Newsletters
May 2002
May - What a month! All was looking great and we were ready well in advance for the test day at Oran Park. The new strut tops allowed us to get more camber and a little more castor, so now we are running 4.5 degrees negative camber and 5.5 degrees of castor. The gearbox was also repaired from the earlier race meeting at Eastern Creek and the new flywheel made quite a difference to the responsiveness of the engine.
We got out to the track early on the Friday morning, and checked the car over. The first session or two would be short as we needed to bed in the new front brake pads. Little did we know that our day was to be much shorter than originally planned! After just four laps, a problem developed in the gearbox. This time it was different, but never the less it brought a premature end to our day.
The team was extremely dissapointed, as the car had felt great when turning in, the extra camber and castor was certainly making a difference. I feel confident that we could have laid down some good times, but that's motor racing for you. After pulling out the gearbox, and getting it back to Paul, we discovered a washer had got caught on 5th gear, and destroyed a locating ball (as described by Paul). This in turn allowed the nut on the end of the main shaft to loosen. I'm glad to say that there was no extra damage, and the gearbox has been rebuilt and re-fitted to the car.
With just a few minor things now left to do before the next race meeting, we are looking forward to getting the car back onto the track.
The next round of the NSW state championship is being held on the weekend of June 22/23. Due to work committments, we will miss out on the Friday practise, which means we will need to use the qualifying session on Saturday to finish bedding in the brakes. Hopefully we will get a quick lap in towards the end of the session and qualify well. Keep an eye out for the race report after 24th June.
Until next month.
Cheers,
Mark Alford.
January Newsletter - 2002
February Newsletter - 2002
March Newsletter - 2002
April Newsletter - 2002
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