Hi all,

After the clutch brake at Snetterton i tryed to get some laps at a good known circuit. Assen is well known for motorbike races but there are loads of car races at the fast circuit in the north of Holland.
As it's close to my home i couldn't let go on the races last week thursday.
New heavy load clutch mounted and ready to go for some more laps i decided to ease down the first free practice and just do some laps to heat the tyres and have a go if all goes well.
Well.. it didn't.. After 1.5 full lap the engine stalled and i decided to change spark plugs and leads and have a go in quali. BAM 1st flying lap was a personal best (and pole) but then disaster strikes again, engine stalled.. Okay let's have a look at the carbs and change the ignition module. Carbs seem to be okay so speed up to get ready for 1st race. For safety i decided to start from the pitlane and take it easy at the start, no problem with it however so let's go charging for a podium i thought. Passing a few cars in first lap looked to be promising but after 2 laps the engine stalled again. Pff, this is getting bad..
So we had a look at the carbs again without filling them up by the fuelpump and found one left with no fuel, so changed the fuelpump for one i took as a spare for years (not knowing it's condition) and hope to do some laps in the last race.
Again disaster, one of the carbs floated and the petrol filled the pedalbox but no time to clean it all so did the most of it on the outside and hoped the rest would leak down the floor. No time to fill the fuelcell so let's hope it is enough for the race and go!!

This time i had to start from the back as i didn't finish the earlyer race and the start wasn't good but after 2 laps i managed to get the lead in the race and problems seemed to be solved but the floor was wet with fuel and the grip on the pedals was bad. A lap later on the back straith my left foot slipped of the clutch pedal and in a reaction i got in the gras with the left of the car, no problem if it wasn't the nosecone catching the front cerbs and flapped double under the car.. No chance getting on so put the car at a marshall post and had to look at the race from the other side, only thing left was the fastest laptime (personal best) but had to go home feeling sad not finishing any race this year yet.
But; i have done faster laptimes than ever before and twice in my second lap so tyres were not at temp and still the Bridgestones from 2009.
Looking back i'm very happy with the results on laptimes as the car is very good to handle on fast speed and not sorted yet.
Converted back to Snetterton my laptime of 1.47.4 at Assen would be somewhere near a 1.56 at Snetterton so still a few sec. of the pace but getting closer!!

Now i've got to get that thing to the finish!
Next outing: 10 oktober Zandvoort

Gr, Onno

Onno, you should give your mechanic a good talking too

I did! But he's just as stubborn as myself. Every morning i look in the mirror and think; when are you going to spend my budget better you fool...


More power means more fuel Andy, the pump i had was fine for the engine last year but could not handle the 35 BHP extra form this engine. Also it hasn't been in action for almost a year so that could have done some damage to it.
If you know what brakes before it actualy happens you wouldn't be an engineer but the guy who always tells others what they do wrong not accepting his own mistakes.