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EVENT REPORT
from Guy Rossler
Lydden Hill
Tunbridge Wells MC Sprint
Saturday 12 April 2003
Weather:
Started frosty (just ask Graham "Bacon Butty" ...) became Sunny and mild.
Julie and I left Bishops Stortford at about 0515, aiming to get to Lydden for about 0700. It was an uneventful run down apart from the obligatory pit stop for bladder emptying about 45 minutes into the trip. Yes, I did get out of the car.
En route again on the A2 / M2 and I could see a trailered 7 coming up from behind. None other than Robert Grigsby who we "swapped places" with on the motorway until the end of the M2. I let Robert past then, just as we came off the roundabout there as my support crew chief, Julie, was a little far behind and it wouldn't do to lose my support team on her first outing to a sprint. =8^0
We arrived in the paddock at Lydden to find Graham "Bacon Butty" Lyall (L7C competition secretary) chipping ice from tent and car
I unpacked, signed on and scrutineered. No problems there thankfully
We then set off to grab a ... bacon butty! And then walk the course.
I'd been moved to class C7 following a call with the event Secretary as I also campaign in the AEMC Sprint Championship so I was up for my practice run well before the rest of the Lotus 7 Club competitors.
Practice was uneventful until my last time out of North Bend when I missed 2nd to 3rd. The engine started misfiring badly. It's done this to me once before on the road on a missed gear. My first thoughts were that the shock from the missed gear was causing some sort of sensor problem. Anyway, I coasted around Paddock and Pilgrims and pulled off just by the marshals post by Chesson's Drift. Bugger!
(I'm sitting here writing this next to the rolling road at Emerald while Dave Walker maps the car properly. There are lots of crackles and pops!! Niiiice!)
I stopped the car and switched off. The marshals were really helpful and asked if I'd needed help recovering to the paddock. I tried restarting the car and all ran fine so they let me through a gate and I pootled back to the paddock via the spectator areas under my own steam. I had a quick chat with Mike Bees and he seemed to think the problem may be to do with the rev limiter.
They time your first lap and 3/4 (practice is 2 3/4 laps whereas the timed runs are just 1 3/4 laps) of your practice run. I think it was about 93.something or other which was way down on my 88.something or other back in October!
The car did feel very different though following the winter upgrades and I was taking things very very easy! The back end was getting much looser around Chesson's Drift and I found I had to use partial throttle much more in the corners rather than just being able to floor it! The joy of more power and above all more torque!
The time came for my first timed run. All geared up and ready to go... 1st, hit rev limiter, 2nd, NOTHING!! Damn, I'd done it again. No missed gear this time so it must have been the rev limiter causing the problem. I let the car idle for a bit hoping it would clear (this is how I remembered it clearing on the road). No, that's no good. Ignition off, back on again, restart and all was fine. I'd spent so long going slowly though that they'd red flagged me. So, that was the end of my first timed run, and because I hit the rev limiter in first it wasn't that good a start anyway.
As I pulled back into the paddock from the circuit I was knobbled by the noise test man. An opportunity to see if the Powerspeed exhaust met the grade as far as noise was concerned. At Lydden last October the seven tested at 100dB with the standard exhaust. Well, today, only 96dB (as quiet as the car has ever been) so a great result there. Thanks Powerspeed!
My support crew, Julie, was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about, just who was this idiot she'd signed for? He couldn't even complete a run!! ;^)
Anyway, at least I knew pretty much for sure where the problem lay. It was certainly something to do with the rev limiter. I wasn't too worried as I could get this looked at when I visit Emerald on Tuesday. The important thing was to stay OFF the rev limiter for the second and final timed run!
The final timed run was uneventful. I was changing well before the shift light so probably nowhere near optimum, but I wanted to complete a run. It felt very slow. Chessons is very very slippy on the first lap while the dust from the paddock is still scrubbing off the tyres and they are still cool. On the second lap I could have gone through there a lot quicker but of course hadn't had the benefit of earlier runs to work this out. I posted a 90.32, some two seconds slower than my October 2002 time but I really did pussyfoot it around. At least I had a time.
My position in the AEMC class was only fourth (my equal worst result) but at least it'd been a good learning process. Let's hope I can get the few teething problems with the upgrades sorted out and see where we go from here.
I had to wait for the final L7C runs to see where I finished in Class 2 of that championship. Well, the wait was worth it as I won the class!! By 0.1 seconds from very close rival Colin Heseltine. Colin had had a spin at Chesson's on his first timed run so took it easy on his second. His excuse, although I have to admit I think I'd need a change of underwear after a spin at Chessons. The scenery is very close and very hard there!
So all in all a satisfactory first sprint of the season. My thanks to the organisers and thanks to Graham Lyall of the Lotus 7 Cub for organising the club's participation.
Oh, and while I'm here, the car has just done a power run here at Emerald showing 142.5 bhp at the flywheel at 6,800 rpm. That was before the mapping session which is shortly to come to a close (Dave W's just ringing the engine on some power runs - that Powerspeed exhaust does sound nice). I'll let you know what the final figures are soon!
See you at North Weald on the 27th?
Guy Rossler
Useful web sites:
AEMC:
www.aemc.org.uk
Lotus 7 Club:
www.lotus7club.co.uk
Stort Valley Auto Club:
www.svac.org.uk
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