My first race

Entered by first race yesterday in the stockhatch class run by SEMSEC, and had a great time. The venue was Lydden hill which i'd never driven on before so the 20min pratise in the morning was going to be all i had to learn the track.

Well that was the plan anyway after the second lap of pratise the oil beather on the rocker cover poped of and through oil all over the exhaust manifold! Smoke everyware and a bit of fire.I was sure i'd killed the poor car after just 2 laps. So there I was on the back of the grid on a track i didn't know, I was the only person in my class so every other car on track was on slicks and generally a fair bit faster.

But i managed to achieve the goal i set which was simply to pass scrutinering and finish the race. Best lap time was 55.75 which i was happy enough with bearing in mind i'd not driven the curcuit before but i sure the cars got more in it.

First Round

The first round of the year was today, although my car wasn't quite ready to race i thought i'd better pop along and check out the competition. There was only one car in my class although hopefull by the second round there'll be a few more. Pics of the day car be found here http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a135/AndyE30M3/semsec%20lydden%204th%20april%2007/

Almost there, spent the last couple of evenings making up a dash to house the engine cut off switch, pull chord for the fire extigisher and the hazard and rain light switches. Just need to tidy up some wiring now.

The next job I undertook was to install the fire extinguisher. Found the the best place to get this from was from www.peterlloydrallying.co.uk/ at £95 including VAT and delivery it was alot cheaper than other places i looked. Came complete with pull cords, and two nozzles.

Passed (just) my ARDS course yesterday at Mithril racing which is based at Goodwood.

http://www.mithril.co.uk/

I think if i was doing it again i'd have the optional additional track time as with just 2 slighting laps and 5 laps driving yourself its a tall order to learn the track and drive a new car smoothly.

A diesel Alfa took some getting used to after driving an M3 for the last few months.

Next job was to think up a colour scheme, Thought orange on black was suttle!

I have decided not to do the 750MC series and will hopefully be doing the SEMSEC stock hatch series which takes place at Lydden and Brands Hatch, in order to reduce traveling costs.

Having got to around 135,000 miles the original engine finally gave up. As luck would have it I found a fully rebult bottom end with brand new head on ebay. Its in and running just needs the blow in the exhaust looking at and the AFM and airfilter refitting.