Pembrey and a tale of woe.

I know it hasn't gone entirely unnoticed that I have been a bit tardy updating the blog this time. Apart from having been on my hols for 2 weeks, I'm suffering a distinct lack of motivation to write this as it's all bad news.
Pembrey turned out to be rather unfortunate for me. A 400 mile round trip for 20 mins of untimed test to end up with a blown engine.

I should count myself relatively lucky that I detected some sort of problem after the early test session. I slight change of tone to the engine and a rattle alerted me to a problem. AB quickly analysed a dropped valve which was terminal for the weekend, but thankfully saved from being completely detroyed.

It also turns out that the engine is modified which is contrary to the regs, so i've been racing an illegal car for 4 years! Good job I haven't actually won anything I suppose!

Anyway, given that I was going on holiday on the Tuesday for 2 weeks, I was also likely to miss Silverstone as well as I would only have one weekend to sort out the engine which was never going to be possible for me. But Tim Gray offered to take it away and sort it out for me and deliver it to Silverstone so I took him up on that.

So we've sorted out a replacement busa engine on the basis that I can rebuild my modified engine and sell it. I'm not sure that I'm going to come away without a big net bill though. I am facing a serious dent in next season's budget.

So I'm going to do Silverstone, and the Birkett, but we'll have to see how things go for next season.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I've been to Barcelona for me hols with my family. We saw Motors TV on in a seaside bar. Fame at last! Not that is was RBG on, but it's a start! (not that that was the highlight of the holiday you understand!)

Oh yes, and we went to the zoo and saw a Bongo. Not the car, but the real thing. Yes, there is an animal called a Bongo. An antilope.

I should get some stripes for my Bongo!

 

Helpfully translated into 3 languages!

Anyway, enough waffle. See you all at Silverstone.