 Graham Walden's TVR Tuscan |
PistonHeads' ace race reporter and Tuscan racer Graham Walden reports on the first round of the Dunlop Tuscan Challenge -- what were the Tuscan Challenge and the TVRCC Cup series have been combined and are now run by the BRSCC.
Here's his racing driver's-eye view of the first fixture of 2006 at Oulton Park.
Race preparations
After over-wintering untouched in a trailer until February, the Tuscan started first time and purred nicely in the corner for about 10 minutes -- when the engine stopped. Never mind. We simply pushed her into the garage to look at it another day. Trying to start the car a day later proved fruitless, She would fire but then die, through flooding.
As the new season drew closer, we started talking with Jamie Rogers from Castle Race Engines about joining forces for the coming season, with them taking over development of our currently standard Chimaera 400 engine. A deal was quickly done but this then entailed the engine coming out for some work which we hadn't planned for. Stripping the engine down highlighted a few problems which needed resolving before the engine went back together.
This ended up with the engine going back in the car on the Sunday night the week before the first race at Oulton Park. I then had to build a new engine bay wiring loom as we had decided to use the Emerald programmable ECU from my Chimaera to allow us to take advantages of changes made to the engine.
So by Thursday we finally got the engine running but not fantastically -- we were still running very rich and needed to take about 30 per cent off the fuel map to get the car to run properly. Jamie came over on the Friday and we spent the day checking everything out, Finally loading the car onto the trailer at 10pm before I set off to Oulton Park, just making it into the paddock before they shut the gates at midnight. A quick chat with some of the guys in the pouring rain and a couple of quick beers and I was tucked up in the penthouse suite on top of the Discovery.
Saturday morning was reasonably relaxed as we were the last race and thus last qualifying session of the day. There was still much frantic work throughout most of the TVR paddock, with the majority of the teams with preparation still to do on the cars. Tim Hood's Sagaris V8 even required an overnight engine change. We also set about trying to solve the rich running problem along with fitting all the sponsor's logos and some new numbers to the car.
Last minute fixes
At 8:30 Iain Jones called me to say there was no way his car would be ready, but the feeling in the paddock was that we'd all get together to see if we could get him running so he brought the car down anyway. This proved handy for us as we then borrowed the fuel pressure regulator from his father's V8 Discovery, which solved our rich running problem, although only just in time for us to make the qualifying session.
In the rush to make the qualifying session, we didn't have time to change to slicks rather than the very old worn tyres from last season that we had been moving the car around on.
Also, I remembered as I pulled out onto the track we hadn't put any fuel in the car. I managed the green flag lap and then most of the following lap and just managed to coast into the pits totally empty. Pops had realised as soon as I'd gone out and was ready with five litres of fuel. We were about to refuel in the pit lane until I remembered that's a no-no without the proper equipment. So with the help of a few marshals, the car was pushed out into the paddock where we refuelled and I headed back out on the track.
On the track once more I quickly realised that not only was the track quite slippery, I'd bolted the seat in too far forward, making for a very awkward driving position. Still we managed a reasonable lap an put the car second in Class B and seventh, right in the middle of the grid.
With several hours to the race the seat was moved, the car fuelled for the race and then just a general nut and bolt check done. We left the wheels off as the very changeable weather could have gone either way.
The other two cars sharing the awning hadn't done too well either. Richard Wright had pulled off after half a lap when his throttle cable pulled out of the housing, and Iain Jones hadn't made it to the track in time, although his car had sailed through scrutineering with out a hitch. This was where having an organiser like John Reid made the difference, He managed to get the BRSCC to allow the cars to qualify for three laps behind the pace car and on to the grid, and also get the Sagaris of Tim Hood qualified.
The only casualty of qualifying was the mighty Thorpedo (bottom pic), or ground effect car as it is now referred to. An engine fault after posting third on the grid would see it back in the trailer before the race.
The race
The day dragged on and the rain came and went and then came back again. It was touch and go on tyres when it came time for our race. It was dry but the rain could have easily come back, and if it did come back it was likely to be heavy. In the end the fact the track was currently dry meant that slick's were really the only way to go. Even if it did rain later in the race you'd loose so much time early on it would have been difficult to make it up. So on slicks for the first time we headed out on to the track. I must mention that the slicks were a used set kindly donated by Tim Hood to help us get out on track.
It felt good to be back in the car properly, especially with the seat now in the right position so I could drive the car properly. On the green flag lap there was much weaving about trying to warm up the slicks, something else to get to grips with. I was also a little concerned about some backlash I could feel in the transmission.
I lined the car up on the right hand side of the track with a good route to the Old Hall in my mind, although there was some trepidation as to how much grip the slicks would have until they warmed up.
As the five-second board came out, I dialled in about 3,000 rpm and waited for the lights. Red lights on, and then quickly they went off, bring the clutch up and away to a reasonable start -- a little wheel spin but not too bad, and I darted between to two cars in front. Tim Broughton came right up the inside and I elected to take the wide line through the first corner, but Tim also ran wide forcing me across the curbs and back down a couple of places as I scrabbled to get back on the track smoothly. A quick glance in the mirror saw the spinning Tasmin of Cliff Jobson.
The train of cars headed down Cascades in tight formation, and into the final part of the corner, Tim disappeared in a cloud of tyre smoke and I nipped back past him towards Knickerbrook and up the hill. I hoped then to head off after Marc Hockin but I started getting gear selector problems almost immediately and then had to defend against Tim before he managed to get back past. I found a box of neutrals coming out of the corner.
I spent the next couple of laps closing up on him and then dropping back as the gearbox played up, before it finally jammed in fourth gear, leaving me to drop behind him into a bit. I then tried to make the best way round the circuit in just the one gear.
I found it very difficult to maintain concentration an motivation, and very nearly lost the car a couple of times. It felt very slow but the lap times were actually not too bad and I was still approaching all the corners at over 100 mph, but not being able to balance the car properly certainly lead to some interesting moments. As the leaders came around to lap me, it certainly gave me something to think about.
After a couple of laps of willing the flag to come out before either someone caught up with me or the gearbox seized, I started closing back in on Tim who was suffering fuel pickup problems as his tank emptied. By Lodge, I was right behind him but he managed to block me and, stuck in fourth, there was no was I could accelerate past him -- and then the chequered flag came out.
In spite of the gearbox problems, we finished third in class and seventh overall, better than it was looking on the Thursday morning but, as a racer, it's always the win you want.
The flag and Class A win was taken by Darren Dowling, Marc Hockin took the class B win, with Howard Bryan managing both first in Class C and last.
After much frantic effort by all the teams, Iain Jones had made it out in the Chimaera but had to pull off the circuit blowing oil out of the rocker covers.
Aftermath
So that was that, the first race in the new 2006 Dunlop Tuscan Challenge series. Everyone there deemed it a great success and agreed that it shows signs of a great future: the drivers enjoyed it and the fans were back out waving TVR flags around the circuit. It's also shaping up to be very close through the classes and the mix of faster and slower classes adds to the spectacle. For the next round at Silverstone on 15 April there should be even more cars as the series builds up.
For us there is now some more intensive work in the garage. The gearbox needs to come out and the other one already being rebuilt needs to go back in. The current one will need a close examination as that's the first time it's been used since being rebuilt since it did the same thing at Pembrey at the beginning of the 2005 season. We also managed to split the exhaust can somehow so that will need repairing, and the engine still needs mapping properly. And I need to do some work in that time as well...
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