Spire GT3 RGB Racer
Discussion
SpudLink said:
chriswhitlock said:
Well done, you were certainly the class of the field. Good luck with the rest of the season
I agree. In all 3 races you looked like the fastest of the front runners. I’d say impressive racecraft, except for the incident with the lapped car. But for the most part I was impressed by your ability to get passed cars which were a similar pace. 
t happens. I'm playing the long game and this weekend was a good points haul 
Oulton Park this weekend, doesn't look like there will be a live stream unless they just not announced it yet but the live timing will be up here
https://www.theresultslive.co.uk/750-motor-club/20...
It's a Saturday only event with testing on Friday. Very limited noisy Sundays at oulton and they always get reserved for big stuff like BTCC, superbikes etc.
One of my favourite if not most favourite circuits, and looks like the weather will be spot on. Been hard at work on the car since Croft, think there's a lot of pace left in the car & me, so looking forward to it.
https://www.theresultslive.co.uk/750-motor-club/20...
It's a Saturday only event with testing on Friday. Very limited noisy Sundays at oulton and they always get reserved for big stuff like BTCC, superbikes etc.
One of my favourite if not most favourite circuits, and looks like the weather will be spot on. Been hard at work on the car since Croft, think there's a lot of pace left in the car & me, so looking forward to it.
Iffy but overall successful weekend at Oulton park
Tricky with the 20odd degree ambient heat, track gets greasy quite easily.
Testing went reasonably well on friday apart from a misfire developing on the last bloody session - sods law.
Checked what I could and tried to convince myself it would be ok ..
Qualifying - not good, misfire and traffic, a load of yellows then ended on a red after I had to abort my best lap.
Started P3 for race 1, finished p2
Misfire absolutely horrific, nearly came in but just decided to send it hard though every bend to try and make up for lost time, It would intermittently get better then worse, then much worse. On the couple of laps it was it it's best (least worse!) I put the fastest lap in by 0.8s, which gave me pole for race 2.
Spent hours working on the car, new cam and crank sensor, new plugs, new TPS... Race 2 started on pole and got my head down, won by 14seconds with fastest lap. Misfire reappeared towards the end but it didn't matter at that point albeit I need to sort it for the next one. Car literally cut out going into parc ferme but at least the old girl got me over the finish line!!
Also got driver of the day in acknowledgement of my pace against adversity which was nice.
Tricky with the 20odd degree ambient heat, track gets greasy quite easily.
Testing went reasonably well on friday apart from a misfire developing on the last bloody session - sods law.
Checked what I could and tried to convince myself it would be ok ..
Qualifying - not good, misfire and traffic, a load of yellows then ended on a red after I had to abort my best lap.
Started P3 for race 1, finished p2
Misfire absolutely horrific, nearly came in but just decided to send it hard though every bend to try and make up for lost time, It would intermittently get better then worse, then much worse. On the couple of laps it was it it's best (least worse!) I put the fastest lap in by 0.8s, which gave me pole for race 2.
Spent hours working on the car, new cam and crank sensor, new plugs, new TPS... Race 2 started on pole and got my head down, won by 14seconds with fastest lap. Misfire reappeared towards the end but it didn't matter at that point albeit I need to sort it for the next one. Car literally cut out going into parc ferme but at least the old girl got me over the finish line!!
Also got driver of the day in acknowledgement of my pace against adversity which was nice.
Edited by Yazza54 on Tuesday 13th June 10:23
Race 1 video, not massively exciting.. mainly uploaded to demonstrate how bad the car was so to still get fastest lap giving pole for race 2, and finish 2nd place, quite proud of it.
https://youtu.be/1vF0PNf55hs
Race 2 video haven't uploaded as it was a straight forward case of leading from the front without any real issues until the end when the misfire came back and the car died coming into parc ferme! Didn't actually go as fast in race 2, everyone went slower... Higher ambient and track temps coupled with a number of races before us having cars dropping oil there was a lot less grip.
Have since found two things that could both have caused the poor running each or combined, crank sensor plug the pins seemed quite loose, and cam sensor plug one wire had some insulation rubbed through and damaged the core. Both now chopped and new plugs terminated.
Next race weekend is Cadwell on 8th/9th July.
https://youtu.be/1vF0PNf55hs
Race 2 video haven't uploaded as it was a straight forward case of leading from the front without any real issues until the end when the misfire came back and the car died coming into parc ferme! Didn't actually go as fast in race 2, everyone went slower... Higher ambient and track temps coupled with a number of races before us having cars dropping oil there was a lot less grip.
