Portimao - Sunday - The Final Act

The glamour of International Motorsport ... delayed by easyJet out of Faro, so missed the last Gatwick Express to London, now on the 0205 'shunter' to Victoria. Not going to be getting a lot of sleep tonight as I need to be in the office quite early! 

Oh, you'll be wanting to know how it all played out ...

Team Bond worked late into the night but got the engine change completed into Andrew Tart's car.

Iain and the boys finished on my car at about 2100, and got Duncan Rabagliati's Alexis sorted too.

I'd left the circuit about 1930 having accepted one of the last possible lifts to get me to the FJ dinner in Lagos. That was a jolly affair, about 60 of us, a very multinational crowd, very enjoyable. As were the caipirinhas on the balcony of the hotel bar until the early hours. Definitely the oddball highlight of the later hours was chatting to 1977 Le Mans 24 Hour winner Jurgen Barth about doing business in China!

I suppose you still want to hear about the motor racing do you ...?

When we fired up my car to warm it up about an hour before the start it poured water from the overflow ... Uh, oh! It was frothy water ... This is a concern; has the gasket change not done the trick? Rapid investigations were made, the water had been overfilled, and the replacement radiator cap wasn't seating properly, Martin and Josh delved into the wheelie bin to retrieve the one they had replaced! We fired it up again. It warmed gently, without 'leaking' and without froth... Ok.

Then it started to rain .... Quite a bit! Enough to fully soak the track, and too late for it to dry even if the sun came out again. So we pump up the tyres, release the rear anti-roll bar, and soften the shock absorbers all way round. I haven't driven my car in the rain for sometime, and frankly it's dreadful! I had not driven any other FJs in the rain, nor has anyone else driven mine, so I don't know if it really is worse than everyone else's or not, but I wasn't too bad at driving the TR is wet races, whereas this makes me look very 'average'!

I only need to run 3 laps to be classified, in fact even 2 might do! So still concerned about the engine I elect to miss the two out laps (there's an extra one as it has rained, and we've not been out on track in the rain so far), and the green flag lap. In case I only get 3 laps before the temperature gauge goes off the scale, I might as well run laps that'll count - so I elect to start from the pitlane - dead last. The other benefit of this is that'll I should miss any first lap incidents should they occur in these conditions. As the grid heads round on the green flag lap I trundle down the pitlane and hold at the end. Shortly after they've left the grid I set off too.

Boy, this is worse than I remember! Can't brake without locking up, can't turn without under steering, can't put any power on without the back stepping out. I tiptoe round, watching the gauges!

Each time I go past the finish line I count out loud! The temperature gauge has climbed to 70o and stuck there, just as it should, oil temp and pressure also perfect. After three laps I have only caught and passed one car, the Lola of Bob Birrell, and I spun from about 20mph at the bottom hairpin shortly after doing that! I have a little play at speeding up, but frankly it was less than half-hearted. I think about pulling the car in, but considering how FJs are, it'll be quite an achievement to reach the chequered flag in every single Lurani race (and indeed every other race I've started in 2013): so I stay out to the end. Chequered flag, nearly last, but so what; I've done what I needed to - it might not be 'motor racing' as you know it, but I give a Vettel-like shout of joy as I cross the line and wave wildly at Iain and the boys on the pitwall - what an effort. The manner of completing it, like limping across the finish line of a marathon, having previously been on course for a PB, detracts slightly from the 'sporting achievement', but it's been a long fight and we've boxed clever to get our result. (Enough sporting analogies: Ed)

The finish means 2nd in class for the fifth time this year and another trophy for the kids. John Delane wins the class and in so doing ties up 2nd overall in the Championship. Andrew Tart finishes, therefore being classified second in his class and confirming the Championship win - very well done to Team Bond - it's been a hard Iberian tour for them!

Martin Aubry takes Class D, from Steve Futter and Luc Deneve, thereby confirming that I have achieved the lowest rung of the podium in the overall Lurani Trophy for 2013.

Pierre Tonetti won the race at a canter, John Fyda was second, Richard Smeeton third. JP Campos Costa who'd been second yesterday gets no help from his countrymen in race control as they give him a drive-through penalty for some infraction that leaves him down in about 10th.

