Brands Hatch and this weekend we were supporting the DTM’s (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) this weekend. As this event is major in the UK, the pickup trucks had to be at the circuit and all ready on Thursday. Chris Millett would arrive at the circuit later on the Friday and Michael Russell will arrive on Saturday morning. Thursday night and the clutch was sorted thanks to Poodles (#54) and Steven (#93).
Friday morning when I got there, we had to put all the small parts back on the pickup truck as the paint was still drying on its way to Brands Hatch. We tweaked around with the clutch all day as we were continuing to put things back on. Only had half the decals on the pickup truck before Friday practice began.
End of practice Richard was 13th fastest and just over 2 seconds slower than the fastest pace setter that was Gavin Seager (#54). Richard was pushing on all the left corners and was spinning the inner wheel on Clearways. The fan motor was also loose as one of the bolts holding it in place was missing. Got it tightened as soon as the pickup truck got back in the paddock.
Friday night we done some setup work on the rear to improve traction on Clearways and on Saturday morning we altered some of the settings on the clutch.
Saturday Race 1 and we started in the middle of the pack and was going well until Richard stopped just after Druids. When the #24 pickup truck got back in the paddock the alternator belt was snapped off along with the cam belt. As we dismantled the engine head, we found 12 bent valves. A new engine is required to get the pickup truck back out and running again. Richard and Chris Millett decided to head back to Bedford to get his old engine from last year while Michael, Chris Stubbs and I get started on removing the rest of the engine from the truck. Richard and Chris got back to Brands around 9:30pm and we fitted the engine and connected the clutch and gearbox back on by 11:30pm. We all decided to have a few drinks and relax a bit with Michael Smith’s (#93) team.
Sunday morning came and we refitted all the hoses, wires and cables back on the engine. Started it up for the first time and a lot of smoke was coming out. If I remember correctly, that’s what happened when the last time we changed an engine at Rockingham October 2006 so I was hoping all the smoke was normal. After a while the smoke stopped coming out and the engine was running smoothly.
Sunday Race 2 and the predicted thunderstorms didn’t materialise and all we got was bits of rain now and then. We were starting last because we changed an engine but we didn’t break any seals as the seal from last year was still on the old engine. The officials only asked us if we broken any seals which we didn’t. Richard was battling with Neil Tressler (#37) during the race until Richard reported of clutch problems over the radio which set him back behind the #37 truck. Richard nearly got pushed off the track by Kelly-Jayne Wells (#21) as he was letting her through but then later on Tony Mumford (#7) got a coming together with the #21 truck and Tony drove back into the pits and retired from the race. Richard finished the race 16th and behind the #37 truck in the end. After the race the #24 pickup truck was leaking clutch fluid and so will need to be sorted before the next race at Rockingham at the end of September.
A big thank you to the following teams for helping over the weekend:-
#2 Dave Briggs
#7 Tony Mumford
#9 Pete Wilkinson
#10 Chris Dawkins
#22 Nic Grindrod
#37 Neil Tressler
#54 Gavin Seager
#63 Phil White
#93 Michael Smith
#98 Antony Hawkins
See you all at Rockingham weekend beginning 26th September!
Yung
Mechanic
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