Glynn Allen Blogspot: Donington Historic Festival 2012

RAC Woodcote Trophy Pre 56 Sports cars 5th May & Pre63GT. 6th May

Not sure why I am standing like that but a good pic of Steve eating while asleep.

RAC Woodocte Trophy Race Saturday Race 3.

Qualifying:-

Grid:- 29 Cars
Position:- 26th
Best Lap Time:-1.37.229
Class C3

Weather:- Very Very Cold, some showers, damp, hail stones and cold windy (Sat).

A few spots of rain during the qualifying but track OK although one car was putting a lot of fuel onto the track from a leaking petrol cap and the fuel covered my windscreen but cleared quickly.

No major issues just getting familiar with the new gear box etc.

Pleased with lap time as it was my fastest at the track.

Steve looking useful

The Race:

Position:- DNF
Best Lap:- 1.36.006

A total of 10 cars DNF and many of them in my class C3 or C3a so there was a good opportunity for those that did finish in my class to get into the first three and a class podium.

The track was slippery in parts with some oil and again fuel from one of the cars in front, but the car handled very well even with the 80L of fuel on board. This is always a problem at the start of a race as this is a lot of weight for a small engine car 2.580cc when most of the Astons are now 3L with more BHP and torque.

Its always tricky to keep the DB2 lightweight on cam, if you allow the revs to drop the car has very little torque and a mistake in the race can loose you 100m in the blink of an eye.

In the race I settled in and started to pull away from Nigel Batchelor mainly making ground from Redgate own and through Craner curves and the Old Hairpin.

On the 3rd lap something happened to the brakes going into the esses before the pit lane straight. After this the brakes either were very firm or did not work at all which was very risky. I slowed down to see what was happening but the brakes were unpredictable so I worked on the basis there was little or no braking and set off to catch Nigel who was not 300m ahead. After 2 or 3 laps I was right back on Nigel's tail and looking to get past going into Craner curves.

We both pitted at the same time I got out and Nigel was delayed for I got well in front but on lap 21 I heard a small fizz sound from the gear stick going into Redgate then at the old hairpin on the next lap there was a very loud fizz sound and a vibration from the centre of the car so I slowed down and came into the pits.

Inside of clutch bell housing

Bell Housing cracked right through

Clutch pressure plate with missing piece of metal.

A small piece of metal came off the clutch pressure plate and then jammed which also damaged the starter motor.

You would think game over for the following day Pre 63 GT race but the team at Wren Motor sport had a spare clutch and plates but the spare bell housing was back in Dorset. After a drive back to collect the parts and then back to Donington the Wren team got the car back together again and finished at 2.00 am in the morning.

Darron as keen as ever.

Not only did they do this work they also sorted out the front brakes and a leaking hose which worked very well the following day in qualifying for race 10.

PRE 63 GT Race 10. 60 Mins.

Grid :- 35 cars

Qualified:- 31st

Best Lap:- 1.37.140

After all the work over the night to get the car ready for this race I took it very easy to make sure everything was OK and to bed in the brakes which worked very well and predictably.

I was pleased with the lap time and felt after yesterday when the car was running well that a 1.34 was possible for the car which a year ago I would have said was impossible.

The car ran well just the clutch needed a little adjustment.

I was pleased with the qualifying position under the circumstances and hoped to do much better in the race.

The only thing that had stopped working was the temperature gauge but we could live with that as the car has always been OK temp wise.

Some Of the Cars in the Pre 63 GT race:-

The Race:-

DNS

On the way to the assembly area the car was good but while parked and getting ready to start it was noticed water was pouring out of the radiator. On inspection by Daron it was noticed there was a crack at the top of the radiator and water was shooting out, Daron added some rad seal and it stopped the flow.

Pre 63 GT assembly radiator just gone.

The problem was I had no temp gauge working due to the previous day so if the rad seal failed under racing conditions and I lost the water the engine could be destroyed what would be crazy based on the cost of a new engine so I decided to pull out of the race and got out of the car.

I watched a bit of the race from Redgate and it looked good fun especially as the weather had improved with warmer conditions and blue skies.

I don't seam to have much look at Donington but that's racing and next time hopefully things will all come together but I now believe a 1.33.00 lap time is possible in good conditions so it will give me something to aim for next time.

A few pictures I took of the Pre 63 GT Race from Redgate