Have since found two things that could both have caused the poor running each or combined, crank sensor plug the pins seemed quite loose, and cam sensor plug one wire had some insulation rubbed through and damaged the core. Both now chopped and new plugs terminated.
Next race weekend is Cadwell on 8th/9th July.
Edited by Yazza54 on Tuesday 13th June 10:24
This weekend epitomised the highs and lows of racing.
Having not been to Cadwell for 5 years which incidentally was the scene of my first ever race, I'll be honest, in the first session of testing my head fell off. No track knowledge, didn't know where to be and felt miles off the pace. Chipped away through the day but still felt like there was loads left. Saturday quali was a disaster, couldn't put a decent lap in due to traffic and then my exhaust manifold broke, lost masses of power and sounded like a tractor. Cue a 3 hour process of removing it whilst still hot due to lack of time and then finding out that we are running ahead of schedule - what wonderful news!!
Got it fixed, Stuart at TSR (team sellars racing) welded it up for me as soon as I took it over which was a big help. Got it fitted with about 10 mins to spare and the heavens opened, guessed at a wet setup and headed to assembly area.
I underestimated how quickly the track might start to dry as it was warm and I suppose with all the undulation Cadwell doesn't really hold any standing water.
The car worked very well early on and I built a gap, but as it dried out my somewhat extreme wet setup didn't work, plus I lost the gap I'd built up coming across lapped cars.
It still never fully dried but a setup that was somewhere in-between dry and wet would've worked better. This then brought about a tense 3 way battle with Scott Mittell and John Cutmore, we were nose to tail for a good 3 or 4 laps.
One of if not the best races I've had and proud to have won it in such strong company, especially given how the day started.
Unfortunately my luck ran out there. Sunday's race I lost all gears, car felt great handling wise but these things happen. I think that's my first DNF in 2 years.
Still pretty pleased with how the weekend went, great fun and great company, championship points yet to be worked out but I think I've potentially still extended my lead or at the very least stayed the same gap ahead with a change of who's in second in the standings, as others had some bad luck too.
https://youtu.be/rZ0ZqfoFYF0
Having not been to Cadwell for 5 years which incidentally was the scene of my first ever race, I'll be honest, in the first session of testing my head fell off. No track knowledge, didn't know where to be and felt miles off the pace. Chipped away through the day but still felt like there was loads left. Saturday quali was a disaster, couldn't put a decent lap in due to traffic and then my exhaust manifold broke, lost masses of power and sounded like a tractor. Cue a 3 hour process of removing it whilst still hot due to lack of time and then finding out that we are running ahead of schedule - what wonderful news!!
Got it fixed, Stuart at TSR (team sellars racing) welded it up for me as soon as I took it over which was a big help. Got it fitted with about 10 mins to spare and the heavens opened, guessed at a wet setup and headed to assembly area.
I underestimated how quickly the track might start to dry as it was warm and I suppose with all the undulation Cadwell doesn't really hold any standing water.
The car worked very well early on and I built a gap, but as it dried out my somewhat extreme wet setup didn't work, plus I lost the gap I'd built up coming across lapped cars.
It still never fully dried but a setup that was somewhere in-between dry and wet would've worked better. This then brought about a tense 3 way battle with Scott Mittell and John Cutmore, we were nose to tail for a good 3 or 4 laps.
One of if not the best races I've had and proud to have won it in such strong company, especially given how the day started.
Unfortunately my luck ran out there. Sunday's race I lost all gears, car felt great handling wise but these things happen. I think that's my first DNF in 2 years.
Still pretty pleased with how the weekend went, great fun and great company, championship points yet to be worked out but I think I've potentially still extended my lead or at the very least stayed the same gap ahead with a change of who's in second in the standings, as others had some bad luck too.
https://youtu.be/rZ0ZqfoFYF0
Bit of footage from Cadwell, unfortunately no live stream but was a local photographer who edited some footage he had together for me.
https://youtu.be/ia-7G7eEyHk
https://youtu.be/ia-7G7eEyHk
number2 said:
Yazza54 said:
n3il123 said:
Thanks for keeping up with the updates, I'd love to have my own miniature le man car!
