You drove very well Iain. A pity about the broken bracket which cost us over an hour. If we'd done 19 laps in that hour we would have been top 12......If.
A thoroughly enjoyable weekend and glad to hear Charles Gillett is OK, albeit in poor shape.
Quote:
Originally Posted by delta
Back home now. Like you Sam cant wait until next year. I have had a very privileged year, Monaco, Le mans, Goodwood but for sure this meeting is the best.
We only lost one car Brabham BT 2 FJ. "could be ex Roy James " but its not.Broken cam shaft. We had a E Type in 6 hour along with Cooper Maserati and a couple of Sports 2000 in HSCC races. All finished. Happy days.
So for my 6 hour story.Go back to Members meeting and FISC Racer sometimes known as Richard Evens asked me if I would be interested in sharing his Marcos. "Daft question ". Did not here from him for some time as it was not known whether regular partner was driving or not. Anyway few weeks back I got the call and deal was done.
Richard went out and set a great time in Qualy. After a few laps he was in with fan belt missing. Me and his crew replaced fan belt " good job I have mechanics fingers" sure was hot.I then got sent out in pitch black dark having never driving this car.
It was a bit daunting I can tell you. Lights being flashed , yellow flags, blue flags flipping heck. Settle down Rowley, I soon realized that the blue flag being waved was not for me but cars in front of me as this Marcos is blooming quick, "happy days "and get out of my way. I was still some way of Richards pace but after a couple of laps Qualy was red flagged so I pitted and was told by pit crew to pull my finger out. That was good for me to have a rest and think about car and track ,gears braking points ect.
Green light and I got a couple more laps and got down to two seconds of Richards best time.
All good and Richards team prepped the car for the race. Richard started and drove well for an hour running P2 in class and made his way up the leader board. Pit stop and Alternator hanging off. Bracket broken that is bolted to the block.We all set too getting broken parts off and of coarse this is now a very hot engine.
We needed a mig welder and would you believe it the Dutch team next door were welding up their TVR chassis. We were loaned the mig welder then the wire got tangled inside. I was going to do the welding but Mike from the team pushed me out the way and got stuck in and did a great job. The boys fitted bracket and alternator back on but on starting the red light was on so they had to then swap alternator. They did a great job but we lost nearly an hour.
I got sent out for around two hours and just had so much fun. I remember coming up to a gaggle of four cars and was thinking I am going pass them one by one then thought "sod it ". somehow i passed all four under braking at the bust stop.I had a good old ding dong with a couple of Elans and a Morgan plus four,not sure if Mike was in the car or not.I had to pit early as we had a bit of oil surge the boys topped her up and Richard let me carry on. After a few more laps the water temp started to go up as I went around some of the slow corners so I pitted again and with race gloves and a rag got the cap of topped up header tank and Richard went of to fuel up and finish the race.
He was overjoyed to finish as we all were, Champagne was sprayed and lots of hugs and pats on the back as this was his first finish in six years of trying. I have just looked at results and we were 3rd in class. "sounds good"
Be great to go again next year, I really did enjoy driving the car.
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