So last week we went over to our friends at Bullitt.racing and fitted their newly purchased vbox hd2.
How the car was when it arrived. The next day it was off to get its race livery wrap.
Race report Portimao 24h experience
Well it was overall a great weekend, we only had a couple of mechanical issues, one water pipe breaking (just as we were pitting for fuel, so great timing) and an extinguisher that broke loose and caused an unplanned stop that we got penalized 5 lap places due to the stop being too short.
The car did well, the five drivers managed to climb the leader board to finish the experience in 6th position, after starting from 20th of 29 cars.
Sleep was a bit lacking, but overall staying up for over 36 hours does take its toll, would we do it again, hell yes.
Start of 2018
So we are starting 2018 season on a high, we are about to leave for the Portimäo 24 hour classic race, where only cars over 25 years old can enter.
We will be supporting the Marbella Racing Drivers Club in the pits for the weekend, and hoping that the red golf gti 8v is as reliable as the Germans keep telling us.
Updates will be posted throughout the weekend on the Facebook page follow the exploits, trials and tribulations there.
It was a good result at Jerez
Hans Peter had worked out that he needed to win the last four races to be in with a chance of winning the championship, with a new engine we needed to first try that in practice, to see if we would last the weekend.
Engine worked flawlessly and we were running around in a time of 2:20, the telemetry system said we had a theoretical time of 2:19 in the car and Hans thought there was potential to be even quicker.
We qualified on pole for the Hyundai’s but at race 1 start, Hans was not paying attention to the lights and dropped back to fifth, he quickly started to make amends and managed to claw back to second at the end of the race.
Second race was started with a reverse grid so Hans was now second from last, by the first corner he managed to be up to second place, amazing start from the second race. There was a slight issue in lap 7 where he misjudged a couple of corners, this allowed second place pilot Sanchez to catch and attempt to pass him, though before Sanchez was past Hans he turned in on Hans, and spun out so Hans managed to finish first, and cement the weekend with the overall win.
Final race is on the 8th of October at Ascari, where at present the championship is still open to three drivers, Hans is one of them. It’s going to be an exciting final.
Season finale to the gibfaro copa at Ascari
In three weeks time the final round will be at Ascari, will the race.it supported car finish second in the championship, we will just have to wait and see.
Finale of the northern GT4 series
Well it was not the season finale that we were hoping for. Race 1 was a DNF due to contact with another car which broke the left side front radiator and also a rear puncture.
Race 2 was not the best result either as the car was retired at the pit stop due to a stone through the right side front radiators.
The team is off to Barcelona for a southern cup round, we will not be attending, but wish Bullitt.racing the best for the racing and let’s see if we return next year.
Looking forward to the resurrection of the Hyundai
Looking forward for the 23/24th of September to get back out and assist Hans Peter with the running of his Hyundai Accent.
After the last outing a little issue with big ends and lack of oil flow made a short qualifying session.
A new engine has been shipped in, and the first test to see if we have a strong engine will be at Jerez on the 23/24th of September
Little jobs on the daily
So the check control light on the daily e46 was coming on more and more. The bulbs though looked fine, if not a little dim.
A little research on the internet and we found a TSB from 2007 bmw na, saying that the earth to the rear lights would burn out. A little investigation and that’s what had happened.
A 11 cent connector was brought from the local car spares place, the existing earth cable cut and joined to the new connector.
Problem resolved and hopefully will stay fixed for a few years to come.
Zandvoort with a GT4 McLaren
So a wet weekend was forecast, we were at zandvoort with the McLaren GT4 but this was also the DTM weekend, so Audi, BMW and Mercedes were there in force.
Free practice was good the drivers were learning the track, pit stops were at 45 degree angle as the pit lane was tight with over 30 cars taking part.
We qualified well and at one stage we made it to p1 in class, the first race ended when we were pushed into the gravel by a non breaking Aston v8 Vantage, one new upright and a couple more new stickers we were ready for race two, again bad luck as a KTM made contact and broke a track rod arm, so two DNF’s next race is the 16/17th of September at the Nurburgring.
Slovakia, with the GT4
Well it’s an interesting place, at the door to the circuit there are reminders of the Cold War, a mig fighter jet, a tank and a missile launcher.
The weekend started with a change of a front side radiators as one had a small pin hole and it was best to change it before the practice sessions.
In the first qualifying stint the car found the gravel and this caused holes to be present in both the front side radiators so these were changed, but it meant we did not compete qualifying.
Race 1 was a struggle as we started from close to the back, (8 ktm cars got excluded so they were behind us). But we finished. Race 2 was another story a spin on one of the faster corners would of been fine but we were collected by a Porsche GT4 and this broke a rear tie rod, so race over.