Time for bed!

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...!

Portimao - Friday

Slightly unusual that today we have just one run on track and that is a timed free practice session that doesn't count, but will mean that everyone has had the chance for a run on the track prior to qualifying.

When I get to the track I find that Martin and Josh have turned the pile of jigsaw pieces sitting in a tray back into a gearbox, they've also bled the clutch and fettled the gear linkage - none of is sure how much difference it'll make, so I take it for a run in the wide open spaces of the enormous paddock here ... Although it is improved, I am disappointed that after all their time and effort, it still isn't great ... But there's not much more we can do now.

Mandatory drivers' briefing emphasises the quirkiness of this track, in particular the blind crests...

Time for Free Practice, 25 minute session, but it gets broken in the middle as a stranded car has to be recovered so we lose a few minutes. The gearbox is easier, I am now having trouble with second perhaps only once a lap, and then in the final three laps that we run after the red flag, I get a whole lap with no issue, and run a 2:17.1. That isn't an especially quick time, but it's just two seconds off Kim in his faster car, and he's been here twice before - that factor is the key here, track experience really counts! See the lap on YouTube herehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IcLOHOV8TBk, and bear in mind that the camera flattens out the climbs and descents, there's a speed trap at the finish line and I'm clocked at 197kmh, obviously we need to get a 200figure!

My time puts me 14th out of the 29 cars running, 33 were entered, but sadly we lost a few with mechanical issues after Jerez, including Iain of course, and Daniele Salodini with the front engined Taraschi.

The boys fettle the car once more, tomorrow we have qualifying and race one, with a relatively short gap between.

I head back to the hotel and get a couple of hours sitting (and dozing!) by the pool in the sun!

A lovely dinner at a fish restaurant down on the beach with JP and his crew, the sole Portuguese driver in the championship and with Kim and Marie.

Portimao - Thursday

The tribulations of Wednesday were indeed sorted the following morning, my late night email to the organisers was picked up quickly and when I returned to the hotel reception they gave me my money back for the first night, and promised me that I could retain the room and didn't have to share it.

Of course the hire car hadn't miraculously improved overnight, but we can live with that.

I'd already made the decision not to test here on the Thursday, the cost of Eur499 was offputting at the end of a long season, my tyres are practically finished after just three events and I don't want to buy new ones, and the car is working! However when I arrived at the circuit and drove under the tunnel into the paddock it was immediately apparent that this is no normal track, there's a tight hairpin in front of me, then it climbs away, reappears higher up, turns right, drops down and then climbs again to anther hairpin up on the skyline to the right from where I'm looking...

I meet up with Iain and the boys, I sign on, do a few bits and pieces, and speak to a few people, they all say how hard this track is, and find it hard to believe I'm not going out on test to learn it. At the lunch break I get permission to cycle a lap on Iain's bike, from 6ft up on the mountain bike the view is a bit different from how it'll be in the car, but the lap is useful to learn which way the corners go at least. There are a number of climbs all of which will be disadvantageous to my little car, and a long straight entered by a long descending fast corner like Dijon, and there's a number of sharp slow corners, but what hits you most are the blind crests, in the car you'll come up these just looking at the sky, and reach the top to negotiate whatever corner... Challenging!

To give myself a chance I attach my brand new GoPro camera to Steve Futter's car, so that I can see the track, but before he's come in from his session John Delane appears by my car, he's done enough and he offers me the final session that he's already paid for. Cool, thanks John.

I'm out an hour later, take it a bit easy, but i love it, what a roller-coaster! Such a difficult track. But I'm having trouble, I need to change down from third to second five times a lap, and I can only get second 50% of the time, and especially not when there's any load in the chassis, ie., it works when I'm just braking in a straight line, but not otherwise. My best is a 2:20.0.

The boys set to work dismantling the gearbox but leave it in pieces and we go off for a local pizza with the crew, and Richard Smeeton and his crew. Get back to the hotel about 2230 and have cold beer sitting on the balcony overlooking the pool and beach, very pleasant.

The Standings

Going into the last round...

