Tel's Tales 014: Aintree 29^th June 2013

Well, Steve Everall returned from a short honeymoon in the Lakes (how did Margaret fall for that one?) after his wedding on 22^nd June. I was best man so the speed series got a lot of coverage in my speech and amazing I did not spot anyone falling asleep. This was the second visit to Aintree but for me I was still awaiting a new trigger wheel for my best engine so the standard one was back in place. Free golf driving range golf balls had been liberally scattered around the paddock area to see if you stood on one and went base over apex! The days weather was good with only a slight wind and dry all day so we would have no excuses about poor times. Despite his FTD at Curborough, Del was still unhappy about the handling at the rear of the car and ARB, springs and diff were all suspects. The main “entertainment” for the day was provided by Richard James in his blade...... firstly he came to ask me if I had any numbers or tape to make numbers for his car (presumably he was unaware of the need for numbers!) A little later in the day he brought the track to a halt as his bonnet flew off and displaced his airbox and injectors etc. The marshall asked if he could start the engine and drive back to the paddock with all the bits hanging off..... one withering look from Richard told him that was an impossibility as well as a stupid question. So back in the paddock it was obvious that the bonnet key locks were faulty (knackered) so I LOANED him a full new roll of black duck tape. That was a mistake as plumbers and drivers from the black country or somewhere near Birmingham ned to consult a dictionary or wikipedia to understand what loan means.. John Hoyle is his very very fast car ( supposedly underpowered at 210bhp....... or maybe a bit more John????? was blasting along but the XE engine developed a high pitched whistle from the fuel regulator and we could not get rid of the sound but it did not slow him down. Whilst all this was going on my mate Richard reappeared as he needed a mutimeter (what do plumbers know about electrics?) to check why his trickshifter was not working. I decided to check the 12v supply to the unit but there was none. We scratched our heads and I suggested that we ran a new 12v feed direct from the battery but just then he looked at the dash and spotted a switch that was up and not down........you guessed it everything now worked..........

Stephen Everall and Stephen Herbert were having their usual head to head battle ( SH won) and they set PBs

Phil Nichols and Andrew Lowe were going well and John (I must change my suspension settings again) broke the class record. After 2 practices and 4 timed runs John Hoyle and myself broke the class records to gain good points. Gary Bunn just pipped Del by 0.5 sec to finish as fastest Westfield on 44.16secs and is was good to see Marshall Rowland out in the Elise chasing class J times.

The circus was moving down to 3 Sisters for the Sunday event and John Hoyle needed to change his diff so before the awards and in 40 mins he did the change almost on his own.... impressive.