Round Four - Weston Park 26th June 1999
1127 was sold. Barry Staples has taken over the campaign and will be in Novices later this year/ next year. He very kindly let me have a final "raz" at Weston Park and spent the Saturday watching what we got up to on a racing weekend.
The weather for Saturday was great - warm and sunny. The rain set in on Saturday night and made the Sunday a bit of a dampener. The course was slightly changed from previous years and was a dummy run of the World Championship course for next year. A long and quick course allowed the F1's more of a go. The transition off the lake was a bit tricky. The racing line was definitely on the left side going over the lillies just before the bank funnelled into a gully up the steep climb which opened out directly into the back straight instead of a chicane through the trees at the top of the hill as in previous visits.
For reasons of balancing the craft, the fuel tank is mounted ahead of the steering handlebars and is quite small. So small that with the course being quite long and fast requiring full throttle virtually all the time we were topping up the fuel tank on the grid immediately prior to the start to replenish fuel used in warm up and gridding. We still had a litre of fuel left after the race but needed this amount to slosh around the tank to avoid starvation if the craft is put on its side during cornering etc.
In the first practice session Stephen Scotney got his craft right up on its side just before the transition on to the water, he was very close to rollover. This part of the course has the ground falling away from the apex of the corner which is approached at the end of a longish straight and therefore at speed. All formula have to treat this corner with some caution otherwise if not a roll then a drift wide into a reed bed which is very difficult to recover from, in one F2 race three craft ended up there in succession.
We missed the first practise as I spotted the exhaust beginning to crack and so the pipes were with Robin Brickles for a welding job. I wonder how many times in the past four years Robin has got us racing again - definitely one for the Hall of Fame.
Missing the previous race weekend I started the first race on the third row of the grid. A good start enabled me to get up to fourth behind Rupert Baker, whose craft was flying since reducing the thrust fan to two blades, Stephen Scotney and Scott Tilley.
The second start of the day from the second row of the grid was a cracker and into the first transition Rupert, Stephen and I were level. The race was a hard one as I had to work at staying ahead of Scott who chased me for the entire race. I had a stiff neck after the race from all the looking behind me! Stephen came home first after Rupert's craft stopped on the lake.
After the race the craft required a number of repair jobs. The flange for the polybelt drive to the fan at the engine end had come adrift and the polybelt finished the race being kept in place by running against and into the duct lip! We elected to repair this engine (Ewan Black to the rescue again) and refit it for Sundays race only to find that the front piston picked up during a cold start just as we were preparing for for the race. Had we still owned the craft we would have taken some risks and competed on the Sunday. As it was I decided that the racing was over.
Strange how I have got a brilliant career opportunity because of my involvement in hovercraft racing yet it has to be the first thing that I have to leave for now. My Dad is wandering around an empty and tidy garage, that doesn't smell of resin, looking slightly lost........
The usual Saturday morning panic to get to the race site, unload and get prepared. The wait in the queque for scrutineering is a relief.
Somehow they always find something! One rubber band missing from the duct guard this time. I swear they fall off in transit. Tony Sheppard makes a note.
Didn't know Dave Polfrey was a dentist or was he checking my helmet strap.
The transition off the lake was tricky and best taken as far left as possible.
sorry no more pics - video packed up
