Tel's Tales Issue 050 -Pembrey May 2015
Entry posted by Terry Everall
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Tel's Tales 050– 2015 Season- Pembrey 30th and 31th May 2015
The Pembrey weekend which has been so popular in the past had only 8 Westfields plus Matt Hillam making the long trip to south Wales. Three members of the Yorkshire Mafia team (John, Steve and myself) fought our way down the A1, M42,M5,M50,M4 and took about 7hours to do the 295 miles in my case. We had the usual trackwalk and met up with the gang including John Loudon who appeared to be developing Man Flu. The paddock looked a bit empty and the were only about 60 competitors in total on both days. A new face was Dave Banner (ex OMS driver on hillclimbs) who was out in class H with a slick shod 1600cc Busa powered car which looked very nice. It was a cold night so not too many beers were drunk and we turned in quite early.
Saturday
Unusually you get scrutineered before signing on but that proved tricky as at 0730hrs the scrutineering bay doors were locked so we were all done outside in the fresh air. As I checked how people were getting ready I noticed that Michael Skidmore had brought 8 spare alternator belts to get through the weekend as his engine was still very good at getting rid of the belts. Suddenly I was aware that Steve Everall could start the car and it sounded like it was trying to fire on 2 cylinders. Out came the plugs, in went a new set and he was smiling again as it roared into life. (the old plugs were flooded). The weather for the day was to be dry but cold and Sunday was not going to be as nice. P1 went well with me setting the pace. However all was not well with John Hoyle's car as it was misfiring at high revs. He had just put a new clutch in after its failure at Snetterton and must have interferred with the crank sensor plug wiring and in the end he swopped the wires around and all was well. Mike's car, as predicted, threw another alternator belt so we popped another one on and tried to realign the pulleys as well as tightened the belt. Dave Banner was using the weekend as a bit of a test day and he had a few problems.... his water temp was getting up to 100deg....I solved that by finding that the wires to the rad stat were not connected so I we plugged them together and that was easily solved The other issue was a noise from the back end of the car which turned out to be loose lobro bolts and the hub bearing nuts not being tight. A big socket and bar solved the hub nuts and some loctite cured the lobro bolts which were retightened. His brakes were also not working well and I spotted fluid dripping from the bleed nipples on the calipers so they were tightened up and he was ready to roll again. I P2 John Hoyle and I got down to 111secs and his car was now running well as he showed us how to “do it sideways” through most of the bends as his tyres fought to deal with the power of his 2.3litre redtop. Mike Skidmore had good news and bad......the alternator belt stayed on but it had flipped over and was upside down so we put it back and made a few more adjustments......
It was evident that the organisers were having problems with the timing/results but it was fixed by the start of timed runs. T1 saw Dave Banner go off at the first corner hairpin and Mike throw another belt. John Loudon was pushing really hard and going well and Gary Bunn put in a good banker run. John Hoyle was fastest with me chasing him hard and Brian Jones was pushing well in his small vauxhall engined car but in T2 he had a fail which I think was 4 wheels off. Mike skidmore spun and lost time. John Loudon and John Hoyle had great runs to get under their respective target times and Steve Everall was pleased to set a PB. I tried a run on my larger diameter rear tyres but I went slower despite pushing hard. I had my last run at 1455hrs and that was it for the day so with the British Sprint top 12 run offs it was a bit disappointing that we did not get more runs for our money. In the evening we walked around the track again and Steve found one of Mike's belts which we could reuse but in the end we found that the upper adjuster bracket was broken and so we scratched our heads and John Hoyle came up with a new good solution which in the end worked for the rest of the weekend.
Sunday
Overnight we had heavy rain and strong winds so it was a very wet track that faced us for P1. Gary Bunn was trying to fabricate some cycle wing extensions out of carbon fibre! Times were obviously well off the pace as it was a case of just keeping it smooth and on the right line. P2 was still wet but it was drying a little and the rain had eased and eventually stopped so we began to hope for some dry runs in the afternoon. Later runners (which did not include me, Dave Banner, Gary Bunn or Brian Jones) benefitted as the track dried even though we had a few spots of rain every now and then. Only two runs were promised so the pressure was on to go quickly but bang in a quick time. I was just quickest from John Hoyle in T1 but the later runners had a wetter track, so it was all down to the last runs but Steve Everall's car was misfiring at higher revs due to alternator failure and a lack of voltage to the ECU, so Gary charged it up using his converter powerpack, which at least kept him running. Luckily T2 saw a dry track for everyone and so everyone pushed as hard as they dared to post a quick time. John Loudon pushed too hard approaching the paddock left hand bend and spun off. John Hoyle was driving the wheels off the car and this time had the added stress of Gary Bunn's camera on board......this was the kiss of death as he had a big off at the exit of paddock bend and bounced off the tyre wall with no damage to himself but the car suffered quite badly. The chassis was bent and the nearside wishbones and upright were wrecked and the rear wheel angle did not look right, bodywork also took a bashing so we helped him load it up and discussed repair options as he is due out in 2 weeks. Dave banner was well pleased with his times and was on the pace with his new car.
Final times achieved:
Class C John Loudon 113.19secs new record
Class D John Hoyle 109.84 secs new record/Fastest
Steve Everall 117.99secs (PB)
Mike Skidmore 126.53secs
Class F Gary Bunn 113.38secs
Class G Terry Everall 110.58secs
Brian Jones 117.59secs
Class H Dave Banner 118.88secs
Sunday
Class C John Loudon 130.65secs
Class D John Hoyle 112.42secs
Steve Everall 121.65secs
Mike Skidmore 125.00secs
Class F Gary Bunn 113.90secs
Class G Terry Everall 110.14 secs Fastest Westfield
Brian Jones 119.55secs
Class H Dave Banner 114.61secs
In summary I think we would all have liked more than the 2 timed runs on both days but we did get away with the weather and paddock repairs kept us busy all weekend.
Terry Everall
Speed Series Correspondent
Class G competitor
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