My first race of the 2011 season
Discussion
Hi all,
as there seems to be a trend of Noble owners sharing their racing experience i thought i would contribute, here goes...
It was the first race meet of the year for the Toyota MR2 championship. 2 race on Sunday at Brands Hatch.
I arrived at the test day on Friday and after a 20mins session failure in the cylinder head ended my day!
During friday night and saturday daytime the team of mechanics from AW Tracksport who support me stripped the head and fully rebuilt it before refitting it to the car. at 7pm they started the engine to hear a knocking from the big end!!! they took the decision to replace the entire engine with a spare which luckily was put in the lorry the week before. At 4.30am Sunday they finally had the new engine in and running (much to the discomfort of the other competitors trying to sleep in the paddock area).
so qualifying went well considering the lost testing and i qualified 6th for the first race and 5th for the second (best quali time sorts first race out and second best time grids the second)
the first race was going well and i was up into third place for a time before a red flag. the race restarted in original grid positions and again i was up into 4th before a freak huge accident involving my team mate, last years champion and my friend in his first ever championship race. they tried to go 3 a breast into Paddock Hill bend and 2 cars were catapulted into the barrier at over 100mph.
here is the video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoSaC05V3Q
the driver of the red car (Zac Chapman) walked away from the car. Andrei Bgatov was cut from the car and taken to hospital with head injuries. I can very happily report he is now, although heavily sedated, walking and talking.
The race was of course not re-started.
The second race did go ahead and with the loss of Andrei and Zac from the grid I lined up 3rd behind Rowland Wilkinson 1st and Paul Hinson 2nd. I managed a great start and got past Paul in the first two corners. I had a lot of defending to do but eventually broke clear and tracked down the leader. After 1 failed attempt I managed to get past Rowland at Paddock Hill bend. I broke clear and gained a decent lead until the final lap where I was stuck behind a back marker during a yellow flag which gave me a nervous flag dash.
Here is the video on youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_vLMvKOd4
Very pleased as this was my first race win and especially given the outstanding effort by the mechanics supporting me!
Also, it was nice to see DaddySumo and FunkyBMX for a short time. gave me the opportunity to collect the adjustable Nitrons for the Noble :-). thanks for coming.
Next race: Silverstone track evening in the Noble… just kidding ;-) (seriously I am kidding). Snetterton on 22nd May.
Cheers all
James
as there seems to be a trend of Noble owners sharing their racing experience i thought i would contribute, here goes...
It was the first race meet of the year for the Toyota MR2 championship. 2 race on Sunday at Brands Hatch.
I arrived at the test day on Friday and after a 20mins session failure in the cylinder head ended my day!
During friday night and saturday daytime the team of mechanics from AW Tracksport who support me stripped the head and fully rebuilt it before refitting it to the car. at 7pm they started the engine to hear a knocking from the big end!!! they took the decision to replace the entire engine with a spare which luckily was put in the lorry the week before. At 4.30am Sunday they finally had the new engine in and running (much to the discomfort of the other competitors trying to sleep in the paddock area).
so qualifying went well considering the lost testing and i qualified 6th for the first race and 5th for the second (best quali time sorts first race out and second best time grids the second)
the first race was going well and i was up into third place for a time before a red flag. the race restarted in original grid positions and again i was up into 4th before a freak huge accident involving my team mate, last years champion and my friend in his first ever championship race. they tried to go 3 a breast into Paddock Hill bend and 2 cars were catapulted into the barrier at over 100mph.
here is the video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoSaC05V3Q
the driver of the red car (Zac Chapman) walked away from the car. Andrei Bgatov was cut from the car and taken to hospital with head injuries. I can very happily report he is now, although heavily sedated, walking and talking.
The race was of course not re-started.
The second race did go ahead and with the loss of Andrei and Zac from the grid I lined up 3rd behind Rowland Wilkinson 1st and Paul Hinson 2nd. I managed a great start and got past Paul in the first two corners. I had a lot of defending to do but eventually broke clear and tracked down the leader. After 1 failed attempt I managed to get past Rowland at Paddock Hill bend. I broke clear and gained a decent lead until the final lap where I was stuck behind a back marker during a yellow flag which gave me a nervous flag dash.
Here is the video on youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_vLMvKOd4
Very pleased as this was my first race win and especially given the outstanding effort by the mechanics supporting me!
Also, it was nice to see DaddySumo and FunkyBMX for a short time. gave me the opportunity to collect the adjustable Nitrons for the Noble :-). thanks for coming.
