Snetterton 19th July 2026

For the Snetterton weekend I partnered up with Shaun Ely, my mate who I normally race against but his Pugeot 205 is off being fettled at the moment (he's designed his own independent rear suspension for it!) and as he's been helping with the car we agreed for him to have a go in a Clio. I don't think he was disappointed..
So, we arrived just after 6am Sunday morning for a track walk and a chat about the car, gears, corners and strategy. The weather was looking dry and significantly cooler than recent race meetings which was welcome.

During our walk we also examined the new sausage curbs at Nelson and Murrays. The overiding message being.. Stay well clear or face drama.

Sadly, we didn't pass the message on to everyone..

Fortunately the car behaved this weekend although we were slightly hamstrung by worn tires. For the first time that I can remember our club tire supplier Adams & Page were not at the meet, meaning we couldn't get hold of any fresh rubber and our better set had one tire with a flat spot. So we chose the best of a bad bunch and had to go with it.
And, unlike Brands Indy the lack of power really showed on the straights at Snett which is much more of a power circuit.

Still, a respectable qualifying put us 14th out of 41 cars and 2nd in class.
We had a mixed grid this weekend, racing with the Turbo Tin Tops too which always makes the racing interesting. Despite the turbos they are rarely quicker than us mere NA mortals. Partly, I think down the weight and managing boost through corners etc. (so I've been told anyway)

I started the race, (a rolling start) and had a fairly successful first lap making up several places through the first 2 corners and promptly losing them again on the straights as the turbo cars powered past.

Photo credit - SJN Photography. Thanks!

This weekend we had rising BTCC star Daryl DeLeon racing with us in a Mini Cooper S in the turbo tin tops. Surprisingly we out qualified him but I found him on my bumper at the end of lap1 and had to exercise my finest defensive driving to hold him off for a few corners.

Photo credit - Matt Churton. Thanks!

Sadly, the GoPro only lasted 3 laps and the rear one packed up in the assembly area. I suspect the memory cards may need reformatting or renewing.

So, nothing more to show unfortunately but the pit stop went well and despite having an additional winners penalty of 30 seconds to take because Shaun won his last race at Cadwell we finished 8th over all and 2nd in class. 1st in class, James Wilson finished in 1st over all having a great last lap battle with Adam Brown in his Fiesta. And to my point about Turbo Tin Tops, only 2 in the top 8.

Another great weekend. Helped along by some great driving by Shaun too, who seemed to enjoy himself in the car and showed his experience in peddalling a new car and at a great pace, setting our fastest lap of the race too! (I need to up my game!)

A bit of a break now before Silverstone on the 6th September. Enough time to get the race engine in? We will see....

Prep for Snetterton

Brought the car out of storage with one week to go before Snetterton on the 19th July, next weekend.
Main job was the clutch change, so yesterday morning got the car up on the quickjacks and started the strip down.

Up on the Quick Jacks ready to strip

The car is still disgustingly filthy after Donington but that will come later...

Shaun, who we raced against at Donny in the Civic came over to lend a hand as he is going to have a go partnering with me next weekend. Although he's never driven the car, we've been racing against each other for about 13 years. his normal whip is a 205GTi that has been developed over the same sort of time as mine and is pretty much just as quick. In fact, he raced at Cadwell Park last weekend and had an outright win, so it will be interesting to see how he gets on in Clio.

Anyway, after a couple of hours the box was out and we could see what we were dealing with.

Interestingly, there was still plenty of material on the clutch but we could see witness marks on the flywheel bolts.
It transpired that the clutch springs had been bottoming out on the bolts, causing the slip! It would seem that the LUK clutch design is not compatible with a lightened flywheel. Comparing it against the new Valeo unit, there is considerably more clearance from the springs to the clutch face on the Valeo. (unfortuately I didn't get a photo)

Anyway, after a good clean up we got everything back together. Annoyingly the heated screen picked up a massive chip at Donington just as I was thinking about having some tear-offs applied to help protect it. Doesn't seem worth it now until i change it again.

