Porto Masters Festival

[HRSTR5]

If the track is as you describe Marcus, then I'm unlikely to need very much at all ... never raced a street circuit before, I may be somewhat off the pace!

[Marcus Mussa]

dont worry it is not that bad! - just a couple of quick corners on the return section that need r e s p e c t! The centre section should be fun in a FJ.

[delta]

you dip stick James what do you think you pay me am this money forJust biked around the track yes they have change it a bit to give us more room.Been recognised by the locals as they were all shouting,waiving and bibbigng their horns at me. Although might of been because I was cycling the wrong way against the traffic

[delta]

So far so good.P6 for me and HRTR5 "James Owen"P10. Marcus Mussa front hub broke so we are having a go at fixing it now. You will all be pleased to know its now raining.Paddock and grids a bit light but we are having a good time.Not sure if i fit in at the posh 5 star hotel but what the heck its free.They dont seem to have a bike rack out side Mike.Drinks on the house tonight but I had better behave.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

So far so good.P6 for me and HRTR5 "James Owen"P10. Marcus Mussa front hub broke so we are having a go at fixing it now. You will all be pleased to know its now raining.Paddock and grids a bit light but we are having a good time.Not sure if i fit in at the posh 5 star hotel but what the heck its free.They dont seem to have a bike rack out side Mike.Drinks on the house tonight but I had better behave.

Sounds good.

If Marcus needs anyone to fly out with spare parts I'm sure there will be volunteers ...

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by delta

Not sure if i fit in at the posh 5 star hotel but what the heck its free.They dont seem to have a bike rack out side Mike.Drinks on the house tonight but I had better behave.

What? They call themselves 5 star and they don't have a bike rack? Take it up to your room like I always did. Perhaps they will serve a 'Mallory' breakfast to compensate

Don't worry it's raining here as well which is just in time for wombledon of course.

Enjoy the free booze. Just toasted you all with a Leffe.

[SAMD]

Originally Posted by grantp

Sounds good.

If Marcus needs anyone to fly out with spare parts I'm sure there will be volunteers ...

What! Grant, I am shocked! you make it sound as if you want to leave the bosom of your loving family!

[HRSTR5]

Iain reckons he'd have slept better in his faithful truck! But for his 5 star experience he not only washed and shaved but he found a clean shirt too!

It seems that all 4 cars under the Delta awning are now back together, Marcus is on track, Brian Mitcham's U2 is warming up outside, after the engine went back in for the ??4th?? time - no hoist, Iain and Martin weight-training with a six foot bar.

There's an onboard lap of the circuit now on YouTube, search under 'tr5aus' if you want to see what it looks like.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Are the lap times available anywhere?
4 FJs from Oz have made the trip, Kim, Bill, Tony & Roger, trust they are doing OK

[delta]

Hi Andrew your boys are in good spirits as usuall.We are helping them now as there has been a couple of overnight engine swops. I seem to off picked up the Aussie language very well and am fluent.Martin and I have got the saying "bozzi" of to a tee. Christian was leading his class then did a Rowley "i managed it three times "missed the first chicane.He finnisged 4th. I lost my brakes" and slipped from 5th down to 8th but the little Lotus running well. James had a good race also but Marcus has dropped a valve on the McClaren so his weekend is run. Flipping hot sorry. Happy fathers day.Will report in later after 2nd race. BTW I have put on 1Kilo all this free food but what the eck.As Mollett said Im on Holiday

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

BTW I have put on 1Kilo all this free food but what the eck.As Mollett said Im on Holiday

Good job you are doing all this heavy weight lifting stuff wth engines Iain. Imagine how much weight gain there would be without that!

Good luck to everyone in race 2 and commiserations to Marcus.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Thanks Delta, I'd heard that Roger Ealand was taking his engine out of the Koala but was having a great time. What the hell have they been teaching you? Dont believe a word Roger says and as for Bill, enuf said!
I'm looking forward to Silverstone in a month when I hope to catch up with one or two old friends!

[delta]

Forgot to mention Benn Simms who finnished second in the FJ race including a drive through.Me and him were both on row 3 but after the start did not see him again. Brilliant driver and smashing family.I used to race against his Dad.

[HRSTR5]

I got two finishes in a row ... that's practically unheard of, and hopefully signs that we might be getting the car sorted after all - thanks to Delta and Martin. It's always a bit disappointing to go backwards in any race, and i did that twice here, the simple fact is that with Friday's quali turning wet i must have put in an unrepresentatively good time early on, and was probably further up the grid (10th) than i should have been, so in both races i got shuffled back to where i probably should have been in the first place! Finished both in 13th, but went 7 secs quicker yesterday, then another 2 secs quicker today. 10th overall on aggregate.

Unfortunately Iain retired the Lotus from what sounds like a great 4-way battle for 3rd, when it started to overheat.

Aussie Kim Shearn had an interesting weekend - blew head gasket on Friday, repaired it, burned 3 pistons in Race 1, dropped his spare engine in (which he had thought was down on power), and blasted his way from the back of the grid to finish 4th in Race 2.

Benn Simms was fantastic - he lapped me in both races (err ... yes, we are in pretty similar cars ... but please can we keep quiet about that?!) I tried to hang with him for a corner or two, to learn, but rapidly gave up through lack of talent or courage ...

Sitting at the airport now, the Delta truck is all packed up and ready to roll as soon as they can get out of the track.

Good meeting, circuit is fun, and organisers make a big effort - shame the grids were poor - FJ was largest grid with 23 cars. Beautiful clear skies today and a big crowd of spectators on every free vantage point, but not too many in the paying grandstands... It was all televised, so hopefully we'll be able to find footage somewhere ... oh, and the Grid/Podium/Promo girls were all stunning ...!

