After a much-deserved summer break, we set our sights on the next round at Donington Park this coming weekend of the 9th and 10th of September. Looking at the forecast, currently light showers are expected on Saturday with Sunday reported as cloudy. After the success of Croft we are all doing rain dances here as I fear the Delta won’t be quite as competitive in the dry against some stiff opposition. We will be using the Nankang AR-1 for dry (4 new & 4 part worn) plus the Nankang NS-2R for any rain.
Of the two race ending problems faced at Brands Hatch we have identified the root cause of both. The drive belt failure was caused by a miss-aligned alternator pully which was causing pre-mature ware on the belt. The pully has been machined and should now be in alignment. The second failure was caused by a shear through the drive shaft at the point of the circlip on the outside end on the rear right-hand side of the car. We don’t know if the failure was just because the shaft had been a road car for 27 years before being asked to race and gave up, or if the standard shafts will all need replacing. We will keep an eye out for that.
Saturday sees both qualifying and race for the Classic Sports Car Club Modern Classics and the Lancia is in class A, or the highest class for the series. Confirmed for the meeting is a bumper grid of 36 cars with a fist full of BMW M3s a large litter of Porsches including 993 RSR, 911 SC, Boxter Ss, 968 CS, 944s, some Lotus’ with an Esprit and a few Elises plus a super-fast TVR Tuscan. Normally we would test on the Friday to get everything dialled in, but the Friday test is ridiculously priced so we are giving it a miss. Instead we are going to try and change the setup through qualifying, particularly with the rear dampers to try and get the car more balanced. For the race, a podium finish would be superb in a field of seriously fast cars, however that is probably only possible if it rains.
Sunday sees both qualifying and the race for Future Classics for cars normally run for seventies and eighties cars. At Donington the grid has been spilt so the eighties cars get their own grid, I think for the only time in the season. The Lancia is in the A80 class and is expected to do well against the competition. Like with the Modern Classics, the grid is full of some seriously quick cars with 26 cars currently. Germany makes up most of the numbers with 11 Porsches including 911, 964, 928, 944, 924 plus three Ford Sierra Cosworth’s and three ridiculously fast TVR Tuscans. With a good run should see a shot at the podium with our chances significantly improved should it be wet.
All to play for and the team are confident that should the car finish, it will do well.
Here is a video from last year in the Renault Clio 182 championship:
A small crash can be seen from 7m30s onwards.
Weather forecast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2653591
Stay up to date with live timing here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/event/173664