The tires are just about done now too, so I'll change on to the TD 1.2s for Snett and will get some new tires ordered once the coffers allow.

The rest of the week will just be cleaning I think.

Donington 2 hour endurance 21st June

Well that was stressful!

This was the first event of its kind at Donington and the CSCC had put a fair amount of effort in to its smooth running.
There were actually to be 2 endurance races. One for the modern stuff, (including us in the Tin Tops) and a classic race for the 60s stuff etc.

So with a 2 hour race we were allowed up to 3 drivers and would have to make at least 2 mandatory pit stops of a minimum of 6 minutes each (pit in to pit out) and at least one refuel during one of those pit stops.
I think it is fair to say most people refueled in both pit stops as most of the cars don't have tanks big enough to carry enough fuel for much more than an hour's running at full chat.
The biggest complication though, came from the option to refuel via the petrol pumps at Donington. I'm not sure whether this was part of the deal that CSCC did with the circuit to secure the race (so they might make a bit of money selling their exorbitant fuel) but it was not a popular option and made the pitting process painful to say the least.
So... To enable the refueling at the station, pitting was via the Melbourne loop, and then through a fenced off road through the paddock, passing by the fuel pumps and then around to the medical centre and through the gap back into the pit lane! Extremely convoluted and again, made doubly complicated by varying the speed limit from 60kmh on the track and pit sections and then 30kmh through the paddock. With heavy penalties for any speeding.
Refueling was in the pit lane if you chose not to use the pumps.
So once we had absorbed all that we needed to start figuring out some timing, it soon bacame apparent that the 6 minute minimum may not be far off it was going to take us anyway. Once we had navigated the pit entry, refueling was complete (when no one else can touch the car and the driver must be out) to strapping the next driver in this was all taking a fair amount of time.
As mentioned in a previous post, I had mounted an extra timer in the car set to 6 minutes which we could start as we pitted, allowing us to keep over the minimum time. In theory this was a good idea. More on that later!

I arrived Saturday evening at Donington about 5:30. We were told that no one would be allowed in until 7pm because another race meeting was taking place on the Saturday. All endurance racers were to set up in the garages (rather than out in the paddock which was for the other short races taking place) but we were not allocated specific garages, meaning that it was first come first served and therefore no surprise that at 5:30 there was already a queue at the gates and by the time they started letting us in to the circuit the queue extended out into the road. Not ideal and needless to say a bunfight ensued in the paddock and at one point I, (Mr. non-confontation) was having to stand my ground with a rather irate lorry driver trying to muscle in on the garage I had nabbed bacause I was able to squeeze through a gap that an artic couldn't!
Anyway, as I explained to him, there are always enough garages to go round and within an hour or so everyone was sorted.

Parked up in the public parking area

Queuing to the road!

Rob and John both arrived soon after I started setting up so within an hour or so we were ready and headed off to the hotel for some food and an early night.

We agreed to an early start for the obligatory track walk at 6:30am and the weather was perfect.

...and joined by Shaun from Recycled Racing who we were sharing a garage with.

Once satisfied that the track still went the same way we remembered, we returned to the garage to prepare for scrutineering and quali.
All good so far.. Quali came soon enough and it was agreed that I would do 10 minutes, Rob would then do 20 minutes because he hasn't driven the car since March and then John would finish off the last 10 minutes and hopefully get some clear air for a decent lap with a lighter car after fuel burn.

the track was really busy of course and the crazy closing speeds between the fastest GT cars and the slowest Puma Cup cars was something to keep us on our toes.
My stint went ok but nothing special and the changeover went ok with Rob settling in quickly and soon setting equal lap times to me.
When John jumped in he got 2 or 3 laps in before coming back in with the dreaded fuel starvation issue. Not what we needed. It left us qualifying in 32nd position out of 43 cars and second in class.

So, not the nice chilled break between quali and the race that we hoped for and after some food, a driver briefing and a chat about a plan, we went to work stripping the fuel assembly at the rear again.

