I would like to first thank Mark, John and Paul for their hospitality and sharing the Barby cooker and beer and the gossip, a great night.
That was a great race the first classic thunder encounter, the Escort and the little Mazda was an awesome encounter which had an appreciative crowd on their feet applauding. Gary put up an great fight against Mark in his beautiful 4 door BMW which somehow looked a bit special compared the the usual 2 door versions. I never got to watch the 2nd encounter as I was too busy with my own problems all of which thankfully were/are minor but never the less race stopping. Comiserations to poor Laurie Dunster who for the second meeting running badly damaged his M3 but fortunately this time he personally was uninjured.
For my race(s)I went out in qually and on the first lap got past the complex and the car just cut dead at Goodwood so no time posted. I got towed back and snatched started it and no problem all running OK although by then it had also developed a clutch master cylinder problem and wouldn't disengage correctly with the pedal requiring a pump before each change. I thought the engine problem was a fuse although Cliff suggested battery cut out and he was right as it transpires.
I lined up in the first race and got the car away from the rear of the grid and made up several places then got involved in a good 4 way tussle with three E30 Bimmers but by this time Cliff was away. After some place swapping with young Mike Sheraton one of the E30's exited stage right not to be seen again but the clutch problem was getting worse and the front tyres had just simply cried enough so after a couple of hairy moments I decide to back off and just keep the remaining E30 behind me but we finished the race without too much drama and no cutting out so Magnum to Cliff. (all of video see link at bottom).
For Race 2 I bled the clutch, rehung the exhaust and put new rubber on the front and immediately noticed the rear end stepping out then after a few laps low and behold the engine started cutting out letting one of the Bimmers past so a quick fiddle with the cutout switch and it was OKish but I kept having to twist and bang it plus deal with the clutch then half way through the complex it completely cut dead and with no power it locked the steering up and I was a passenger. I tried to restart but no luck so that was it race run!
Mind you my most exciting drive was still to come, on the way home doing around 60mph I had a rear tyre blow out on the Dayvan with the race car and trailer being towed behind, it went left, it went right across several lanes before I wrestled the thing under control and managed to pull it off the road into one of those maintenance areas and changed the tyre, very scary! I see this happen on the way back from Pembrey once with a LWB land Rover towing a boat, the whole rig had spun and turned over and the roof was crushed so not to be taken lightheartedly.
Race one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ1yrWFSkec
Race 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1usbNHNUo