[grantp]

Great update James - thanks.

Sounds like you had a pretty good event all in all. Enjoying it is the important thing, along with heading home damage free.

[Marcus Mussa]

Porto was fun. We spent a week there before the race and had a great time visiting - it is a lovely city and the locals are very friendly. Track was fun although I did not do many laps. We had a hub failure on only the second lap of free practice, which John fixed brilliantly with three well placed screws and Loctite - qualifying went ok except I got orange flagged because of the smoky exhaust! The smoke signal was obviously trying to tell us something because then the valve dropped on lap 3 of the first race. Now another race to get it all ready for the Silverstone Classic. At least I got in a few laps which I can put on youtube as soon as I get a chance!

[Andrew Fellowes]

Marcus are there any results sheets available anywhere? I gather you were not the only dnf as just been chatting to Roger and I gather he flooded his engine before the start, all that way .....

[MartinSmith]

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to you all.

Porto was great I thought....maybe it was the sunshine (dont mention the rainy bit) or maybe it was the usual Masters Mood...but i thought it was a great meeting considering this was a VERY demanding place to race.

As always (as was in Barcelona) the local Clerks commented on the great standard of driving from the competitors and although this meeting was probably a "tester" for WTCC for them, for us, it was a great meeting with some fantastic tussles. Some of the clearing was difficult and we apologise for the delays, all I can say is, its a street circuit....not an established circuit...some things are difficult ...such is the nature of the beast.

Well done to all who went and particulary for Rons team who somehow managed to repair the mini that went through the chicane blocks soo quickly

[Marcus Mussa]

Originally Posted by Andrew Fellowes

Marcus are there any results sheets available anywhere? I gather you were not the only dnf as just been chatting to Roger and I gather he flooded his engine before the start, all that way .....

Results seem to be on the Masters Historic Racing website (under event information) although I cannot get the pdf file to open right now (my computer has dropped a valve).
Dont know what happened to Roger in the race. I know he fixed his earlier problem before the race, and it was not even an all nighter as he finished at 23.00 on Saturday.
The Grid Girls were a good feature and should definitely become a fixture of Masters events in my opinion. I thought we had to line up on the grid in front of the one we each found the most attractive but apparently one had to line up in grid order. I went to the wrong place and created havoc.

[Newall Andy]

Originally Posted by Marcus Mussa

Results seem to be on the Masters Historic Racing website (under event information) although I cannot get the pdf file to open right now (my computer has dropped a valve).
Dont know what happened to Roger in the race. I know he fixed his earlier problem before the race, and it was not even an all nighter as he finished at 23.00 on Saturday.
The Grid Girls were a good feature and should definitely become a fixture of Masters events in my opinion. I thought we had to line up on the grid in front of the one we each found the most attractive but apparently one had to line up in grid order. I went to the wrong place and created havoc.

I moved up two slots ( is that the correct term ) on the starting grid, as the next row up had better girls. I was spotted and moved back.... shame the two guys in group C cars next to me didnt when they jumped the start by a mile, still hay ho !

[johngee]

Originally Posted by Newall Andy

... shame the two guys in group C cars next to me didnt when they jumped the start by a mile, still hay ho !

We had several pairs of eyes and slow motion replay CCTV in race control. Are you sure where the actual startline was? Sorry if you felt that you were disadvantaged.

[Newall Andy]

Originally Posted by johngee

We had several pairs of eyes and slow motion replay CCTV in race control. Are you sure where the actual startline was? Sorry if you felt that you were disadvantaged.

I dont mind.. get them next time around.

Great weekend and im back there again in two weeks time with the WTCC !.

A.

[delta]

Back home so here is FJ race 2 report.I finnished 8th in first race with no brakes but we started race 2 where we qualified so I was back in P6 on the grid. Before the race started P2 Adam Sykes exhaust fell off on warm up lap. Must get him to join 10/10ths and post what happened next as the marshall picked up the hot exhaust and gave it back to him.There he was in his Lotus 22 with a piping hot silencer on his lap.Anyway back to the race,brilliant start again but then so did everyone else and Adam's Dad John Sykes" Syko" got the jump on me so I was back to P6 as we arrived at the first corner.The next couple of laps were brilliant as we had a 5 car battle for 3rd place as the two young hot shots had dissapeared into the distance.I got clobbered by the guy behind me going up towards the Church left hander. I heard his brakes lock, looked into my mirror ,pulled over to give him room but he just touched my rear L/H wheel and I half spun but got away with it and carried on chasing the pack.We quickly caught them up by now"I know this is a bit of a cliche but they were holding me up".I had changed the gears and me and Martin went through the set up on our car did a few tweeks and flipping eck it was going well!!!.Chap behind who hit me was on my tail again so I pulled my finger out got pass next car so now back to 5th.We are now on the 4th lap and the water temp is creeping up so I keep looking and sure enough it gets higher and higher.Decision time??? Do I.
A.Think its probally the guage as oil pressure and oil temp are ok and carry on arry flatters.
B.Back off and let the engine cool down but then whats the point.
C. Pull in pits and retire.
Went for C. I was still chuffed as we now have got a competitive FJ and I had had a great time.So live to fight for another day.
This was a brilliant weekend.thanks to Masters for inviting the FJ's.
If its run again you must come. Thank you Porto.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Originally Posted by Newall Andy

I moved up two slots ( is that the correct term ) on the starting grid,

You would! (appropriate term I'm sure.)

Marcus thanks for that I'll check it out. Roger flooded his engine and it wouldn't re-ignite.

[Marcus Mussa]

Here is the film of Porto - this time I put the entire race, but don't worry, it doesn't last long...
Marcus

http://youtu.be/V7GouH37UHA