Ranson Times Doune September

This was the last meeting of the season, the time when we've got quite good at driving just in time (for most) to hang up our helmets for six months. Generally the results are no longer crucial, championship battles are mostly settled. The potential is there for anti-climax.

Graeme Wight Jr led me into temptation during third practice, we went up to the Oak Tree to spectate. It had been dry all day but with a mist and low cloud diffusing the light. The race cars at close range shatter a placid Scottish afternoon. This is one of the best places I know to experience motorsport at first hand, although free F1 in testing at Silverstone comes close. The cars luminesce, the low branches of the overhanging trees dip in their wake and when someone is trying the speed just seems outright unreasonable.

First practice seemed to last for ever, the first time in years the track is basically dry on a Saturday and a number of competitors insist on leaving it. Being sensible seemed, well, sensible. Scott, following me up the hill, proving the point by banging the wall in the first section. The damage was limited to a wheel and a wishbone, he was really rather lucky.

Lunch followed. Sandy Lyle came to visit with two of his children who seemed to enjoy sitting in the car. Fortunately I avoided tipping petrol down the older one's neck during refuelling. I think they were impressed by the visceral impact of the engine as Roger Moran warmed up for his delayed first practice.

 Unfortunately when it was time to get our engine up to temperature for post prandial second practice the starter when 'whirrp' then 'click'. Not much good at all. Disengaging the pinion led to a very unhappy slow crank. Something was clearly broken. The time to take it to bits was now, there was no way it would last the day let alone the weekend. So off came the floor, then the starter motor itself. A collection of small balls and a broken cage were extracted from the back of the pinion shaft. This was not good. The starter assembly is in two units. The starter motor and associated gearing, with an attached solenoid, and the pinion carrier that lives in the gear box and includes a Sprague clutch and mechanism for the solenoid to engage the pinion with the ring gear on the flywheel.

Bearings don't just fail prematurely. There had to be a reason. Suspicion fell on an alloy spacer that positions the assembly longitudinally. If this wears the shaft can move longitudinally and dislocate the bearing. Simply changing the bearing would make it work again, but maybe not for long. So now it was time to take the gearbox off. In the meantime some word of mouth around the paddock had reached Wallace Menzies, serious Scottish competitor in a DJ single seater, but also with access to an account with a bearing supplier that would supply on a Saturday afternoon. A few phone calls and the story was that the required bits would be in a Jiffy bag on the step outside the suppliers industrial unit. In Dundee. Willy, present to help Jim Robinson became the second link, keying the address into his Sat-Nav and taking his demonstrator taxi off for further serious testing. 

The gear box is really only held on with 6 bolts and some wiring. Separation was achieved shortly. Minutes later the suspect spacer was exposed. It was indeed worn. There wasn't one in the spares box, what to do? At this point Paul, who usually helps Roy Dawson run his GR55 in the British Sprint Championship, offered to make a new one. Three links in the chain.

 So we had one chap sourcing a bearing, another driving off to fetch it, and yet another going home to his lathe to turn up a replacement part. People helping out, going well out of their way, just because they can.

And with the car in bits all over the paddock waiting for the return of the wise men I got to go up to the Oak Tree and watch for a few minutes.

Soon after the finish of practice the bearing arrived. Shortly after the new spacer. Time to reassemble. The spacer needed some fettling to fit, Paul had been sensibly conservative given the damage the old one (and only pattern) had suffered. It wasn't long before the starter shaft and starter was back in situ. By now the engine was too cold to crank, but there was nothing much that could be done differently, so shit or bust. We got the floor on, covered the car up and went to the party. The detailing could be done in the morning.

As usual there was an end of term party. Billy Cater had organised a meal in the café posh and a live band in the barn ordinaire. Richard Dunn was providing some drive-in movies out of the back of his car. A multimedia extravaganza. This time Graeme Wight Jr didn't lead me astray and I avoided entering the red (truck) zone, retiring to my borrowed bed.

Sunday morning and it still hadn't rained. The car went back together smoothly, although I must admit to only arriving just in time to sort the wires out. Time for second practice for us, fourth for most, the engine cranked enthusiastically. Job done. In the event I was circumspect, somewhere in the 42s, Martin wasn't, somewhere in the 38s. All would become moot when it rained. A more accurate description would be 'precipitated', the mist just condensed onto everything. The net effect was general wetness.

Back to normal then.

The wetness was cyclical, winners and losers. A couple of incidents on the hill leading to delays, more wetness or dryness, a lottery.

Although I was comfortably ahead of Chris Merrick in the championship there was still a theoretical chance of losing out on sixth overall. Rationally it was unlikely, but I was still quite wound up. All I remember is not being able to see much of anything all the way up. The time was good enough for seventh, Chris failed to score. That game was over. The higher profile battle was between Mike Dean and Simon Durling for fourth overall. Mike had closed down a gap of 25 points over the latter half of the season and had it all to play for. Martin won his 49th event. Mike was second. Simon snuck in a relatively distant third four hundredths ahead of Roger. Advantage Mike, but good damage limitation by Simon. The situation before the runoff was Simon leading by two points, the situation after, given the discards, was Mike leading by one.

The conditions at the end of the first runoff were as good as at anytime over the weekend. Second qualifying was the only run that counted on Sunday where I could actually see where I was going, the result was a personal best. Such was the dry/damp cycle that this was good enough to qualify second after Scott, we returned from our qualifying runs in drizzle. The Mike Dean/Simon Durling battle took an unexpected turn when Simon put in a relatively poor time, then Mike touched the wall after Garden Gate and cruised slowly to the top not qualifying. Simon ended up 9th or 10th. He now had to score 4 points to take 4th back from Mike on tie-break, 5 to make it clean. As it turned out the slow qualifying was a stroke of luck. The drizzle helped the shared 1600s of Tim Wilson/Steve Owen and Dick Foden/Phil Jeffries to qualify along with the big Pilbeam sports car of Mike Sidgwick.

Running nearly last on a drying track, this could be fun. Of course it didn't last. Mr Groves, having written off his chances of a 50th win, ran well early on the still damp track. He didn't expect to score much, the track was progressively drying. However as the runoff progressed back came the drizzle. End of fun. Except for Martin.

On the line I flipped the switch for sensible mode from the engine, but even then driving along the lower part of the course my visor was covered in water and out of the corners of my eyes I could see sheets of spray blowing off the cockpit surround. Daft really.

In the end Martin took his 50th win, which is a remarkable achievement over a relatively short time. Trevor Willis was second, given some more power he's going to be a right pain next year. Simon was third, securing fourth overall from Mike Dean.

Tom New was safe in 10th overall, but if he could score 10 or more points at the final event then 9th was on offer. He managed 8, ending up 10th by a mere point from Deryk Young.

So that was it, car going back in the trailer in one piece, nothing exciting to do for six months. End of season.

Fin.

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