Weddings and Spaceframes

The Sunday after Birmingham we put everything away for the winter.  We took all the tools out of the lorry and parked everything up out of the way.   The car was pushed straight onto the ramp for work to begin in readiness for the NEC.    One of the reasons I like doing the NEC is that it means we get stuck in and get the car ready and don’t find ourselves with a week to go before the first meeting and a car that’s only half built!

With the car on the ramp I took the panels off leaving me with just the spaceframe.   I made a mistake really this season in that every time I damaged a panel I would send it back and get it repaired.   This is great in theory and the repairs were really good quality but I just kept on adding so much weight to the car that I ended the season with a car weighing 740 kilos . . . . the minimum weight allowed being 700!   So with tears in my eyes at the thought of the expense a new set was ordered from Mark at Boss and is now ready to collect and get painted.

While the panels are off we have a few little jobs we want to do.    As everything is off and easy to work on it’s a good time to check everything over too.   The spaceframe was filthy with bits of the Rosegreen pits still clinging on to everything, so we loaded it onto one of our recovery trucks and took it into work to give it a good jet-washing off.   We lifted it straight off with the forklift and I spent a good couple of hours with the pressure washer making it look presentable again.

Having it at work also gave me chance to start it and let it run.    As you know it got warm at Birmingham and I have had that nagging doubt in my mind ever since that it might have done some lasting damage, but after running it up to temperature and connecting the fan up it started to cool down as it should.   Good news all round really.

The big ‘wheel building’ session is finally underway too.   Running the car with odd wheels annoys me and we are repairing everything and sorting them all into sets so the car can always have matching wheels.   The spares are getting sorted too and I’m determined to use the break to try and get everything organised!

As I mentioned before, last Saturday was my friends’ Carl and Laura’s wedding.   It was here that I made two terrible mistakes.    The first one was saying I could drink more than Gavin and Shaun - I now have to eat humble pie and admit that I can’t.    My second error was thinking that you bounce when you’re drunk!   Unfortunately you don’t and my black eye, cut face and large blood loss prove this!  Apart from me getting ridiculously drunk it was a really good night, and all the best to both Carl and Laura.   I can’t remember anything after 12 o’clock but I have never felt as ill as I did on the Sunday morning!   I’m sure anyone who was there will have great pleasure in filling you in on all the details though.   Shaun’s wife Carrie even offered to do this blog for me so as not to miss any of the embarrassing events out . . .

It’s back in the garage this week to press on with the car before the panels arrive - it’s going to be Christmas before we know it and then the NEC will be upon us shortly after that.   I’ll be back next week to look back over how the year has gone for me.

Thanks as ever for reading

Mikey

The Last Meeting

I love Birmingham Wheels; no matter what sort of meeting I have it’s my favourite track so I was thrilled that the last meeting of the year was there.   We had very little to do to the car from Hednesford and apart from changing the diff and fitting the tyres it was just set-up work and checking everything was ok.

We arrived at the track in time for practice and I went out and had a couple of runs just to make sure everything was as it should be.    I know I keep saying this but the car was easily the best it’s ever been.   It is such a pleasure to drive.   I often wonder just how good it would be with a half decent driver behind the wheel!

I was starting in the middle group again all night and being so low down the points I’m really just not worried about results anymore, I’m going to enjoy my racing and make the most of every lap out there whether I’m first or last.    I was outside for the first race and once again the car was brilliant and I finished ninth so picked up a few points.

The second race wasn’t quite so successful.   Things were going well enough to begin with and I was up in the top ten.    A pack of us came into turn one and I got pushed onto the rumble strips and spun.   Luckily I went round and ended up right tight to the bank on the inside of the bend and off the track.   That was the end of that race . . . but never mind.

As I was sitting on the start line for the final I noticed the temperature slowly rising on the car.  Normally the fan cuts in and cools it straight back down again, but for some reason this time it didn’t - and I couldn’t turn it on with the switch either.   The warm-up laps cooled it down a bit but it started to rise again as we sat waiting for the green flag.    With a stoppage on the first bend and a complete restart it just kept climbing, and as the green flag dropped for a second time the warning light came on telling me that it was just too hot to drive.   I gave it another lap hoping the air rushing through would start to cool it but it didn’t.    I pulled off into the middle bringing my racing for 2011 to a close.

It’s been a pretty mixed year for me overall with some obvious high points, but there have been some pretty rough times too.   I guess that’s racing though and you can’t have it all ways. The car is now in the workshop and everything is stripped off it.   My plan is to get it rebuilt ready for the NEC then spend some time afterwards playing with set-ups etc and see what we can learn.   I also fancy a few nights off - I reckon we’ve been in the workshop every night for the last two months!   One of my good friends Carl is getting married this weekend so I’m heading across to stay with Gavin so I can go and celebrate this happy event with them.

