F3 Cup 2nd race weekend - Donington Park
Discussion
thought i'd chuck an update on here from the last round of the F3 Cup at Donington Park last weekend.
After Oulton park with the engine problems we had we decided to fit the freshly rebuilt engine which we sorted out pre-season. we showed up to Snetterton on Friday (the engine was run-in and checked on the rolling road) and before i'd even done a lap the engine was fouling up the spark plug on 1 cylinder. we thought it was just over fuelling causing it on the cold start but after a couple more diagnosis laps we could see it was oil fouling the plug!!! looks like a piston ring failure, bit gutting after a rebuild cost of nearly 5k!!! bloody F3 engines are seriously expensive, makes my Noble rebuild seen like pennies. We'll be sorting that out at some point.
We decided we had nothing to loose in re-fitting the old engine and trying to get that working. the guys managed to get it all rebuilt by 2.00pm on Sat which was impressive. We did a couple of laps in the Sat practice session to check everything was ok, which it was.
we tried a few different maps on the engine on Sat night and planned to test it out in quali on Sunday morning.
quali came and it was the wettest track i'd ever driven on! we did 3 laps behind the safety car before they would let us off at speed due to the standing water and rivers on track. The engine was still not running right but i managed 11th on the grid out of 20. the rain meaning i could just about hold pace round a lap if i was committed enough in the corners.
race 1 was one hell of an experience. engine still the same as quali but now i could have some fun racing...
Good start and some solid laps trying to stay on track before a safety car period. after the safety car period i really had some fun. a couple of overtakes i was really pleased with. 1 into turn 1 Redgate, caught someone napping, i only decided to go up the indside half way through the braking zone. Then went round the outside on the Radical Cup Champion on the way in to the old hairpin, again took an opportunity to catch him unaware and out brake him before pulling across to prevent him attacking back.
here is the onboard video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7eYEkugprA&lis...
race 2 was just as wet and the engine was still running the same despite our best efforts. started 9th as the order is set by the fastest laps recorded in race 1.
great start and got up to 6th with some cheekyness in turn 1. all was good until i went off into the gravel coming onto the back straight. managed to keep the car going and rejoin. managed to finish 8th after another 2 comedy 360° spins.
I'll get that video up when i get chance.
We are working on a few things with the engine currently in the car to try and get it running right for Silverstone which is just over a week away. hopefully we can get all this engine crap sussed soon as Spa is only 6 weeks away!??!!
cheers
James
After Oulton park with the engine problems we had we decided to fit the freshly rebuilt engine which we sorted out pre-season. we showed up to Snetterton on Friday (the engine was run-in and checked on the rolling road) and before i'd even done a lap the engine was fouling up the spark plug on 1 cylinder. we thought it was just over fuelling causing it on the cold start but after a couple more diagnosis laps we could see it was oil fouling the plug!!! looks like a piston ring failure, bit gutting after a rebuild cost of nearly 5k!!! bloody F3 engines are seriously expensive, makes my Noble rebuild seen like pennies. We'll be sorting that out at some point.
We decided we had nothing to loose in re-fitting the old engine and trying to get that working. the guys managed to get it all rebuilt by 2.00pm on Sat which was impressive. We did a couple of laps in the Sat practice session to check everything was ok, which it was.
we tried a few different maps on the engine on Sat night and planned to test it out in quali on Sunday morning.
quali came and it was the wettest track i'd ever driven on! we did 3 laps behind the safety car before they would let us off at speed due to the standing water and rivers on track. The engine was still not running right but i managed 11th on the grid out of 20. the rain meaning i could just about hold pace round a lap if i was committed enough in the corners.
race 1 was one hell of an experience. engine still the same as quali but now i could have some fun racing...
Good start and some solid laps trying to stay on track before a safety car period. after the safety car period i really had some fun. a couple of overtakes i was really pleased with. 1 into turn 1 Redgate, caught someone napping, i only decided to go up the indside half way through the braking zone. Then went round the outside on the Radical Cup Champion on the way in to the old hairpin, again took an opportunity to catch him unaware and out brake him before pulling across to prevent him attacking back.
here is the onboard video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7eYEkugprA&lis...
race 2 was just as wet and the engine was still running the same despite our best efforts. started 9th as the order is set by the fastest laps recorded in race 1.
great start and got up to 6th with some cheekyness in turn 1. all was good until i went off into the gravel coming onto the back straight. managed to keep the car going and rejoin. managed to finish 8th after another 2 comedy 360° spins.
I'll get that video up when i get chance.
We are working on a few things with the engine currently in the car to try and get it running right for Silverstone which is just over a week away. hopefully we can get all this engine crap sussed soon as Spa is only 6 weeks away!??!!
cheers
James
James, It was great to watch you in the flesh, The 360 degree pirouette was stylish to say the least and all credit to you for getting it pointing the right way and straight back on the loud pedal so quickly.....
We did keep chuckling to ourselves in the stands when we could hear the 3 cylinder Massey Ferguson appear on the straight... lap after lap
A good learning curve for some defensive driving also with the lack of power you had..
Great to see ya and great to watch.
Good luck with sorting the Engine and I'm sure once you have all cylinders and a little more seat time you'll be right up there.
Matty.
We did keep chuckling to ourselves in the stands when we could hear the 3 cylinder Massey Ferguson appear on the straight... lap after lap
A good learning curve for some defensive driving also with the lack of power you had..
Great to see ya and great to watch.
Good luck with sorting the Engine and I'm sure once you have all cylinders and a little more seat time you'll be right up there.
Matty.
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