Round Two - Whittlesey 29th May 1999

Shortly after the start a drop onto the water and a slight turn right followed by a shortish run to a series of wriggles that culminate in a sharp and narrow turn round the back of a small island, running wide into this area lost a lot of time and allowed others past. From there a left and onto a small section of land. In F3 the transitions were flat out. Back onto the water and a right round the buoy. As the buoy changed position over the weekend it made the next transition slightly easier. This section of the course was quite slow and difficult. A deep ditch on the left was definitely to be avoided. Back on the water round another island was a useful strip of quick water which gave the F1's a chance to get into the throttle and stay there for more than a few seconds. Going round this island we got dive bombed by the colony of black faced gulls based there. One managed to hit the duct as I charged round the island flat out. A sharp right combined with a transition completed the lap.

I liked the course, quick and varied. It suited the Eagle as it had more water than land.

My three days of racing was quite eventful. Saturday was a dream. Warm and sunny, the racing producing a second and a third. Sunday was a nightmare. Cold, windy and damp, I crashed in practice and broke down in the last race. Monday was hard work but produced a podium finish. My first in seniors.

It was great to see Kristie Scales racing again, we last raced together three years ago in Juniors. As before she was very quick and romped away with Saturdays races. My first race saw a good start from 6th putting me in third behind Lee Willars.

Rupert Baker had a very scary moment when his engine cut going into the second transition and was unable to make the turn. He went through the catch fencing and down the 12 foot drop into the ditch at the side of the course. The race was stopped whilst he and the craft were recovered and a second layer of fencing installed.

Having had such a good start I was worried that I would loose my position in the restart but as it turned out I finished second.

In the second race I was gradually hauled in by "Slap" Richardson who was much quicker on land than I and eventually got past on the last land section before the flag. This was repeated in the third race after a period where he was pushing me quite hard and I was defending as best possible before the speed difference on land after the second transition made my position impossible.

After the first days racing I felt that the craft was "dragging" on the land sections, so we changed the 5Z blades for the spare Trueflow setup to give more skirt pressure without having to alter the splitter too much. I got a lot more skirt pressure, did not seem to loose much, if any, on the top end but was much slower off the grid on pick up. I was not appreciably faster on land and on balance think that the 5Z's were preferable.

My fourth race saw "Slap" and Stephen Scotney get past in pursuit of Kristie before I broke down with the engine misfiring badly. The symptoms were wierd. The engine would start and idle quite happily but when revved it would misfire badly and judging from the flames appearing in the tube from the crankcase to the pulse (fuel) pump was timed 180 degrees out and firing when the transfer ports were exposed. As the engine trigger point was wrong we decided that the engine "magic eye" mechanism was faulty and replaced the engine. The fault persisted and with only minutes to go to the next race the fault was traced (with the invaluable help of Euan Black) to an open circuit in one of the lanyard wires. We still do not know why the lanyard worked faultlessly (i.e. stopping or allowing the engine to run) throughout the whole episode. One hell of a reverse feed somewhere!!

Arriving on the grid just in time and all hyped up is good for the concentration. I got away behind Kristie and was overtaken by "Slap" who then went wide at the entrance to the canal behind the island and allowed me back inside. Going into the canal I had the inside line and was just in front. We both went into the narrow section together and Slap got blown wide, up the steep bank and into the catch fencing and trees, luckily without damage to craft or himself.

Shortly after Kristie stopped on the water and just as I was getting used to leading a seniors race, Stephen cruised past, drat.

The final race was in two parts after a restart following Greg Kendall flipping his craft by the second island. With Kristie going slowly and Slap out of the racing (broken steering cable) I cruised in behind Stephen.

The positions for the weekend were Kristie, Stephen and myself. The last time we had been on a podium together was the Stanford Hall European races in 1996.

Geoff Price and Greg Kendall get a red flag when Rupert Baker went through the catch netting and the race was stopped

The island in the background was full of gulls that dive bombed the hovercraft. One hit my duct

There was a strong F3 turn out with most races having 15 - 18 craft which made the first wriggles into the narrow canal interesting

L to R Lee Willars, "Slap" Richardson, me and David Elston in the Wankel engined craft.

Kristie,Wayne Wilson and Sue Follond. The blue barrels are not as innocent as they look. I demolished the front of my craft on them in the windy conditions during Sundays practise.

Rupert Bakers BBV at the first transition.