We inspected the filter again and still nothing obvious. As the problem has only started since changing the tank over winter we are wondering whether there could be a restriction in the breather causing a vacuum in the tank? A difficult one to check so in the end we decided to eliminate the one possible restricting factor despite it looking ok; the filter.
At least for this race and with a new filter on the lift pump in the tank we figured it should be fine. And with everything crossed we assembled everything and prepared for the race.

Running order would be the same as quali and at each stop we would refuel, just brimming the car. We didn't feel quite as prepared as we had hoped but we had planned the changeover procedure carefully and we each had a role. We just needed to keep an eye on the time.

the start was quite spread out

A rolling start of course and with such a variety of cars and speeds the run into Redgate wasn't too sketchy and I made a couple of passes on the first lap but then got almost taken out by Nigel Ainge in his Integra going into the 3rd lap. His car was quicker of course but I had a good run through the final chicane and was along side him on the outside in the run up to Redgate when all of a sudden he moved over and ran me onto the grass.
i'm not actually sure he knew I was there!

Not a lot of space!

I got past Nigel in a couple of laps by following a faster Porsche, lapping us into the final chicane and the rest of my 40 minute stint was spent watching the mirrors for the insanely fast GT cars leading the race and occasionally having a legitimate tussle with the cars around me.
We were currently P2 in class with Blair and Shaun of Recycled Racing in their Civic a little further down the road.
however, I could feel the clutch starting to slip and spent the last half of my stint managing the gear changes a little more carefully until I finally came in to refuel and swap with Rob.
So, as I came to the Pit entry line on the Melbourne loop I was conscious of having to start the 6 minute timer. But I also had to hit the pit lane speed limiter button as I crossed the line and all of a sudden I was patting my head and rubbing my belly and somehow didn't hit the timer button hard enough!

trying and failing to hit the timer!

I only realised as I stopped the car at the garage that the timer wasn't running. So i hit it then and we began a guessing game on the timing!
The refuel and driver change went like clockwork though and I had time to warn Rob about the failing clutch and we released him hoping and praying that we got the timing right. And looking at the timing sheets afterwards, we were certainly safe with a 6:38 stop.

With Rob out we were crossing fingers for the clutch and the fueling gremlins which so far seemed to have gone away and he managed to have a trouble free stint, briefly having a good battle with Blair in the Civic before getting stuck behind a Jag that was quicker in a straight line but unsurprisingly much slower through the bends. It frustrated Rob but with the slipping clutch there was nothing he could do.
Sadly, for Shaun and Blair the civic expired just before they swapped for the final time, leaving us leading the Tin Tops category. All we had to do was bring it home!
When John climbed in the clutch was really struggling and he spent the last 40 minutes managing the gears and just trying to get the car home.
He put in some good laps still, but couldn't keep position on the road with a couple of cars that we had passed earlier catching back up and finally passing him but they weren't in our class so it didn't matter.
And as the clock ticked over 2hours and 1 minute he crossed the line!

A class win! Albeit by default but a win is a win and it makes all the hard work worth it.
For John and Rob, their first red caps too! So a good day all round.

The next race is at Snetterton on the 19th July. I have a new clutch already and just need some time to prep the car. Rob and John will both be away so I'll be riding solo and just need to rally some help in the pits. (If any one wants to offer?)

Prep for Donington 2 hour race

Preparations for Donington 2 hour race started this week starting with retrieving the car from its new storage space. A mate of mine has just had a storage unit built for his car collection so I had to ask if he might have room for one more! A Clio takes up very little space after all! And in return I offered to keep an eye on things for him while he's not around. (he spends time between London and Melbourne) He's started filling it already and there's more to come!

in good company!

Once back at its more humble home I started with the easy stuff.
Not happy with the new wheel bearing which has a small amount of movement in it, the hub is off again to have another bearing pressed in. this time a better quality SNR one.
I also collected 2 wheels from the powder coaters one from the crash at the end of 2024 that will stay as a spare and the other a new one that replaced it at the end of 2024 but was only available in Bronze at the time so had had a rattle can finish until now.
Tyre will be fitted this week too.