Cheers for the interest did wonder if anyone was reading 
You're iving the dream Yazza, keep it up!
chriswhitlock said:
Yazza54 said:
Cheers for the interest did wonder if anyone was reading
Always do. As other have said, you are doing what most of us would love toOn the racing content in general here, maybe I ought to start documenting more of what goes into the racing outside of the actual stuff on track. A hell of a lot of work goes into prep as well as general setup and development. It's always been a tricky one for me as whilst I love a technical discussion, sports 1000 is a development formula albeit controlled by very tight regulations, so posting on here to all and sundry what I am up to in detail has always seemed a bit foolish to me.
So some bits and bobs that needed doing since Cadwell
The loss of gears is a problem I've had before, the gear selector shaft claw can crack and then open up, then it won't grip the shift drum to turn it and select gears. When it would go down the box but not up I had a good feeling this is what it was. You can get a replacement on eBay for like 25 quid and change it in an hour, shame it didn't happen on the cool down lap of race 1 instead of so early in race 2, but st happens.
Here's the offending damaged piece
To change this you have to remove the clutch and basket so I inspected the plates and found one looking a little worse for wear and swapped it out as I have loads of spares.
Also fitted a PU lined rod end at the shift arm end in the hope it might take a bit of shock out of the gear shifts, I suppose I ought to be mindful of not shifting up like a chimp too.
Also threw a new front sprocket on as it's been on a long time, and changed the rear sprocket ratio to suit Snetterton 300 which is the next circuit. Chain was renewed before Cadwell.
The other major fix was the exhaust, another competitor had an old exhaust he said I could have which was a huge help, it's exactly the same as my old one but in much better condition so on that went with all new studs and nuts. Even though it's the same exhaust and came off the same car it took a bit of fiddling with to get it to fit with my silencer, and then when I fired it up it was blowing a lot from the collector where the slots had been cut to help it clamp, but cut too long, so out came the welder and I tacked them up half way and took a flap wheel to clean the welds up inside.
All back together and no blowing from any joint so a job well done... But it just goes to show how nothing is ever straight forward, I think I ended up fitting and refitting it about 5 times before I was happy.
..and the offending nasty race winning exhaust coming off
So that's it for the major stuff, done a few setup tweaks, partly based on what I learned at Cadwell and partly down to reversing some stuff that I did specifically for Cadwell, given its a very different type of circuit to Snetterton which is where we're going next.
Had to reload my config to the aim data logger, for some reason it stopped reading my rear brake pressure.
Little repair on splitter where I took out a bollard through hall bends... Sorry Mr Palmer!!
Car will get a oil change, I normally do it the week of the race rather than do it and just let it sit there for weeks. So I'll probably do that next week, other than that it's ready to go.
On top of all this stuff there is general prep that has to be done for every race and after every day of running, cleaning, checking joints/bearings for play, clean and inspect brakes & clean and swap wheels round as I have a test set and race set that get rotated every couple of rounds when I buy a new set of tyres.
The loss of gears is a problem I've had before, the gear selector shaft claw can crack and then open up, then it won't grip the shift drum to turn it and select gears. When it would go down the box but not up I had a good feeling this is what it was. You can get a replacement on eBay for like 25 quid and change it in an hour, shame it didn't happen on the cool down lap of race 1 instead of so early in race 2, but s
t happens. Here's the offending damaged piece
To change this you have to remove the clutch and basket so I inspected the plates and found one looking a little worse for wear and swapped it out as I have loads of spares.
Also fitted a PU lined rod end at the shift arm end in the hope it might take a bit of shock out of the gear shifts, I suppose I ought to be mindful of not shifting up like a chimp too.
Also threw a new front sprocket on as it's been on a long time, and changed the rear sprocket ratio to suit Snetterton 300 which is the next circuit. Chain was renewed before Cadwell.
The other major fix was the exhaust, another competitor had an old exhaust he said I could have which was a huge help, it's exactly the same as my old one but in much better condition so on that went with all new studs and nuts. Even though it's the same exhaust and came off the same car it took a bit of fiddling with to get it to fit with my silencer, and then when I fired it up it was blowing a lot from the collector where the slots had been cut to help it clamp, but cut too long, so out came the welder and I tacked them up half way and took a flap wheel to clean the welds up inside.
All back together and no blowing from any joint so a job well done... But it just goes to show how nothing is ever straight forward, I think I ended up fitting and refitting it about 5 times before I was happy.
