Great week for the "oldies" helping the G2 Interiors rally team on the Roger Albert Clark rally.
Here we go again.
The oldies are off servicing on the Roger Albert Clark rally. Starts on Thursday in Wales and finishes on Monday at Carlisle. 300 stage miles and lots of road miles as well. Proper rally and one I first started following in 1971 with John Donaldson in my Anglia. That was the year when
conditions were so bad few got to Perth. We made it there in the snow and it is fair to say it was a life changer for both of us. Delighted to be helping the G2 rally team with Grants MK2 Escort and Gavin in his Saab 99.
Busy two weeks for the team. Two cars were readied for the Aimshop . com Formula Ford Festival for Kenny Cowie and James Pinkerton. Sadly James, who works at Radical and was the 2018 SR1 Champion had to pull out as the Radical Finale was on the week before and he was forced to support that. We ALL do this for fun and although we have a fantastic sponsor in Cardowan Creameries it is driver led. They pay the entry and test fees and we look after the rest. It is not a bottomless pit and we save costs as best we can but even just to enter, test and get there you are into 4 figures. We sleep in the truck, do our own catering and generally try to help as much as we can with costs but Motor Racing is expensive. Brands was interesting to say the least. We got there on the Thursday to find the bigger teams had already had two days testing under their belt. We had supported the National round a couple of weeks before and had done well getting a 7th place but the goalposts keep moving. The weather was awful and it was hard work keeping dry and warm. 4 sessions with a visit to the gravel in 3 of them did not help things but the new twin shock front end worked well and showed promise. Kenny got stuck in traffic in qualifying, failed to get a good lap and was disappointed to be 11th. He did well for most of the heat getting up to 6th but then had two spins before finishing back where we started in 11th. It was a quick heat so we lined up 16th for the semi final. A place in the final was on but sadly the engine started misfiring and it was game over. It appears the shaft in the distributor bent damaging the camshaft and drive gear. Not best pleased but we are getting used to self induced engine dramas. 7 meetings this year and 3 engine failures due to unforced errors. We headed up the road disappointed as we had little time to get things sorted for the Walter Hayes trophy meeting. In fact it looked like game over as there was no time to get the engine repaired. On the Tuesday we decided we were not going. On Wednesday we went because James took over Kennys entry and we headed south to test on the Thursday and Friday. James built his own engine and it has been a little disappointing to say the least. There is no point fretting about it the only way to learn is to do things and learn from them. Thursday testing confirmed how slow the engine was but to James credit he joined the pensioners who were there, Graham and Munro. trying everything to make it perform better. We changed the head, this gave a better burn which improved the fuel efficiency but no more power. James played with timing and fuel but again it did not go any faster. Got to say it was fantastic fun trying but as the speed traps showed it is back to the drawing board on the engine front. James had a poor qualifying getting stuck in traffic but then had a good heat and managed to get into the last chance race. He went again and scrapped onto the back row for the semi final where sadly a silly old man, living the dream I have to say, ran out of talent, spun across the track causing 4 cars grief before James clattered into him. Fair bit of damage done to both cars but that is motor racing. It was a good atmosphere at the Hayes and for us a very enjoyable weekend made better by those in the pit garage beside us. Not often do you get three Sports 2000 car builders, Gary Gunn, Gunn, Richard Owen, Shrike and Graham Millar, Rotor to talk to.
2019 part 6.
There cannot be many people who enjoy the Formula Ford Festival as much as the boys at RoToR Racing. In fact I would say it would be very difficult to find any group of dedicated amateurs who can better the feat of designing, building and racing their own model of car in all the Ford
classes that used to race at Brands in October each year. Our first outing was back in 1983 with the Formula Ford 1600 Rotor JT1 and then in 1985 with the Rotor JT3. That was closely followed in 1986 with the Rotor JT4 Formula Ford 2000 car that took part in that years BBC Grandstand winter series. Life then got in the way but after a number of years Sports 2000 took our fancy and we used two models of Rotor JT7 car at the Festival in the early noughties. Sadly the days of us building our own Formula Ford cars are long gone but we will be at this years Festival with our Cardowan Creameries sponsored Mygale 08s.
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This year is very special as it might be our last. Most of the team are over 60/65 and the effort required to run a couple of race cars to a reasonable standard means that the days of the amateur in National level motorsport are numbered if not gone. As much as we are looking forward to the Festival it is a big ask for some of us. Hopefully we will be spared all those catastrophises that past Festivals have thrown at us. Things like repeated drunkenness, caravan deposit loss, food poisoning, yes that is what caused the team leader to have his" heid in a bucket" for a few days after a bad gallon of lager. Good luck to all the competitors that will be joining us at the BRSCC Aimshop.com 2019 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch on the 26/27 of October.
