I got a call from Rich at Power Station last Thursday to tell me that everything had now been installed but there was a problem with the crankshaft pulley in that it only had tooth timing teeth. He thought that it looked like two more teeth had been machined off, but a check around the other Y10 Turbos in my collection showed that they all came with just the two teeth. He dropped the engine down a little so the pulley could be removed with the intention of having more teeth machined into it. The next call came last Saturday, the pulley was made of some really crap metal and was mullahed! Another pulley was needed. I suggested that as it doesn't need to be a pulley - the Y10 has neither alternator or water pump to drive - why not machine up a proper wheel for timimg only. It was suggested that this should only take a day or two at the local machine shop. All week long I was hoping for the call which would tell me how great the Y10 was running, but on Friday I got the call that the new wheel still hadn't been made. So no Oulton Park for the Y10 then.

Of course there was always the Alfasud. During practice at the ill-fated meet at Mallory Park two weeks ago, I had found big problems with the brakes. They seemed even more lacking in feel than usual, and were pulling badly too - they were fine at Lydden Hill two weeks earlier but now they were horrible. At the end of the Esses it was difficult to take a line through the double bend as I never knew where on the track I would be at the turning in point, and at the hairpin I almost hit Neil Smith from behind when I couldn't slow as quickly as he expected.

New brake pads were ordered - I wasn't convinced by the Green Stuff pads we had fitted at Croix so a few calls were made to see what other people used on Alfas - and a set of Ferodo pads ordered for the front, standard Alfa rear pads also ordered just to be sure. I managed to arrange someone to come round on Thursday to change the pads for me, but then got the bad news that some of the calipers had seized! He had managed to free the rears and the offside front was OK but a replacement was needed for the nearside. So Friday's task was to locate a caliper. I called all the local specialists but they either didn't have one, or were away at Goodwood's Festival of Speed. I then called all the local motor factors who also came up blank - until I found Rob at Bucks Auto Components. When I explained that I needed the caliper today, he sprung into action, made a few phone calls and located one in Luton. It was too late to get it delivered to Aylesbury, so he arranged for it to be delivered to another factor in Leighton Buzzard! I know he was trying to help me and I guess Leighton Buzzard was probably a slightly better choice than Luton on a Friday afternoon - I was very grateful anyway. I was told the caliper would have been delivered by 3:30 so at 4:00 I arrived in Leighton Buzzard to find that it hadn't turned up and the lorry had gone out without it. The guy there kicked butt down the phone and was told they would bring it straight over, but that was another 45 minutes wasted. By the time I got back to the Alfasud it was 18:00. My mechanic was waiting was some even better news - he had started removing the driveshaft to change the caliper and found that the near side hub was completely sh*gg*d -and no way was I going to get one of those on a Friday evening.

So that was that for this weekend - 2 race cars, neither of them fit to run, so no appearance at Oulton Park for Nyssa Racing. This was particularly galling as I had gone to the trouble of visiting Oulton last month to get some laps in with the Toyota On Track promotion and was feeling confident that the instruction I received that day would be worth a least a second or two off my lap times.

Practice times.

Results.

Read the official race report.

Visit the Le Mans Motorsport site for details of the Le Mans Auto-Italia championship and standings so far.

Check out the current points standing