Following the disapointment at Long Valley, I was looking forward to getting back behind the wheel and racing again. I was also looking forward to another chance to race at the Sidbury Hill Site on Salisbury Plain. Our first ever event was back in March of this year at Sidbury Hill but we did not complete the event after withdrawing with a chalk clogged radiatior and a burst top radiator hose. But before we could race again we had a car to repair.

At Long Valley in October we had to retire after managing to snap all three exhaust studs and dropping our exhaust. When I took the damaged manifold off I found that not only were the studs broken but the manifold was cracked on the exit from the rear cylinder. Time was (as usual) getting short before the next event and I decided rather than try to drill out the studs and weld the crack I would source a replacement. With less than a week to go until the race I made a phone call to Ray and after work drove the 120 mile round trip to collect a good second hand replacement.

The following day I set about fitting the 'new' manifold. Although the replacement manifold was identical the lamda sensor was not. The manfold came fitted with a sensor with a multi-wire output and not a single wire like my sensor. All I had to do was swap it over for a new sensor I had and I would be in business. But things never work out that simply. Armed with sockets and a blow torch I tried to get the lamda sensor out of the 'new' manifold but it wouldnt budge. I heated it up let it cool several times and eventually It felt like it was going to move... Then it started to move.. and it snapped. Now I had a manifold with 3 broken studs and a manifold with a broken lamda sensor... and it was Wednesday. I admitted defeat and took the manifolds to the machine shop. 24hrs later I had 2 servicable manifolds, and later that day a car that was ready to race.

As was now late in the year the event needed an early start so we could finish early, before we ran out of light in the evening. We were up at the crack of dawn and with the vitara already loaded up were on the road, fueled up and arrived at Sidbury just after 8am. We quickly unloaded and expected a swift inspection before getting underway, but once everyone had arrived and the briefing had held it was nearly 10.30 before we got going!

After the briefing we headed up to the start. We were again first there but I was keen not to be first out on the course so we moved aside to let number 1 and number 11 start ahead of us. Sat on the line we had a good view of the first section of the course. We watched car 11 attack the course, getting pretty good 'air' at the first jump 'photo opportunity'.

As we came across water sections around the course I slowed down to a crawl, driving them with more caution than on our first attempt at Sidbury back in March. This would hopefully keep the rad clean and avoid the over heating problems that put us out of round 1. About half way round the first run I noticed the car starting to misfire. Looking at the rev counter the needle was jumping about and I knew immediately that the problem was the coil pack again, just like at Long Valley. We pressed on steadily to the finish hoping the electrics would hold long enough to complete the lap.

Once we made it back we headed straight to the pits to sort out the misfire. We removed the coil pack and cleaned the area for the mounting feet and also added an additional earth cable from the unit to an earth point on the body. We also had a quick check over the rest of the electrics and made sure the distributor was dry.

About 3 or 4 runs in we noticed some odd noises coming from the transmission. I eased the pace a little as we tried to work out where the noises were coming from. One good thing is they weren't getting too much worse, nevertheless I was keen that we finished the day under our own steam. With only 80 points separating ourselves and Ray Edwards in class A we needed the points if we to take the class A title. As the day progressed we held a steady pace, not pushing the car too hard. During the afternoon Ray started behind us on one run, and it wasnt long before he caught us up. I let him pass but couldn't resist keeping up with him for the rest of the lap!

Before we knew where we were we had completed 9 of the 10 runs. With a finish under our belt and only one run to complete I decided to push much harder on the final run. I was keen to see how the car took some of the rougher terrain as I'd been driving for a finish rather than for maximum speed. Despite stopping after a few hundred yards to sort out the video camera we still recorded an offical time of 17.05, and the actual time was probably a good 15 to 20 seconds quicker. If we were able to lap consistently at this pace (without the car breaking) this would of put us in the top 5 overall for the event.

Retrospective

Although the car did not get through the day without problem, it still mangaged to make it through the event. The exact cause of the problems with the transmission have get to be determined but I expect it is warn rear propshaft splines. As the car is running +1 inch springs and no spacer in the rear prop this wear is probably a result of the splines running at there minimum engagement.

Despite resealing the exhaust manifold / system joint it still came loose and began to leak after only a couple of laps. Problems with this joint has become a bit of a theme this year. Ways of improving this joint and its keeness to loosen and break up will be quite high on the agenda for the winter strip and rebuild.

Toby and the team laid out a great course at the Sidbury site. Despite the restrictions put upon us by the fun runners sharing the site the course still had good mileage (over a 7 mile run) with an excellent mix of fast and technical sections. Again a massive thanks to the team for setting out a challenging and enjoyable course.

Toting up the points, unofficially I think we have won our class and finished in the top five or six places overall. If this is the case, this is a fantastic result for our first year racing. Over the winter we hope to improve the cars weak points and have a car ready for next season that is capable of finishing every event. Looking forward to seeing you out there next year...