2019 part 5.
We missed the last Scottish championship round because we felt that racing on the reverse direction circuit was hard on our Mygale FF1600 cars. Formula fords are not built for "yumping" and the heavy landing after the Knockhill chicane can cause expensive
damage. Seems it was a good call because the new and worthy champion, Jordan Gronkowski, damaged his car in testing and did well to get it repaired and out in race one to get the points he needed to win the championship. He then did the sensible thing and took no
further part in the meeting. We feel bad that Scottish FF is in decline and that so few drivers with cars want to take part but while combining with the Formula Juniors might make economic sense it is a disaster waiting to happen because of the speed difference.
Matters are not helped when we were told earlier in the year by one of the clubs leading lights that "he wanted rid of FF 1600 because the club are not bringing in enough money from them" .
It is such a shame that in the year that we celebrated 50 years of Formula Ford in Scotland so little seems to be getting done to promote the class.
The team decided instead of spending our hard earned racing at Knockhill we would head for Silverstone for the penultimate round of the BRSCC Avon tyres National championship. We were using the meeting in preparation for the Walter Hayes trophy later in the
year as our driver , Kenny Cowie, had never raced there before. We have used our Cardowan Creameries sponsored Mygale 08s at this venue before so we had some idea of what was needed so it was just about getting Kenny up to speed. Sadly Friday practice
was short lived as we broke the main shaft in the gearbox. By the twist and surface crack on the shaft we feel it is a legacy of "yumping " the car earlier in the season in the reverse direction Knockhill race.
It is a rare failure even on very high mileage gearboxes so came as a big suprise. Big shout out to Linton Stutley and Neil Tofts for lending us the required shaft to get us back on track. We had a fantastic time in with the big boys and despite all the hard work the team
enjoyed the experience. 16th in qualifying then 13th in the first race was an excellent effort on Saturday with a 15th in race two on Sunday. The third race promised so much with Kenny up in 12th before being forced off track by another driver. Kenny got going again but came in with a lap
left rather than finish last. Lots to ponder before we return later in the year.
2019 part 4.
Lots of action in the past few weeks. Our new engine arrived on the Thursday before the David Leslie Memorial meeting and we took the decision to try and get it out on track for James Pinkerton of RPE who had built it. Hats of to James for getting involved and for putting up with all the pitfalls of working with an engine that was last produced in 1986. Parts are hard to come by and although some new parts are being made they are not to the high quality that we now expect. Engine went in fine and we tested on the Friday evening. New engine and driver, monsoon conditions at Knockhill��..what could possibly go wrong? The answer was nothing. Both behaved as did our other car driven by Kenny Cowie. Saturday morning was a little brighter but still difficult for the drivers as they were out after the two stroke karts so track conditions were slippy to say the least.
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2019 part 3
Things have been busy in the Rotor workshop. Instead of pushing on with our various RoToR projects all we seem to be doing is fixing things. The second round of the SMRC championship promised so much after two podiums at the first round but the reality was it was a disaster. It started with us struggling to gain access to the circuit on the Friday night, no security, gates locked and no way in. Fireman skills came to the fore but it was well after midnight before we got in. Testing was 4 sessions on the reverse direction circuit. Now there have been issues with this circuit set up before and some serious accidents as a result. It did not seem a big problem for our Mygale in the past but this time round we had all sorts of issues. Race day started well with us on pole for 4 or 5 laps but then it all went wrong. The rear suspension collapsed after the lower bracket retaining bolts got damaged after the nuts were torn off the bolts. Happened at the chicane after a very heavy landing and this area of the circuit, where the cars are taking off and landing heavily, caused all the cars issues. I do not think things were thought through when they decided on reverse direction. Single seaters have limited suspension movement and as a result limited capacity to soak up the bumps. We ended up 4th on the grid. Our driver, Kenny Cowie was pumped up for the win but a bad start saw him having to battle his way through from the back. He had a tough man to pass for second in Neil Broome and it all went wrong at the hairpin. The two cars touched and the Cardowan Mygale went flying resulting in a broken pushrod, damaged wishbone and a disastrous non finish. We sorted the car before the next race but the adjusters on the wishbones we carry as spares were different so we ended up changing both sides. We ran out of time to do a proper set up but we did manage to take the grid. In the race things got silly and despite having a car not set up the pace was good. Sadly an engine issue due to a missed gear caused another non finish. Not what you want if you are following a championship.
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