Andrew Tart, Class B2, 48 points from 5 races to count so far.
John Delane, Class C2, 46 points from 5 races to count so far.
Yours Truly, Class C2, 44 points from 6 races.
Luc Deneve, Class D2, 36 points from 5 races to count.

No-one else can catch me.

Some grids are diminished at Portimao, but if they can fix the second Bond, damaged at Jerez, then there will be enough starters in Class B2 for full points - 10 for the win. There are only 3 in Class C2 and D2, so max score is reduced to 8 for the win. Odds are on Andrew Tart here, but of course he does have to finish, even if he didn't I could only tie with him if I won the class, and even then I think the tie-break would go his way. If I win my class and John Delane fails to score then I can beat him, but it's unlikely as I've said before. If I don't improve my score here and Luc Deneve wins his class he'll tie with me, and I've a nasty feeling the tie-break would go his way.

So, have we all got that?

Forecast has been for rain ...

One last time ...

Last race of the season, Portimao in the Algarve. A manic day on Wednesday at work, with several client meetings, then it was off to Gatwick for my easyJet flight... And it all started to go a bit awry ... Our flight was delayed but they were very poor at giving out information, so we all stood around the boards waiting for news, flight time came and went, the board still said 'wait in lounge' ... An hour after takeoff time it changed straight to 'Last Call' prompting a stampede, all a bit unnecessary I'd have thought. The upshot was arrival in Faro some 1hr and 40mins after scheduled time, so it was 2300 before I was picking up my hire car ...

Lancia have built some great cars in their history, and for many the Integrale is one of the best cars of all time, I have one and love it! So I was initially interested to try one of their latest offering ... What an awful motorcar, quite the worst thing I've driven (well modern thing anyway), horrible driving position, awful steering, a decent gust will have the car switch lanes on the motorway, lots of wind/road noise, and completely gutless ... There are no real mountains on the motorway from Faro to Portimao, and yet I'm having to change down on the hills; I'd have to do that in our 4 tonne Motorhome but surely not one-up with light luggage in this .... Grrr.

These things come in threes don't they ...

Found the Algarve Casino Hotel about 0030 and checked in, or tried to ... "Mr Owen, you're not arriving till tomorrow". Me: "it is tomorrow...". That apparently wasn't the point. It also seems they think I'm turning up with a friend, a Mr James Bulkeley, this is as much of a surprise to me as I imagine it would be to the other chap ... I've never heard of him, and wasn't really expecting to share a room with some random new 'friend'. It's the middle of the night, and I want some sleep, little point in arguing, I hand over a credit card to pay for a room for tonight and I am told I'll have to check out again in the morning, then check in again later with 'my friend'. I wander off to bed down. The hotel is free for us, part of the deal, so a quick email gets sent to the organisers before I actually get to sleep.

Tomorrow is another day... We'll sort it out then.

Jerez - Race Two

With our race on Sunday not until about midday I had the luxury of waiting until after daybreak before checking out of the hotel and heading for the track. Unfortunately two of our team of 5 FJs were now hors de combat, Iain's newly rebuilt engine has wavering oil pressure and he doesn't want to risk it, whilst Peter Anstiss found a loose gear tooth attached to the magnetic filler plug of his gearbox - investigation showed it to be a tooth off the crownwheel, so Peter was also out not wanting to risk further damage. Seemingly all was well with the remaining three of us....

Our start got delayed a bit and we were quite relaxed, but every now and again a spanner goes into the works ... We'd warmed the car up earlier on, but I actually strapped in quite late and now a little flustered (and nervous as always!) only to find the starter wouldn't work ... Why now? Why does it pick these moments ... Why not do it in free practice? Of course this had happened on the grid of Race One at Hockenheim, so this is a fairly new starter motor. The boys get a jumper battery, but
it makes no difference, as the cars pull out up the pitlane the boys have to give me a push start, and suggest that I don't stall it ...