After this I turned my attention to the fuel system yet again, starting with the filter which after stripping (yet again) proved to be clean as a whistle. So then it was on to the tank.
The symptoms at the end of the Brands race was fuel starvation, so the best result here would have been a near empty tank and we could chalk it down to human error. Alas, still plenty of fuel in the tank!

So, the lift pump came out again and that's where things started going to s**t.
All my own doing mind. I had a Walboro uprated pump sitting on the shelf so decided to swap this out with the existing one incase the pump was on its way out.
Unfortunately though it's not so easy to swap these pumps. the Walboro needs some adaption to the housing to fit and the flexi hose needs to be attached. But this did not come off the exisiting unit without a fight. In fact, it wouldn't come off at all without cutting it! And that left me wthout a hose. The Walboro comes with a small piece of rubber hose in the kit but it is no where near flexible enough. I had to can the whole idea and pulled all my spare pumps out to try and find a good one. It was getting messy.

None of the pumps are the same with one probably from a phase 1 with an integrated regulator and the other without a fuel return line but had been adapted. (this was the one in the car when i bought it back in 2013) So all I could do for now was try one of these.
After testing the pumps which seemed to work I reassembled everything and tried it. Nothing! I wanted to run the lift pump without the high pressure pump so i could empty the tank, but the one I put in didn't seem to have the strength to pump anything.
So in the true spirit of, "F***k it, I've only got a week and I really can't be doing with this" the parts cannon was wheeled out. New lift pump ordered and also some new flexible hose to try again with the Walboro. I have to wait for these to arrive before tackling it again.
So, with that headache shelved I moved on to some cosmetics.
the front bumper was looking a little tired and the rubber lip has been bothering me for a while, so recently I ordered some 50mm lawn edging which I've seen used before to replace the lip and also add a little more protection to the oil cooler which sits slightly lower than the bumper.
I had to tidy the chipped black strip first by wrapping it.

We'll see how long this lasts!

And finally, while I had the vinyl out, I added the valve markers back on the refurbished wheels.

more to come in the week as we prepare for a tricky weekend.

Brands Hatch 24th & 25th May

What a weekend!
Not withstanding the ridiculous temperatures on track and in the car, it was an eventful weekend. Not the result we wanted but a great couple of days all the same and by all means not a disaster.

Sunday morning I was in the paddock at 6:20 with a decent space for the car, trailer and gazebo and at that time in the morning not too hot to start setting up.

An hour later, once people started waking up I got set up in time for John to arrive with his mate to help! Thanks guys!

There wasn't too much to get done on the car before quali at 12:40 other than Scrutineering, so after doing the usual checks, of tyre perssures, fuel and comms and having a general catch up with racing friends in the paddock, as well as making a few new ones we were left with just heat management to deal with.

I got through a fair few of these electrolyte sachets over the 2 days!

The car sailed through scrutineering and at the end the scrutineer actually said he thought the car was too good for TinTops! (There can be some scruffy ones sometimes!) The classic stuff tends to be immaculately turned out. And there were some beauties there this weekend.

So qualifying crept up on us and before I knew it I was sitting in the assembly area in a cabin reaching 60 degrees and it didn't get much better once on track. Everything was hot.
I very quickly discovered a major flaw in my dash calibration as the cooling fans cut in even once we were moving, which has never happened before. Great, you might think - just doing what they're supposed to do. Unfortunately I had set the dash to turn entirely red and flash a "Cooling Fan" message at me constantly. Useful in normal circumstances as it would normally point to a problem with the engine. The trouble is that with this message on the dash, everything else is obscured, including the actual engine temp. So I had no idea if the engine was about to go pop or not.
After about 5 laps I pitted for a tyre pressure check and a for a few seconds the fan stopped so I could see that things were hot but not dangerously so.
I continued out to carry on with the 25 minute stint running 2 hot laps followed by 2 cooling laps just to be safe.
The track was nice and sticky and I finished with a best time of 55.491 and 6th on the grid, P2 in class but just 0.087s behind 5th and P1 in class. James Wilson in his Pug 306. Pole was a 54.178 set by a DC2. With my race engine and an extra 30bhp I recon I would have been up there easily but there you go. (I could equally have blown the engine and not raced at all which has happened far too often too)

So, we were left in a rather unusual position of having nothing more to do until Monday. We altered the configuration on the dash, checked the fuel filter again and went for a beer watching a bit more of the qualifying and 1 of the races that were actually being held on Sunday. After that it was home for a shower ready for another early start.

