Well done Allan & The E-E Monaro team !!

[EH*ROB]

Hard Work pays off...............

After the disappointment of Donington and more difficulties with engines in the build up to Magny Cours, the trip to France was always going to be very hard work. The Monaro left on Tuesday without an engine, a re-built unit followed on Wednesday to be fitted at the circuit on Thursday.
Matt Griffin started practice with strict instructions not to go over 3000 revs, as the new engine needed bedding in. This did not go unmissed by the Clerk of the Course who hauled Allen up in front of him to explain why his car was going so slowly in an International FIA event! After much explanation from Allen he was given a further 5 laps and was then instructed to tell his driver to get a move on.
All went well for first qualifying with the rev limit lifted the drivers were able to put in some more respectable times,
For the second session, the plan was to send our new driver, Ryan Hooker out first, then make any changes to the car and then for Matt to take over. By the end of the session Matt had posted a time of 1min 54 seconds.
On Sunday all appeared to be well in the warm up other than a slight smog in the cockpit which was soon traced and rectified. The engine temperature was also slightly high so some work was needed to try and force more air into the radiators, this and an increase in the ratio of Valvoline's super coolant was to keep the temperature down on what was to be a very warm day.
Ryan started the race, but after a few laps reported that the power steering had failed. This together with the raising temperatures made it a very uncomfortable drive. After an hour the team took advantage of a safety car period to pit for a fuel, tyre and driver change, as well as repair some damaged body work.
Matt took over and was soon into his pace lapping consistently at 1.55s but was finding it very uncomfortable. With temperatures in the cockpit reaching some 65 degrees and no power steering, plus the engine temperature slowly rising it was all Matt could do to complete his hour session. Allen called a slightly early pit stop for a drive driver change and re-fuel. A rested Ryan hopped in to the car for the final session; at this point in the race Allen informed us that we were leading our class.
Ryan did a superb job of staying out of the way of the faster GT1 cars and slowing the car down slightly just to try and ensure a finished. 8 laps from the end he reported that the diff was now getting extremely noisy and the oil temperature was rising. As the last few minutes slowly ticked away it appeared that everybody was just holding their breathe. We had made it, not only had we finished we had won our class!!
Numerous teams and drivers came to our garage to congratulate Allen and the team, which was, truly heart warming. Everybody seemed genuinely delighted for Allen who admitted that he just may have had a tear in his eye as his car crossed the finish line, and why not, after all we are EMOTIONAL ENGINEERING!

For more detail got to the "more news" section of our website ee-sport.com

Congratulations to Allan & the Team, All the best,

Rob Apsey
The Holden UK Register.