Tuscan racer Graham Walden reports on the last few rounds of the Dunlop Tuscan Challenge. This is the first part of a multi-part report.
Silverstone -- 15 April 2006
There was quite a rush after Oulton Park to get the car ready for Silverstone, with the gearbox needing changing. We do have a spare gearbox but that was actually the one in the car with our normal box already being repaired after damage was found in pre-season checks. So with the application of several hundred beer tokens, parts were sourced for the main box and that repaired. Getting that ready took a week, and then the car went to Castle Race Engines for mapping. At least that was the plan -- problems with the clutch slave cylinder, an internal one similar to a Cerbera meant the car didn’t run until the Thursday so didn’t get anywhere near a rolling road.
I picked the car up on the Thursday night and slept in the penthouse in the car park outside the main gates at Silverstone ready for Friday testing. I was looking forward to actually having a chance to do some proper testing and set the car up. Things didn’t go quite to plan. The morning was very wet and the single seater session that went out first was carnage with cars in the barriers and the gravel traps all round the circuit. Our session wasn’t much better with spinners and a Stealth destroying itself against the concrete wall of the pit straight. I managed a red flag of my own, being the only car brave/daft enough to try slicks. It was hairy but manageable until I missed a gear at Brooklands and skated gracefully into the kitty litter beached up to the floor pan.
The second session was better, and for a short period we traded fastest laps with Marc Hockin in the Griff. Towards the end of the session the times drifted off. Things got steadily worse from there and in the final session we only managed one lap. The whole team spent the night fault finding. We identified several damaged electrical components and, with these identified, Jamie and Trevor left to bring the parts in the morning and we headed to the Green Man for a pint and some food.
Race day
The following morning parts were swapped and the engine sounded better, however a quick run round the paddock pointed to all not being well. Much fiddling saw us scrutineer as the others were being called to the holding area. It was tight but we made it onto the track and qualified the car third in class, right in the middle of the grid.
Waiting for the race more diagnosis was carried out, including Pops driving the car round the paddock with Jamie hanging on to the roll bar and trying to program the ECU via the laptop as they drove around.
As everyone headed off to the holding area, I waited for the car to come back, and eventually it limped into the paddock. Pops and Jamie leapt out and I climbed in. During the swap over Pops managed to drop his mobile phone through the seat harness whole where it lodged itself. With the words “If it grenades we’ll sort it” from Jamie ringing in my ears I headed off to the track.
The cars behind me on the grid were warned that I would probably be slow away, or possibly stationary when the lights went out, Kevan was convinced my engine was going to go bang with the noises and smoke pouring from it.
The start was probably the most nervous I’ve ever had, would I get away, would it go bang, would someone drive into me… In the end it wasn’t too bad, it pulled away ok, just slowly.
Quickly I found myself at the back, running way off pace, the engine would pull for a few thousand rpm and then start to misfire. As soon as I lifted off, it would backfire and then die before struggling to pick up again. This lead to some interesting moments, effectively coasting around the corners with no power. I got a good view of all the cars as they frequently lapped me. I pitted for a couple of laps to try and save the engine -- it was a very sorry site with two blue Tuscans parked up in the pit lane. After heading back out for a few laps before the flag, the most notable event was coming into Brooklands on one lap. Pops' phone had surfaced from under the seat at Becketts and headed towards the floor mounted pedals so I was carefully moving it within reach of my hand. I picked it up as I approached the braking area, at that moment Steve Hall in the Turbo taz shot down the inside, closely followed by Tim Hood and Darren Dowling down each side, going in four abreast they all disappeared in a cloud of tyre smoke, and somehow we all appeared through the other side.
Still we took the flag very much last having been lapped about six times, but the engine was still in one piece at least we picked up a few points for a finish, but the season was starting to look very hard.
Jamie decided the best option was for him to take the car straight back to Castle Race engines and work on it ready for Castle Combe a few weeks later.
There'll be more from Graham tomorrow.