..and the offending nasty race winning exhaust coming off
So that's it for the major stuff, done a few setup tweaks, partly based on what I learned at Cadwell and partly down to reversing some stuff that I did specifically for Cadwell, given its a very different type of circuit to Snetterton which is where we're going next.
Had to reload my config to the aim data logger, for some reason it stopped reading my rear brake pressure.
Little repair on splitter where I took out a bollard through hall bends... Sorry Mr Palmer!!
Car will get a oil change, I normally do it the week of the race rather than do it and just let it sit there for weeks. So I'll probably do that next week, other than that it's ready to go.
On top of all this stuff there is general prep that has to be done for every race and after every day of running, cleaning, checking joints/bearings for play, clean and inspect brakes & clean and swap wheels round as I have a test set and race set that get rotated every couple of rounds when I buy a new set of tyres.
Edited by Yazza54 on Friday 28th July 07:52
SpudLink said:
Healthy 37 point lead. Nice.
Yeah, kinda.. so this is where it gets tricky There are drop scores at the end of the season, where you only carry through your best 12 of the 14.. dropping the worst two rounds. Unless you got a 0 or minus score for a disqualification and or infringement of some sort. If that happens you have to carry it and drop an actual score so it's a double whammy of badness, meaning you really wanna keep your nose clean in terms of legality and driving standards.
It's too early at this point to work out drop scores really but to give you an idea, it would change to
Me - 151
Dan - 133
John - 122
So it's not only chopped a chunk out of my lead but also switched them around behind me. I do think drop scores in club racing is generally a good thing but because I'm consistent more often than not it actually hurts me rather than helps me, because my worst scores aren't as low as some of the other guys... But we've still got half the season to go, so let's see what happens.
Gearbox issues meant starting today's race 12th, managed to come home second after a chaotic race, a cats whisker away from the win. Starting pole for tomorrow's race.
Race was live streamed, can catch it here starting around 57mins in
https://www.youtube.com/live/bcFfc9hHQgA?feature=s...
Race 2 tomorrow will be live streamed here, we are out at 11.45
https://www.youtube.com/live/FtllRAR23mI?feature=s...
Race was live streamed, can catch it here starting around 57mins in
https://www.youtube.com/live/bcFfc9hHQgA?feature=s...
Race 2 tomorrow will be live streamed here, we are out at 11.45
https://www.youtube.com/live/FtllRAR23mI?feature=s...
So onto the 4th meeting of the season at Snetterton 300. Testing was Ok ish... Pace from previous seasons wasn't there, but seemingly the same for everyone. We are still trying to get the best out of the new control tyres but the circuit just seemed to offer up little grip all weekend as well. Ultimately it doesn't matter as it's the same for everyone but it's difficult to get your head around whether your pace is good or not relatively speaking.
Saturday came and I was feeling reasonably confident for qualifying & Race 1, the car was going alright and whilst I wasn't over the moon pace wise I'd got to a point where I'd figured that everyone was struggling so it didn't matter.
Out for qualifying we went and the car felt good, on the second half of my first flying lap albeit in traffic it all went to st and I had gear selection problems. I did a few more slow laps to make sure I qualified then came in.
Had about 4 hours to see if it could be fixed, ended up removing the clutch, basket, gear selector shaft and detent and basically turning it through the gears by hand on the shift drum to verify all gears were there. The shift shaft was fine this time unlike at Cadwell but the retaining tab had a slight bend, just enough to allow enough float to stop it accurately turning the drum to select gears. We must be taking like a millimeter too much, at first I thought it was gearbox fked as nothing obvious was jumping out. I tapped that back and was very careful reassembling.
Ran through gears on jack and then around the paddock, then it was just a case of hoping it was ok under load. Thankfully it was.
Race 1 - started 12th, great start into 5th by the second corner, unfortunately by the time we got to Agostini there was a red flag.
Re started from original positions... Many expletives were said.
Second start nowhere near as good, some carnage ahead dropped me back even further but fought back to 4th. Then another incident behind us and bloody safety car comes out. We were sat behind the safety car for the two slowest laps ever which ran the clock down to the point where only one race lap remained, rolling start from 4th and I got to 2nd, a tenth off 1st by the line. Not a bad recovery all things considered but if it was a clean race I probably could have won it.
