Hi list,
>From time to time I've sent this kind of e-mail to chums in my address book
but since I'm lurking on the list thought I would send it to the list.
Although there is no LBC definition I am aware of I don't image if there were
it
would include the Ford Fiesta etc so delete now if you're a purist.
I'm a tech official for British Motorsports and I'm a Brit in Britain.......
Sometimes I work a meeting with a lot of classic cars inc MG Midget races
(like later in the year) and sometimes it's whatever meeting I get invited to
work. I worked Silverstone on Saturday and Mallory Park today. I drove to
both
meetings in my Sprite but managed to keep the speed under a hundred mph for no
particular reason though the engine is about due a rebuild and isn't about to
see a new personal best on this engine.
Silverstone had 4 long races rather than lots of small ones so I didn't 'do'
as many cars as I would have liked and apart from 'its an FIA touring car'
that needed a proper oil catch tank of the correct size I didn't find much.
Someone (I think it was a Marcos Mantis but can't be certain) laid a lot of oil
in
practice and I watched about a dozen cars spin. A race driver I vaguely know
has got a works Mazda RX8 drive did really well so I was pleased for him.
There were a couple of heavy accidents later in the meet though I didn't write
the formal accident reports for them - an F40 lost a rear wheel and the
upright through a collision - expensive I guess. A flat nose 911 had a big
accident
but it was hard to say what caused the excessive neg camber on one rear wheel
other than the pick-up on the floor for the rear swinging arm had been badly
repaired. An Exige caught fire in a big way but I just saw the smoke..
Mallory today seemed to bring out a lot of tatty cars. I sent several away
for either an oil catch tank where none existed or one at least close to the
correct size. One fuel tank breather which was under a lid type arrangement,
turned out to be a hollow valve and had been like it for some time. 'Course if
the car had inverted you can guess what would have filled the car fairly
rapidly. When it came back they had a proper breather pipe rather than fit a
valve
to what looked like a standard tyre valve body. I saw a lot of out of date
fire extinguishers which I observed on, but unofficially impounded a dry powder
unit (only helmets get officially impounded along with cars where the driver
goes to hospital). A couple of cars had rear lights that didn't work properly
or at all (obligitary LBC content??) and that was about it (I did 24 cars
(twice as many as Saturday) which aside from various Fords included 1300 Fiats
and some Porsche 924s).
Racing was eventful but I missed most of the events just getting to see some
very heavily impacted cars included 2 Ford Fiestas and a couple of 924s. We
flagged a 924 for a dragging exhaust but he stayed out enough laps to get a
black flag and an invitation to meet the Clerk of the Course (he seemed
cheerful
enough later so maybe he didn't get fined). A couple of the Fiats ate their
gearboxes and an XR3i overheated badly and after the temperature got well into
the red after heat-soaking while stationary and no coolant, the driver
produced a smoke screen when he started it up and ran it for a while (to temper
the
piston crowns??).
This is my second year licensed to work on my own rather than as a trainee so
I'm still learning new things and getting sharper and faster on the job.
Next Saturday I'm working my first rally which has different rules (no
requirement for oil catch tanks I note....) so until then this is all.
Daniel1312
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