Snetterton, 30 March 2008
New season, new engine (again) and a whole load of new people to race with. But even with the kappa being out of action since last May, various considerations (mostly financial) meant that we didn't get the kappa back home until a week before the event. Auto Integrale had built a nice new engine with only the head and cams salvagable from the last engine. But with no time for a new mapping session, we went with what we had. Other changes to the car were minimal, there was a new intercooler which would hopefully act less like a radiator blind than the previous one, and also a rethink of the way the cooling system working. The manual water pump was now back in place, the fan switch now also switched in the electric pump as well to increase water flow.
Other considerations meant checking over the car didn't start until Friday evening, which is when panic set in. The transponder had gone for a walk, which was frustrating but not the end of the world, we could always borrow/hire one, but the fire extinguisher was causing more concern. Mindful of warnings that the fire extinguisher would be a scrutineer focus, and knowing full well the extinguisher in the kappa had not been recharged since purchase, it would have been sensible to have it recharged in plenty of time. But I figured I had a brand new one sat in the Calibra, so easier just to swap them over. A great idea, except that Lifeline have changed the design of the canister some time in the last 4 years, the bottle is a few cms shorter than the old. No worries, just swap over the bracket that holds them in place, only the screws would not turn and I was in danger of rounding the heads. In the end I fitted the new shorter canister to the kappa even though it did not fully locate in the bracket. Would the scrutineers object?
Winter shopping had seen a stockpile of tyres built up, 44 ex-Simon Blanckley slicks, and another dozen from Mat Jackson, along with a set of Mat's wet tyres from 2007. The weather forecast was rain, lots of it, so the kappa was sat on the wets in preparation.
Saturday morning and it was time to do the final small jobs, refit the boot spoiler (we had hoped to revert to the 2004 spec smaller spoiler but couldn't find the bolts) fit the camera mount (now right in front of the windscreen) and fit the transponder which turned up in the same safe hiding space I placed it last October! And then off to Snetterton ready for the morning.
We awoke to unexpected dry weather, not what had been promised by the BBC at all. With the clocks going forwards, a 7:25am sign-on time was less than ideal, a trip to the scrutineers for 7:30am (and a curfew which meant we weren't supposed to start the engines), the morning could have started better. But pole position for signing on, followed by an early slot in the scrutineering bay (and the realisation that everyone sensibly ignored the curfew) made the experience less painful than it might have been. The scrutineer even passed the extinguisher with just advice to tape up the clamps so they didn't come undone over any bumps! But it was still about 8:20 when I got back to the garage and then set about changing over to slicks. Time was short, we were due in qualifying at 9:00am, I joined the queue for noise testing almost spot on 9am, there seemed to be a hold up but the last few cars (and the kappa was the very last) were waved through without testing and straight into the pit lane.
Qualifying:
Qualifying didn't go so well, I followed Fergus Trenholme out of the pit lane and round the first two corners before stretching the kappa's legs down Revett Straight, first passing Fergus and then later, John Waples's Porsche 911 Turbo. An easy run through the bottom end of the circuit (tyres still cold) and then another blast up the start-finish straight saw us catching up with Peter Challis' Primera, we passed Jason Newman's Peugeot just before Riches as Challis passed Alex Heynes' BMW M3 in front. We followed Alex through Sear and then blasted past down the Revett straight. Building up a little more speed this time through the Esses and on to the Bomb Hole, I had time to notice the kappa was running rather smokily (again), but just as this registered, the back end of the kappa jumped out left and we were on our way to a very rapid 270 degree spin at the Bomb Hole. The front splitter dug out a chunk of the infield grass area (cracking the front bumper) and as we came round to 180 degrees I could see a pack of cars approaching fast. This wasn't good!
The kappa stopped at 270 degrees, broadside across the track and facing the outfield, then there was a bang, the kappa went upwards and I thought it might roll before levelling out again. I got out and saw Mal Davison's Noble parked under the back of the kappa, our back wheel resting on his windscree, thank goodness Mal's car is RHD and he was away from that side. When the marshals came to clear up, a couple of small oil puddles were visible so it looked like the kappa may have spat out some oil onto the rear tyres causing the spin. Back in the paddock we could find no sign of the leak, but felt better to pull out of the day's proceedings rather than risk our new engine. We will spend time checking over the engine and getting a remap before we come back out again.
Race 1:
Nick Williamson led from start to finish, but it was far from an easy win. A poor starting Richard Gould finished lap 1 in 5th place and took a few laps to recover. By lap 6 Gould was on the move, up into 3rd place but nearly 9 seconds off the front. A string of quick laps, including setting a new lap record, brought the gap down to 2.4 seconds with one lap to go. On the final lap, Gould was almost broadside out of Russell, but Williamson held on to win by 1.2 seconds. Richard Hawken (Nissan Primera) and Derek Hale (Honda Accord) were involved in a race long battle which Hawken won by 0.17 seconds to take 3rd in Class A and 4th overall.
Rhys Lloyd made a fine start from 8th on the grid to end lap 1 in 3rd place, and although he succumbed to Gould on lap 10, he too smashed the class lap record ion his way to taking his first LMA Class win. Douglas Ellwood also smashed the old lap record and got within 0.1 second of Lloyd's new record on his way to 2nd in class from Joss Ronchetti.
Angus Dawe took a comfortable Class C win from Ian Craig, while Class D saw an easy win for Julian Long, the battle for second in class being a much closer affair that eventually went to Andrew Neal from Simon Taylor.
Race 2:
Both Williamson and Gould was confident for race 2, both playing their jokers to score double points. This time Gould was even further handicapped finishing the first lap in 10th place, 11 seconds down on Williamson. The safety car caem out on lap 3 bunching all the drivers back up so the gap was down to 3.8 seconds after lap 4, but Gould still back in 9th place. Gould again chased through the pack to reach 2nd place but this time 8 seconds back from Williamson who took his second win of the day.
Starting from 3rd this time, Rhys Lloyd found himself 2nd after the first lap, a position he held until lap 10 when Gould's Noble finally got by. Lloyd fell to 4th overall two laps from the end when Rex Stamp's Lotus Exige moved up to 3rd, but Lloyd recorded his second class win of the day with Douglas Ellwood six seconds back in 5th. Angus Dawe took 8th overall and the Class C win from Ian Craig while Julian Long took the Class D win from Simon Taylor.
The joker playing Williamson and Gould head the championship after round 1 with 60 points apiece, but 2 class wins each for Lloyd (44), Dawe (42) and Long (44) give them the Class B, C and D leads.
Next time out is Oulton Park on 19 April, although at this time we do not expect to be able to attend.
In the absence of any real report of mine, take a read of David Roberts' report.
Visit the LMA site for details of the LMA Euro
Saloon and Sports Car championship and standings so far.
Check out the current points
standing.
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