Car tucked away for the night

Race day came all too quickly and again by 6:30 I was back on the paddock. Too early to make noise so time for a track walk.
I've walked plenty of times around Brands and you cannot underestimate the value of walking a track. You see small details that you subconsciously lock away and somehow your brain utilises that information the next time you are behind the wheel. It sounds unlikely but its amazing how much more accurate you can become.
It was already hot though and I had a good sweat on by the time I crossed the finish line!

The race was, thankfully earlier than the qualifying session and by 10:40 we were back in the assemby area. his time with Rob Q on race engineer duties along with my youngest daughter, Siena on the camera. She's studying film at Brighton so I'm expecting an impressive edit of the day's activities some time soon!
Siena had also brought her friend, Erin who is studying Motorsport Engineering and has been pit crewing for a team in the City Cup so she was on tyre pressures and timing.
Eventually we headed out straight into a green flag lap and a rolling start. It was hot already!
Obviously the start is the most nerve wracking part of any race. So much can go wrong but also things can go really right sometimes too. The main goal is always to get through the first corner and at Brands that's Padock Hill Bend, a notorious corner at the best of times. I was on the outside of the track making me vulnerable to be pushed out into the gravel but it can also be a chance to get around the outside as most people squeeze up towards the apex.
The start went well though, with no dramas for anyone. Wilson who was right beside me at the start missed a gear and dropped back but the Civic behind me used his superior power to come past me through the centre and squeeze ahead once we were out of Druids at the top of the hill.
Coming out of Surtees, further around the track, Alfie Jones in another Civic running in 2nd pulled on to the infield as his engine let go which brought out the safety car just a lap later.
Once that pulled in the race continued and I ricocheted up and down the top 6 having various battles along the way, especially once we started meeting the backmarkers.
With just my stock engine I was seriously lacking straight line speed but i was making up for it in the corners and under braking which is one of the reasons there was lots of passing going on. It was great fun.
After most of the pit stops had been done, including ours I soon found myself in P2 overall. Although P1 (another civic) was a long way ahead and lapping quicker and I knew John and Tom Dee in their DC2 (the pole sitters) were catching me fast after they dropped back due to a trip throught the gravel earlier it was looking like a P3 might be on the cards.
I didn't know it at the time but our pit stop had been short. With a minimum pit time (entry to exit) of 1:30 it's critical to try and time it right so that you are released and heading down towards the exit, ideally so that the clock clicks over 1:30 just before you exit. It can be tricky and this time our stop was a 1:29! which meant we were hit with a 30 second penalty.
However, with about 7 minutes to go I started to have another problem. The car started to stutter...
It was clearly a fuel issue and as it started to get worse each lap it was clear I was running out of fuel!
Our radio wasn't working properly either so I didn't know how much time as left and all I was getting from the pit board was my position.
2 cars passed me and then another and then in the distance, in the mirror I could see James Wilson in his 306 slowly catching me. Finally as I came onto the start-finish straight, he was on me. In front of me the chequered flag was waving but he just pipped me on the line! Oh well, I thought. P2 in class - not too bad. And then I heard about the penalty.
So, a P10 finish overall and P3 in class but a hell of a fun race and the car came back in one piece.
There was a live feed on YouTube of the race. The link below and the race starts at 1hr 27 minutes. There's a good amount of coverage of me, especially when I'm running in P2 and the commentators realise I'm about to get a penalty.