I’m pretty sure this entry marks a complete year of blog writing now.   I just want to thank every single person who reads it and everyone who has a part to play in my racing.  There is far too many to thank individually, but I really do appreciate everything everyone does for me.  I’ve no intention of stopping and will be back next week to tell you what we are planning with the car.   I’m going to look back over the 2011 season for a couple of weeks after that and then you’ll be able to hear what happens when a group of us head over to the east coast for my birthday.   That should be a lively weekend!

Thanks as ever for reading.

Until next time

Mikey

Plenty of Fireworks

As soon as I was back from Ireland it was out into the garage again every night getting the car ready for Hednesford.   There was nothing major to do, just some bent suspension and all the usual checks, along with lots of cleaning to get it looking somewhere near presentable again.  Everything considered it had very little damage and we didn’t have to rush too much to get it all sorted.

Because of the fireworks in the evening the meeting didn’t start until three, leaving us waiting around for what felt like days before the racing actually got started.   It was a really nice day with clear skies and no sign of rain, bloody freezing though!

My results from Foxhall meant I started further back on the grid and the first heat saw me in the middle of the second pack.   It didn’t get off to a very good start and I soon found myself towards the back of the field.   I just started to get going again and hunt the pack back down when there was an accident going down the back straight, and cars went flying off everywhere.   I slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a stop on the infield completely unscathed.   I went to pull away and race again only to have both the marshal and the stewards tell me that I had to pull off from the race.   It’s a decision I still can’t really get to the bottom of and have been trying to figure out ever since, but this was never meant to be about politics so we’ll leave it at that...   Thanks to Les though who managed to calm me down enough to at least talk reason!

The second race was a bit of a disaster too if I’m honest.    I was starting in the middle again and due to nothing but errors on my car I found myself at the back again.   The car was going well though, and by the end of the race I was back on the pace.  It was ‘too little too late’ though and I finished out of the points.

I started the final at the front of the third group, it seems along way back starting there and hats off to the boys who do it week in week out and come through the pack.   It’s a little bit beyond me at the minute!   The final was a much better race and although there was lots of carnage and cars strewn everywhere I finished in twelfth and had a few good battles along the way.    How I didn’t hit Paff head on as we came out of turn four I’ll never know - luck must have really been on my side for once.    Saying that, we finished with a few points and a straight car, so we live to fight another day!

Due to having possibly the world’s longest truck and trailer combo we were well and truly wedged in the pits after the final so stayed to watch the fireworks.   It was a very impressive display and a credit to whoever organised them.    All in all a day ‘best forgotten’ and I left the track in a pretty foul mood . . .  one that carried on for several days!

To change the subject completely, the Saturday night before racing saw a group of us head off to Slough to go ‘Ice Go-Karting’ for 2 litre racer Brendon Smith’s birthday.    It’s just like normal karting except it’s on an ice rink and the karts are fitted with studded tyres for grip.   There were ten of us and we split into two groups of five and each group had two fifteen minute sessions.   Our group spelt disaster before we even started with Jason Kew, Brendon, Mike Edwards, Jason’s mechanic Dave and me all taking to the ice together.

After watching the first group it was time for us to have a go and it was pretty wild from the start with cones and karts flying off everywhere.   It wasn’t long before we were all stopped, told to keep on the track and calm down a bit.   We finished the session with no major drama and returned to the sidelines to watch the others go again.    We went the other way round the track for the next session and everything was going very well; nobody hit each other and the cones remained mainly untouched for the next ten minutes.    Everything changed in the last five minutes though and as we all bunched back up together it turned into a Demolition Derby.     There were cones and karts everywhere and the session was ended when Jason, Brendon and I came into a corner together and Jason and I ended up having a head on followed by Brendon turning me into the wall up the straight.   I can honestly say I have never laughed at anything quite so much and I’m laughing typing about it now - it was a complete riot and you really should try it!

We are now back in the workshop again and getting ready for the last meeting of 2011.    We don’t have much to do, just the usual checks.    Luck must have been on our side somewhat though as when we lifted the bonnet the belt on the dry sump system was literally hanging off and that would have been an expensive and messy disaster had that come off during the final!

Thanks as ever for reading.

See you on Saturday

Mikey

It’s a long way to Tipperary

This is one of those blogs where I just don’t know where to start!   There is literally so much I could tell you about.   The racing might not have gone to plan but what a laugh we had along the way - and I’m sure the European Championship 2011 is going to be a weekend I’ll never forget.

