we do
go for steel cranks we should have an approved supply of them so we
are all using the same thing, plus we could bulk order and all get a
discount.
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