The Race

So, the next race is a 2 hour endurance back at Donington with 3 drivers permitted, followed a week later by Cadwell Park. We need to decide what we're going to do but for now, I'm off to Italy for a wedding on Friday so I'm forgetting about the car for a week. (That's what the wife thinks anyway)

Prep for Brands Hatch Indy. Monday 25th May

8 days to RACE DAY
Earlier this week John and I convened at Brands Hatch for a day of practice. Little did we know what biblical weather lay ahead.

Can’t beat an early morning track walk

We arrived early to try and grab a garage only to find that every one had been reserved. Fortunately though, I recognised a name on one of the reserved signs.
Mark Gillam, owner of Abbey Motorsport did a lot of the work on our race prepared Nissan 350Z when we were running corporate track days. So it was no problem to jump in the garage with him and his rather trick 350Z that he was preparing for Oulton Park this weekend.

Super trick 350Z with a BMW DCT gearbox.

The morning was glorious although we were aware of the forecast, we decided to crack on and get as much dry running as we could.
Sadly for Mark, the Nissan's engine had other ideas with a rod leaving the chat within half an hour of starting!

Not a cheap fix!

Not an outcome I'd wish on anyone of course but the silverlining being that we had the garage to ourselves for the rest of the day. (we did help them push the car onto the trailer though, and I bought them coffee too)

Progress was good all day, even after the inevitable rain came... and then the hail...and thunder and lightning!

During a stint on a damp track John, unfortunately outbraked himself up into druids and ended up in the gravel. Nothing too serious but the usual gravel clearout lost us a bit of time.

Just a bit of gravel rash!

After a sweep up we were left with what John named, a pile of embarrassment.

But it was business as usual after half an hour or so.

We both set our best times in the morning while it was dry, with John just 0.4s behind my best time. A quick review of the VBox data at lunch revealed he was losing all his time through Surtees and Mclaren, so we firgured he'd be able to work on that during qualifying next week.

We called it a day at about 4pm as there was no sign of the track drying out and we weren't learning anything more.

As Team Alula E1 team principle, John is used to the water.

Back home I made a discovery that has changed our plans.
Our assumption was that next weekend we would be racing on Sunday. The usual qualifying in the morning and the race in the afternoon. BUT.... CSCC have changed the format for the Bank Holiday weekend, with qualifying on Sunday but the race will be on Monday. the idea being that hopefully this will attract more spectators on the Monday where they will get a whole day of racing to watch. We'll see.
However, it looks like John can't make Monday so I'll probably be racing solo. It's been a while since I've done a 40 minute race on my own. Could be fun!

Back in the workshop on Saturday, I've started working through the, thankfully quite short list of things to address before next weekend.
With the remnants of the trip into the gravel still evident under the car I started with getting it up on the Quickjacks and giving the underside a jetwash.
After that it was oil change and start of a spanner check.

Oil looked healthy which is good news. Other jobs included rewiring the plug to the transponder which had broken at some point. One of the cameras in the car has lost a power feed for some reason and only runs off its battery. that still needs investigating.
I still need to check the fuel filter so we don't have the same issue as at Donington if there is still crap coming out of the tank.

More importantly though is the failing wheel bearing I discovered while refitting the wheels. Not in the plan but thank god I didn't leave this wrok until next Friday!
Hub was stripped out easily. (Only 7 bolts) and my mate will collect it on Monday to press in a new bearing which i had on the shelf fortunately. I've ordered 2 new ones from Nick at PMS as well. just in case the other one fails soon.

7 bolts and it’s off.

Should have the hub back Tuesday eve so I'll jump back on the car mid week and hopefully have everything done in plenty of time.

Next weekend will be interesting.

Donington 29th March 2026

After some time spent ironing out the gremlins, the race was upon us before we knew it.

One final day of spannering saw the car ready to head up to Donington for the opening round of the CSCC Tin Tops series.

Loaded and ready

I began the 2 and a half hour drive up to Donington on Saturday afternoon with a view to getting a good spot in the paddock, unloading the car and then heading to the hotel for the evening. An uneventful journey followed but they weren't letting any Sunday competitors into the paddock until after 5pm, so I joined the queue up to the main gate.