Helped by an empty space in front of me on the grid following Iain's withdrawal I get a reasonable start again ... My aim is just to keep out of trouble, completing merely a couple of laps will be sufficient to be classified on aggregate, and the third place this weekend will practically guarantee third overall in the Championship. Things don't always work out like that though, and we are racing drivers after all, so I arrive at the first corner in a bunch, and we stay quite close together ducking and diving! Late on lap one Andrea Guarino spins in front of my gaggle, and some frantic avoidance has me bouncing wide out over the kerbs, in my mirrors I see Andrew Tart even wider out ... Must have been close to gravel ... Unfortunately a little further back, Gil Duffy is unlucky to lose the second of the two Bonds and spins backwards into the tyres all avoiding Andrea's Lotus. Andrea gets gong again, but the Bond has damaged bodywork and rear suspension. On the following lap I see a cloud of dust as I negotiate the climbing right-hander onto the back straight, and as I crest the rise I see Roberto Tonetti's Brabham, which had been second in Race 1, in the barriers too; he's climbing out so he's clearly ok.

The dice continues with Andrew Tart and Larry Kinch in particular, but after 2-3 laps I get past both of them and pull out a small gap, but there's no comfort zone, a couple of times I just eased back slightly only to find them filling my mirrors all over again. Later on the invitation F3 car, (the generation that followed the demise of FJ are sometimes invited to come out to play if we don't have an oversubscribed grid, this is a French Tecno), starts crawling all over my tail, and looking a touch wild, he's a invitation car, so I decide that if he wants it that much he can have the position, I don't want him taking me out! Then having got ahead he does it to himself, running very wide at Turn One and driving through the gravel, he gets out, but he's dropped back and recovers onto the track in the midst of the gaggle that we'd both pulled away from! At least he's going to cause me no further concern.

Despite being new just two events ago my tyres are now well past their best, and I'm quite enjoying drifting the car around, even if it isn't always the quickest way round.

As I cross the line with less than two minutes to go I see David Methley's wife hanging out his pitboard, so clearly the car that has hoved into view 150m back is Dave, that will mean that this is the last lap. Dave catches me on the back straight. He is awesome to watch, he really hangs it out with superb car control on the limit, unchallenged here I guess he's not trying 100%, so I reckon if I put in a special effort I can stay with him for the last half lap, enjoy the view and maybe learn something, although he eases away of course, I'm still in touch until the chicane - fun! So that just leaves the last corner ... And I turn from Graham Hill to Benny Hill .... I've been getting quite leery through this nearly 180degree corner on previous laps, with some lurid slides, now inspired by half a lap of Dave Methley's 'tuition' I reckon I can manage a bigger drift into the straight for a glamourous finish .... I can't ...I end up spinning, for a brief moment I'm heading for the start of the pitwall, but we come to rest just before it, partly off the track, and facing back into the pitlane entrance ... Oops! ... Not sure if the car will start, but it does, and faced with a precarious rejoin I elect to 'do a Schumacher' (who am I kidding?) and finish in the pitlane, this means I have a 30mph crawl to the finish line, waving embarrassedly at those people on the pitwall who've seen what happened, whilst confusing those who haven't. With the chequered flag now out the pitlane exit is closed, so a marshal with a big red flag tries to stop me, but before the finish line, after a couple of seconds of mad gesticulation another official appears and waves me on the 10m I need to cross the line. Comedy...!

Obviously I've lost a bunch of places in this race, but still third in class, that has most probably guaranteed my third place overall in the championship - delighted!

If you're looking at the results and see that I finished two laps down on my class competitors, the fact is that I got lapped late in each race this weekend, whereas they didn't, I wasn't as far behind them as it might look - no honestly!

Prize-giving (I get a trophy for 3rd in Class - at least they had the decency not to put 'Last' on it!), lunch, shower, thank yous and goodbyes, and it's into the hire car for the drive to Malaga airport. Having lived in Andalucia I love the scenery down here and decide not to take the autopista, but to go across country, taking a wrong turn near Ronda I trip over 40kms of spectacular road, climbing into a mountainous area and then a real switchback for mile after mile, Ronda to Marbella, highly recommended if you're in the region!

Flight delayed slightly, I am on the 0050 Gatwick Express, and bedding down in London at 0145, sadly the alarm is set for 0600 to get into the office...