Portimao - Saturday

"The Roller-Coaster"

Not referring to the track this time, but it was quite a day ...

Qualifying in the morning was a disaster for me ... It was practically impossible to engage second gear on the downshift, I need it 5 times here, but have dropped that to 4 to save on one change. In some points it's critical to lap time, especially as there are tight corners followed by climbs. I didn't get a single lap without having the problem at least once, frustrated by midsession I nearly gave up, but mindful of the championship I decided to try a couple of laps using third in places instead, which meant a change of driving in order to keep the revs in the power band, it's obviously not the way to a quick lap time, but if necessary it could get me to the chequered flag... 

The track was also treacherously slippery in places, after overnight rain, mostly dry, but horrible in some spots that hadn't dried... 

Obviously I'm well down the grid as a result of all this. 24th of the 29cars... Two cars are found to be underweight after qualifying and have 10sec penalty added to their best lap time, moving them down the grid.

The boys, Martin in particular, spend a lot of the time between qualifying and race fiddling around with the car, focussing mostly on the gear linkage. We head out to the start of Race One with fingers crossed.

Off the start I get overtaken by a couple of faster cars that have had issues themselves in qualifying, but then we settle down, I'm leading a small group, but eventually I start to pull away... The gears are much improved, I need to be a little careful that I don't 'wrong slot'... But it won't be costing me much time. Interestingly ahead of me are the two class D2 cars of Steve Futter and the Argentine, Martin Aubry, whilst close behind me is Luc Deneve. With me running third in class I wouldn't improve my score, meaning that Luc would be able to tie on points were he to win his class. Stay with me here...! Martin Aubry then spins and rejoins behind Luc .... Next lap I come round to find yellow flags and Kim Shearn slowing to a stop, he'd been having gearbox issues, and sadly it's now Game Over for him, particularly relevant to me because it moves me up of course, he'd been ahead of John Delane as well... 

A couple of lonely laps, but then as we come down the very long fast finishing straight I see yellow flags, cars that have spun and a big trail of oil .... I hit it too and have a moment, although was only going in a straight line, neither braking nor turning - this is a very fast spot, scary ... Apparently JP Campos Costa and John Fyda did synchronised spins in close company without contact. As I cautiously negotiate the sector the car that has spun out is Steve Futter .... Can Steve get going again or will this let Luc through into the class lead? The long trail of oil ends with a red car parked beside the track ... It's Andrew Tart, Championship leader ... 

The oil is all over the track, so they call out the safety car, and to my disappointment it picks up Vern Williamson running directly in front of me. A short while later the train starts to build behind us, and it 's Pierre Tonetti, race leader sitting directly behind me ... Behind him is Steve Futter, and on his tail is Luc Deneve! I reckon we'll go all the way to the chequered flag behind the safety car, there aren't enough marshals to clear that amount of oil in the time available.... 

We do indeed finish behind the safety car, but ... A lap and a half before the end the safety car observer has his hand out of the window, now I believe he's wanting Vern and I to go through, so that he can pick up the race leader Tonetti, Vern doesn't reckon that and stays put, so Tonetti ducks past us both, followed by Steve Futter .... Now hang on, what IS going on...?! Clearly some people read the rule book differently to me. If this were Formula One, clearly there would be ramifications, but in practice it's only had a minor effect and no penalties are applied after the race, but it is relevant to me ... As I've now been lapped .. John Delane hasn't been, so I'm a lap down on him. Steve Futter wins Class D, but the gap to Luc is merely a second and Martin Aubry is just one second further back, so it's all to play for tomorrow for those boys. With Kim now out of contention, so long as I am classified in this event I'll be secure in overall 3rd place....

But .... 

A gentle cooling down lap, after 3-4 gentle laps behind the safety car, however when I pull into Parc Ferme the temperature gauge is off the scale, whereas the oil temp has barely moved ... Surely the gauge is caput ... Not as it turns out. I've 'high-fived' mechanic Martin in Parc Ferme, for sorting me a driveable car, now it seems he's got a load more work to do. Evidence points to a cylinder head gasket failure, but fortunately there's no oil and water mix... So glad I ordered that spare head gasket ... Martin removes cylinder head, but disconcertingly there are no 'witness' marks neither on the removed gasket, nor the faces of the block or head, a detailed clean-up and examination reveals no cracks. Considering this engine has run less than 5 hours since a refresh, there is a bit of coke, so that gets cleaned up, and it's all put back together again. But the boys are still working when I have to leave the circuit, I didn't bring my hire car today and I take the last possible lift out, but to stay any later could see my stranded. As they were investigating the head issue, we also found some aluminium swarf, believed to be from the brake/driveshaft assembly, AND we find that the light tubular frame to hold the back of the gearbox has cracked - this happens occasionally. So as I leave the circuit the boys have quite a bit of work to do, I feel very guilty.

My car isn't the only one being worked on ... Andrew Tart's Bond crew are removing the engine from Teammate Gil Duffy's car to replace the failed one in Andrew's - if they get him out tomorrow he can still win the championship from John Delane ...

Iain is investigating Duncan Rabagliati's Alexis withsimilar engine issues to mine.

Clearly a combination of this hard circuit and the long season are affecting a lot of cars, several are now out: Dave Methley (crownwheel), John Dowson (gearbox), Kim (gearbox), Tommasso Gelmini (gearbox I think). There are others, and grids in other races are afflicted by similar levels of attrition.

I miss the cocktail party at Vern's house, but make it in time for a very pleasant dinner with about 60 from the FJ crowd. I end the evening quite late on the balcony of the hotel bar, drinking caipirinhas and discussing doing business in China with 1977 Le Mans 24 hour winner Jurgen Barth, then a long chat with Carruthers, 'team manager' (?!) of the Scottish contingent. Steve Futter was in the bar quite late too, but I told him to go to bed, he's still got to beat Luc tomorrow for my benefit...!