Next race: Silverstone track evening in the Noble… just kidding ;-) (seriously I am kidding). Snetterton on 22nd May.
Cheers all
James
Edited by jamescmr2 on Tuesday 19th April 22:03
Whoohey, well done James a great drive and a good tussle at times for the lead.
You must be over the moon with that but yea a scary crash.
What camera do you use as I must get one sorted b4 our next race.
Oh yeah, try and get ya camera dropped a few inches as it would make for even better viewing
You must be over the moon with that but yea a scary crash.
What camera do you use as I must get one sorted b4 our next race.
Oh yeah, try and get ya camera dropped a few inches as it would make for even better viewing
FUNKSTER UK said:
Whoohey, well done James a great drive and a good tussle at times for the lead.
You must be over the moon with that but yea a scary crash.
What camera do you use as I must get one sorted b4 our next race.
Oh yeah, try and get ya camera dropped a few inches as it would make for even better viewing
You must be over the moon with that but yea a scary crash.
What camera do you use as I must get one sorted b4 our next race.
Oh yeah, try and get ya camera dropped a few inches as it would make for even better viewing
cheers for the comments. the camera is a JVC Everio. i'll have to check for the exact model but can't remember right now.
yeah i know its a bit high. i set the position before going to the track... and then fitted the sun strip!!! i'll get it sorted for the next one.
cheers Gadge,
The speedo worked before they changed the engine over but i didn't give them too much of a hard time for that lol. i have a data logger which gives speed but i dont watch it tbh. it probably is better if you dont know how fast you're going.
here is a data log of a pretty good MR2 champ lap of brands. hitting about 107mph on this lap at the end of the straight.
the cars have to be very standard for our championship. so no ECU changes, no engine mods etc.
cheers
James
The speedo worked before they changed the engine over but i didn't give them too much of a hard time for that lol. i have a data logger which gives speed but i dont watch it tbh. it probably is better if you dont know how fast you're going.
here is a data log of a pretty good MR2 champ lap of brands. hitting about 107mph on this lap at the end of the straight.
the cars have to be very standard for our championship. so no ECU changes, no engine mods etc.
cheers
James
Gadgeroonie said:
do you think some of the championship leaders have tweaked thier cars a bit ?
(cheating goes on in all motorsport)
can you run different fuels ?
does the car run a distributor ?
are you allowed to adjust the cam timing ?
(cheating goes on in all motorsport)
can you run different fuels ?
does the car run a distributor ?
are you allowed to adjust the cam timing ?
Edited by Gadgeroonie on Wednesday 20th April 19:39
Gadge,
the MR2 championship is really good for NOT having cheaters. i know what you mean about cheating in motorsport but the regs are so tight it would be pretty obvious if people were.
fuel has to be 'pump' fuel
the car is on a distributor
you can adjust the cam timing so long as all the parts are still original toyota parts.
there was a competitor at the front last season and everybody suspected something suspect in the engine and this year engines are getting sealed and will be inspected at random.
my engine was all rebuilt before the start of the season and when it failed they fitted an engine which had just been picked up straight out of an original car (known good of course) and i won the race so not of the guys on track with me could have been cheating with the engine.
cars are weighed after race/quali. you have to finish with at least 5l of fuel for fuel testing so it's pretty tight.
basically:
-intake is free but has to be orig throttle body
-exhaust is free incl de-cat
-engine/box/diff has to be standard (rules on clearances compression etc)
-brake pads are free but discs and callipers are standard
-springs are free but acceptable dampers are listed
-wheels are standard
-tyres are control R888
-minimum weight
-bodywork standard
mmmm....you get the idea
cheers
James
Hi James
if you have a distributor and you can adjust the cams - then there is more power to be found
i did some work for another race series and there was significant gains in cam timing alone
do you know if the cams are fitted to the pulley via a dowel ?
you can adjust the base timing by advancing and retarding the distributor - again more power may be found here alone.
There may not be large gains but every little bit helps
do you know if the original intake manifold has trumpets inside it ? you might be able to make one with different length trumpets inside and gain more top end power / torque
if you have a distributor and you can adjust the cams - then there is more power to be found
i did some work for another race series and there was significant gains in cam timing alone
do you know if the cams are fitted to the pulley via a dowel ?
you can adjust the base timing by advancing and retarding the distributor - again more power may be found here alone.
There may not be large gains but every little bit helps
do you know if the original intake manifold has trumpets inside it ? you might be able to make one with different length trumpets inside and gain more top end power / torque
Edited by Gadgeroonie on Thursday 21st April 00:53
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