After the slipping clutch fiasco in Race 1, the gearbox has to come out. A pain but its been out a few times before s oat least the bolts will come undone. Once out the clutch while low is not as bad as it could be but there is a film of oil around the casing and it looks like the oil has come out of the o/s drive shaft seal in the diff. This is unlikely but with the rear gearbox bolt missing too could explain why its slipping and there is no sign of a leak around the rear crank case seal behind the flywheel.

A new stage 2 clutch and new diff seals ordered hopefully we can rectify this fault next week.

Ready for Qualifying and the track is dry and it looks like its going to stay that way for the day. The car gets through noise testing and performs well on the track I manage to qualify 4th in class out of 8  with a 1:02 so I am happy with that for the cars first run out in anger.

Race 1 and I get off the line poorly letting Paul Bryson and new guy David Heasman through – wheel spinning terribly for some reason. I manage to get past Paul after a few laps of being tucked up behind him then reel in David. After passing David I am full of confidence then coming down Paddock Hill Richard Marsh in his 170 spins in front of me. I am not about to write another car off just yet so I brake hard and Martin Webber passes on the inside and I end up chasing after him.

The car is working well and I feel I can catch him when all of a sudden every time I change gear the clutch starts slipping when changing gear. It gets worse over the final three laps and on the last lap Paul gets back through which is mighty annoying but the car does well other than that. Its not had a new clutch since I started so its probably due one now. I also managed a fastest lap of 1:01 which is a new PB at Brands so happy with that.

Photos 1,2 and 3 by Roger Martin and Photo 4 by Dickon Siddall.

I decided since the car had not been out of second gear since being put together I’d stump up and do testing on the Friday at Brands for the afternoon. Especially as I was only doing Quali and race 1 due to attending a Wedding on the Sunday.

Pre-Testing check found the n/s/r ABS wire rubbing on the wheel so both rear ABS wires were cut off. Test session one on the new tyres went well and I just wanted to shake the car down but its very hard to remember that and not push the car too hard. Half way through on exiting Graham Hill bend I missed a gear and span backwards off the circuit. The kerbs seem to vibrate a lot through the steering wheel and once back on track there was a lot of movement in the steering wheel which had come a little loose. Dad clocked me at a 1:02 which was in line with my fastest lap last year.

Second test session started after we tightened up the steering wheel and were subjected to a hail storm 10 minutes before starting. Not one to be put off by a drying track I went out to see what the Dunlop tyres were like in those conditions and to be fair their not bad. The track was pretty dry except for Clearways by the end and the car felt good.