Video here
https://youtu.be/stBhSSn5wuE
Race 2 was more straightforward, grid set by race 1 fastest lap put me on pole. Lead from the start and finished 8 something seconds up the road.
Saturday came and I was feeling reasonably confident for qualifying & Race 1, the car was going alright and whilst I wasn't over the moon pace wise I'd got to a point where I'd figured that everyone was struggling so it didn't matter.
Out for qualifying we went and the car felt good, on the second half of my first flying lap albeit in traffic it all went to s
t and I had gear selection problems. I did a few more slow laps to make sure I qualified then came in. Had about 4 hours to see if it could be fixed, ended up removing the clutch, basket, gear selector shaft and detent and basically turning it through the gears by hand on the shift drum to verify all gears were there. The shift shaft was fine this time unlike at Cadwell but the retaining tab had a slight bend, just enough to allow enough float to stop it accurately turning the drum to select gears. We must be taking like a millimeter too much, at first I thought it was gearbox f
ked as nothing obvious was jumping out. I tapped that back and was very careful reassembling. Ran through gears on jack and then around the paddock, then it was just a case of hoping it was ok under load. Thankfully it was.
Race 1 - started 12th, great start into 5th by the second corner, unfortunately by the time we got to Agostini there was a red flag.
Re started from original positions... Many expletives were said.
Second start nowhere near as good, some carnage ahead dropped me back even further but fought back to 4th. Then another incident behind us and bloody safety car comes out. We were sat behind the safety car for the two slowest laps ever which ran the clock down to the point where only one race lap remained, rolling start from 4th and I got to 2nd, a tenth off 1st by the line. Not a bad recovery all things considered but if it was a clean race I probably could have won it.
Video here
https://youtu.be/stBhSSn5wuE
Race 2 was more straightforward, grid set by race 1 fastest lap put me on pole. Lead from the start and finished 8 something seconds up the road.
Just a note for anyone still reading
We go to Anglesey next weekend on the coastal circuit.
Really looking forward to it, one of my favourite tracks.
Car is all ready to go. Reversed some setup stuff I did for snett and made some tweaks that I'm hoping will help at Anglesey, mainly to aid front grip given its a twisty track and if you've got no front end you'll be nowhere. To be honest understeer has been a theme of the season so these tweaks may help everywhere but we'll see. Still figuring out how best to get the car working on the new tyres since we switched to the AR1s.
Other stuff such as gearing etc all done too as well as general maintenance.
I think it may be possible to win the championship at Anglesey...but also all manner of things could still go wrong so I'm not gonna get ahead of myself. The approach has to be the same as every other weekend regardless - score as many points as possible whilst keeping my nose clean. Will know more mid way through the weekend, ultimately it doesn't change things for me in terms of my approach or prep etc anyway.
Anglesey is a triple header sprint weekend, meaning quali and race 1 Saturday, race 2 and 3 Sunday. Races are 15 min not 20 like usual. This means lots of points available but also lots to lose if something goes awry.
If we get live stream I'll pop the links up, for now here's a hot lap from a few years ago
https://youtu.be/iwKGq7fgwYc?feature=shared
We go to Anglesey next weekend on the coastal circuit.
Really looking forward to it, one of my favourite tracks.
Car is all ready to go. Reversed some setup stuff I did for snett and made some tweaks that I'm hoping will help at Anglesey, mainly to aid front grip given its a twisty track and if you've got no front end you'll be nowhere. To be honest understeer has been a theme of the season so these tweaks may help everywhere but we'll see. Still figuring out how best to get the car working on the new tyres since we switched to the AR1s.
Other stuff such as gearing etc all done too as well as general maintenance.
I think it may be possible to win the championship at Anglesey...but also all manner of things could still go wrong so I'm not gonna get ahead of myself. The approach has to be the same as every other weekend regardless - score as many points as possible whilst keeping my nose clean. Will know more mid way through the weekend, ultimately it doesn't change things for me in terms of my approach or prep etc anyway.
Anglesey is a triple header sprint weekend, meaning quali and race 1 Saturday, race 2 and 3 Sunday. Races are 15 min not 20 like usual. This means lots of points available but also lots to lose if something goes awry.
If we get live stream I'll pop the links up, for now here's a hot lap from a few years ago
https://youtu.be/iwKGq7fgwYc?feature=shared
Edited by Yazza54 on Saturday 9th September 09:04
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