NEWS 2008

19th December, 2008

Although the car is for sale I have still been carrying out some work on the car ready for the new owner or for me to race next year. The chassis has now been repainted in its regular blue colour plus I have repaired all the minor damage from the Birmingham Gala meeting in November.

Over Christmas I intend to repair and paint the inside panels of the car where it got some substantial damage in Scotland + renew the inside bonnet panel that got trashed by that WAGGY bloke at Birmingham!!! (Happy Xmas Graham)

I have applied for a 2009 license and intend to race the car as and when I can afford to next year until it’s sold.

Car still for sale, as it is now.

16th August, 2008

NEXT MEETINGS.

Birmingham 13/09/08
Ipswich (WF meeting) 20/09/08
NIR (World Masters) 21/09/08

Next meeting update.

Having been booked in to race at Buxton this Sunday (10/08) for some time, I've also decided to race at NIR this Saturday (09/08).

Mike

Season so far....
Due to expenditure over the close season and a few other reasons I have not raced as much as I would have liked so far this year. So far I have raced at Birmingham (31/05), Cowdenbeath (14/06) and Skegness (12th and 13th July).

Birmingham was very much an experimental meeting with the main focus being on keeping an eye on the newly re-built engine, the car wasn't handling to good and the increase in power over last season was remarkable. Nothing too much happened at this meeting other than I got a huge tank slapper on during the consolation event and ended up in the wall courtesy of Anthony Davis, no fault of Anthonys', I'd no idea which direction I was going in so he'd no chance. Managed to get out for the GN but the bend in the front axle meant the car was such a handful I was happy to finish the race and just get some laps under the engine.

Cowdenbeath soon came round and I was really happy with the car in practice so decided to get my head in gear and have a real go for some places. In my first heat I managed to hold onto my pole advantage and pulled out a reasonable lead over the other whites and yellows and the car was mint!!! Dave Willis was catching me slowly and with the half way flag about to be shown I got a bit giddy and lost the rear end in turn 1. I got knocked about a bit as I span round (as you do at Cowdie) but managed to back the car to the safety of the infield for the rest of the race. I got off to another good start in the consolation but this time Richard Earl managed to stay with me and on lap three gave me a nudge into turn 3. The hit wasn't that hard but somehow I caught the kill button for the ignition and ended up coasting up the home straight with no power!!! As much as I tried the engine would not fire and just as the yellows were being thrown due to the fact I was stranded on the start finish line I was collected by Wes Goodwin at full racing speed causing major damage to both cars.I had damage to my roll cage, chassis, engine mounts, both axles, gearbox, exhaust, three wheels, floor, front and rear bumpers, prop + loads of other stuff which obviously put an end to my weekend in Scotland. Needless to say the ignition switch has now been moved!!

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images of rear bumper and damaged roll cage seftion removed

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Images showing engine partially removed for inspection, damage to threads on cyl heads and new block caused by the shock of the accident at Cowdie. Image of axle removed and repair to nsr birdgage in progress and a selection of bent/damaged bolts from the engine mounts.

Managed to get the car ready for the Skeggy speed weekend in July, all there is to say about this weekend is the car was crap and so was I!!!!!! It’s now back to the drawing board with the car set up as something is very wrong somewhere but I’ll be out again at Buxton (10/08).

Finally got to add my thanks to Derek and all the team at 218, Richard and Steve my long suffering mechanics, Trish and everyone else who has helped out over the last few weeks.