Once in, there was plenty of space and I pitched up next to our friends at Recycled Racing who surprised me with their "Jarman" broom. So named apparently after I borrowed it from them many years ago after an excursion into the gravel and duly ruined their nice new broom!

A nice spot next to Recycled Racing

With the gazebo arriving in the morning, it was just a case of dropping the car beside the trailer to reserve a spot for the night.

The next morning John and I convened at the track at 7am for a track walk as the sun came up. Always a nice way to start a race day and we always do it if we can. It’s amazing what details you pick up at walking pace that you’d never see in a car and its also a great time to discuss lines into corners, braking points and also look out for Track Limit sensors!

And after that it was down to business setting up.
Although I had packed as much as possible into the car, in theory there wasn't much to do so we only unpacked the bare minimum.
The car was already brimmed so we just swapped the front wheels for some fresher rubber and set the tyre pressures ready for quali. After that, Rob arrived and we discussed the day's strategy over a coffee.
The weather was clearly going to play a part but what that would be remained to be seen but we were hopeful for a dry qualifying at least.

With new brake pads in it was decided that John would take the first stint, bed the brakes in and then build speed and settle in. He was nervous having never raced at Donington. (although he's done many laps of testing there)

This is what a nervous John looks like!

John's stint went well and he set a decent time that would put us where we wanted on the grid so I took over with the hope to improve if possible.
But after a couple of laps getting warmed up I tucked in behind Joe Hathaway (who's Clio is the same spec as mine with my race engine) and decided to see if I could keep up.

Although he was faster in a straight line, in the bends and under braking I was probably quicker...until the car started stuttering.
Just when we thought we had sorted everything it started losing power at the top end and I decided to pit just before the end of the session as I clearly wasn't going to go any faster. P3 in class was good enough.

As the race wasn't until 5:20 we had plenty of time to trouble shoot the issue and I was pretty certain it was fuel again.

By this time the rain was coming down and with the wind the gazebo wasn't giving us much protection. Pretty miserable conditions to be working on a car but at least we weren't crawling around underneath it!

After isolating the high pressure pump we wanted to confirm fuel was getting out of the tank. but priming the lift pump wasn't showing any fuel at the rail.
Next we disconnected the line from the swirl pot and found fuel was getting there fine.
more bashing heads and a decision to check the filter again. ( we did this at Snetterton already)

Sure enough though, it was clogged! The new fuel tank must have some crap still in it. Once this was cleared fuel was flowing nicely.
Problem solved!

Throughout the day rain continued until about 4pm. With at least an hour and a half before our race we were hopeful the track might dry but with it being so cold it wasn’t looking good and sure enough by the time we were called to the assembly area it was clear the race was going to be challenging.

Lined up in P11 on the grid, Matt Churton in front of me in a lower class Clio (no throttle bodies) had done a great quali time but as we stood by the cars he mentioned that he would be braking early into Redgate at the start so feel free to take a lunge but please don't go into the back of me! So that was one place made up before we even moved!
Beside him was Peter Parkin in his 306 who was P2 in our class. So he was the target at the start.
We had agreed at the beginning of the day that a podium spot would be a good result considering the issues and lack of testing.

The time came all too soon to start the green flag lap and straight in to a rolling start.
If you can be bothered, the on board video is here. It might seem painfully slow but you will see from my steering wheel that it was pretty greasy, especially at the start.