It all started Thursday lunch time when my Aunt and I set out with the trailer to meet team Murray in a lay-by on the side of the A14.  The car was swapped into Gav’s lorry and the long slog to Holyhead began.  Within the first hour it was obvious we were going to have a laugh all weekend and the banter helped make the seemingly endless trip fly by.    There were five of us making the trip; Gavin, his dad Graham, the mechanic and general comedian Carl, Mr ‘Cattermoles of Ipswich’ Andrew Bigmore and myself.

We encountered our first issue when we arrived at the port and possibly the most miserable woman in the world refused to let us on the boat because they had raised the decks.   After several more trips to her little kiosk the answer was still a firm “No”.    So that was us stuck on the side of the dock for the next 6 hours until we could get the next boat to Dublin at 2.30am.  We did what any group of guys having to wait for 6 hours would do. . . we went for a Chinese (one of the best I have ever had) and slept!

The ferry journey passed a pretty uneventful few hours.   We had a couple of beers and lost a few quid in the fruit machines and tried our best to sleep.    We docked at quarter to six and drove to Clonmel to check into the hotel.   Gav hadn’t slept at this point and had driven from one side of England to the other, been on the ferry and then driven half way across Ireland!

At the hotel it was straight off for breakfast, get the bags into the rooms then off to the bar, where we remained for the next 12 hours!    It was in truth really nice to do nothing for a day and I can’t remember the last time I sat in a bar having a drink in the afternoon.    Kym Weaver and his team were in the hotel too and we spent the rest of the day just having a few drinks, or a lot of drinks, depending on how you look at it!    We ended the evening with a few Jager bombs that I can still taste now and headed up to bed nice and early.

After getting everything sorted Saturday morning we had breakfast, checked out of the hotel and headed straight to the track.   We arrived just as they were opening the gates, got parked up and unloaded the cars.   There was a very long wait then before practice began.   As soon as I drove onto the track it became apparent how awesome it is.   The speed you carry is unbelievable and the straights seem to go on and on.    The banked corners are good, meaning you can carry so much speed through the bend and literally just floor it half way through the turn.

The meeting finally got underway and I lined up for my first heat.   I was starting near the back and all the races were a rolling start, an idea that I thought was really good.   When the lead car got to a set point on the track the green flag dropped.   Everyone knew when it was going to be and there was no jump starts.   The race was going well for me - I was at the back but challenging the cars around me.  My car was flying and then the driver’s door came off!   It went up in the air like a kite and luckily came to rest on the outside of the corner where it remained untouched for the rest of the race.

Understandably I was told to pull off and that was my race over.   Gav had been flying in that race and finished with a 4th. 

The second heat was to be no better for me either.   Things had been going well and I’d been trying to make some passes work on the outside but seemingly got turned into the wall every time I tried.   I wasn’t to finish this race either as a spin coming out of turn four left me parked on the centre green.

With my heats over I was able to watch Gav in his second race.    Once again he was flying and making good progress up the grid . . . only for his race to end in disaster too when he got run into the wall taking all the outside suspension out in the process.

Gav and his team rushed to get the car repaired and we both headed out for the championship race. I was starting last and Gav was somewhere mid pack.   It all ended in disaster for me after about three laps when the rose joint in the bottom arm snapped causing me to hit the fence.   Luckily I was hard on the brakes and managed to slow it down enough for the damage to be minimal, but it was still another championship I was out of, meaning I’m still waiting to actually finish one!    Gav finished the race and came home with a 7th.    After the race was over we set about getting my car rolling again so we could load up and get going – we had a ferry to catch.    It was nothing a few hammers and swear words wouldn’t sort out, and although we lost a lot of time and it was like working in a swamp, we did get it in the lorry and headed off to catch the ferry.

The trip home was as funny as the trip there and a valuable lesson were learnt; don’t fall asleep in the presence of Gavin Murray!    I won’t go into the reasons why.   Even when we arrived back at the motorway services to meet my Dad the car had one more trick to play.     The strap holding it in broke and it came hurtling out of the back of Gav’s truck and halfway across the car park!

All in all another great weekend with my mates and another experience and ambition fulfilled.   Sadly I didn’t get the finish I so badly wanted and Gav didn’t have the luck he deserved either but I can still say I’ve been across and done it, learnt from it and enjoyed the experience.   No doubt I’ll be back again!

Massive thanks to Gavin, Carl, Graham and Andrew for putting up with me, helping me and making it possible for me to do it.   Thanks to everyone else who offered to help and everyone who just came over for a chat.   There is so much more I could tell you about the trip but most of it is completely unprintable!

I’ll see you all at Hednesford.

Mikey