Full of excitement, Dave arrived at Wakefield Park bright and early on Saturday morning ready to do battle with the other Under 2 litre cars who had made the trip to the circuit.
In the preceding weeks, the car had undergone some maintenance thanks to Cromer Exhausts, including a new exhaust system, and we were looking forward to seeing the results. The mechanics at Cromer had found some hairline fractures in the base of the sump during this maintenance. It was decided that we would patch the cracks for this event, then make up a replacement before the next. The cracks had not caused any problems to date, so we didn’t anticipate any dramas.
Dave took to the track under clear skies for qualifying, again hoping to put in a good performance to put him near the top 5. He had only just completed his 4th lap, when a glance in the mirror saw some smoke starting to emerge from the rear of the car. Suspecting the fragile sump as the problem, he immediately moved off the racing line, and returned to the pits to have this confirmed with the first glance under the car. A steady stream of brand new Penrite synthetic oil was falling to the ground.
A decision needed to be made. Do we take the long process to make a stop-gap replacement fit? Do we try to weld up and further patch the existing sump? Or, do we park the car for the weekend?
We decided that rather than attempt a fix which may or may not have worked, we would park the car, and use the Sunday racing to help out at a flag marshalling point on the circuit. Part of the process to upgrade Dave’s licence to a National Competition licence requires 8 hours to be spent at a flag point, so this was a perfect opportunity to do this.
Watching a motor race that you normally compete in, however, is a very difficult thing to do! Dave was like a cat on a hot tin roof watching the awesome action from the Under 2 litre races. They were some of the best races on the weekend, and anyone that would like to view the full results, can do so here.
Thanks go to Al Palmer Repairs as usual, and also to new sponsor Cromer Exhausts.
Be sure to keep an eye on the website for updates on the new sump and about Dave’s plans to make up for the disappointment of losing valuable championship points.