Donington Race 29-3-26

I had a decent start and as planned, passed Churton and also Parkin through Redgate but not before John Bellamy in his pesky, but pretty quick, Pug 106 got past and prevented me keeping up with the lead pack. It was so slippery off line it just wasn't worth the risk of making a move. (watching it back now of course I'm shouting at the screen at every corner!)
We had a fair fight though until the pit window opened and simulaneously there was an almighty shunt on the start finish straight after the leader made a mistake, lost the lead and then tried too hard to retake it by going for a gap that wasn't really there. He was turned in to the pit wall and very nearly flipped. The end of a beautifully prepaired Civic TypeR and also sadly ended with Andrew Windmill, the driver in hospital.
We changed driver as they red flagged the race afterwhich there was a pause for about half an hour or so while they cleared up the mess and gridded everyone up for a restart, a 15 minute dash to the finish line.
So John continued where I left off, battling with the 106 and that's how the race ended.
P2 in class and 9th overall will do for the first race of the season on a stock engine.

It might look like a piece of folded cardboard but it’s actually porcelain!

CSCC Live streaming of the day. Our race at 8hrs 42minutes roughly

New engine coming together

So, What’s next?

Our next race is booked! Brands Hatch indy circuit on the 24th May, so a bit of time for some testing and “maybe”, the race engine will be ready. Watch this space!

March 2026 - Pre-season test

After the successful dyno session our next test would be at the track, for a day of testing.

Snetterton is our second closest circuit but it’s length and combination of corners lends itself to testing the car in all ways, with tight turns, long straights and more challenging sweeping bends and an off camber chicane.

Rob Quantrell waiting to try the car for the first time

The day threw up a couple of technical challenges that we’ve added to the post test list but it wasn’t enough to prevent three of us getting some decent seat time.

The beautiful, sunny day didn’t hurt either!

driving the car onto the trailer under its own steam at the end of the day is always a bonus.

Back in the workshop there was a random electrical cut out issue to trace as well as a fueling issue.

The electrical issue appears to be stemming from the EPAS overloading the PDM causing a full cut-off. So, a few replacement parts ordered and some diagnosis to carry out.

The fuel issue was quickly traced to an airlock in the swirl pot. Likely down to not priming it properly after changing the fuel tank.

pumping fuel through to prime the swirl pot

Inspecting the EPAS. No apparent problems though.

So preparations will continue until the first race at Donington on the 29th March. Doesn’t look like we’ll have another chance to test before though.

25th February 2026. Pre-season dyno day

Dyno day was a success!
Being just a 20 minute drive away meant a fairly leisurely start as they didn't want me there until 10am and knowing the setup there now made getting the car off the trailer and into the dyno pretty plain sailing. By 11:30 we were strapped in and sipping coffee.

Loading up the evening before

All set!

In fact this may have been the smoothest running dyno session I've ever experienced. No delays from a car on the rollers before me; no software or dyno issues and no gremlins with the car.
So we went right through pretty much without stopping. Building up the site maps from 1000rpm up to 3500rpm afterwhich you can set the software learning the nature of the engine and it populates the whole map ready to be tested.
Once the power runs started there was very little tweaking to do. The first full power run yielded 205bhp which I would have been happy with but Steve could see that the engine wanted more, so a bit more adjustment and we went again. This time 212.4bhp. Much more like it and almost identical to the same spec we ran back in the day and with 158lbft of torque it should be nice in an 850kg car.
I do wonder whether the race engine is worth the effort!

And as the cameras were set up in the car I recorded the last power run. It’s quite unnerving doing 126mph in 5th gear with a wall just 10ft in front of you!

2026 - Pre season preperations

So, it’s been a busy couple of months already this year. With a freshly machined block sent off to my engine builder along with a box of new parts, we’re going to start the season on the stock engine from the black Clio of Rob Quantrell, my race partner in 2024.

So a dyno session is booked for 25th Feb, a pre season test at Snetterton booked for March 2nd and the first race at Donington booked for 29th March. All being well, this will kick off a fairly busy season but a few hurdles to get over first!

First and main job of the year was changing out the fuel tank and adding a new fuel level sender and fresh baffles. The biggest challenge being to calibrate the dash to read fuel level accurately. This is now complete and we’ll see how well it works at Snetterton.

With the car back on its wheels it had it’s first bath for over a year and then a slight change of livery is underway. Doing away with the traditional white number squares on the doors and bonnet to be replaced with the more popular, these days; yellow numbers on the side windows and windscreen.