SPORTS 2000 Half-Term Report

Well 2001 was supposed to be the year when I made a strong bid to win the Sports 2000 championship. So far things haven’t gone quite to plan! Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far.
At the end of last season I recognised that my existing engine didn’t have the same straight-line performance as some of my rivals, consequently I made the decision to have a completely new engine built for the 2001 season. I selected a local engine builder who appeared to be able to produce front-running engines for the Sports 2000 series, as one of his engines was powering a car that won a number of late season races. This is the story of what has happened since then:
I placed the order for the engine back in October with the promise that it would be delivered by Christmas. After Christmas there then followed all manner of excuses why the delivery of the engine had been delayed. The two most popular ones were 1) That Titan were unable to supply the dry sump system for the car due to large order they had received from Renault 2) That he had problems with the calibration of his Dynamometer and was awaiting some replacement parts!
The engine was eventually ready for me to collect just two weeks before the first scheduled race at Donington Park over the Easter weekend. So that was the end of any pre-season testing plans that I had had!
Now you might reasonably expect that the replacement of one Ford Pinto engine with another in the back of my Sports 2000 Lola ought to be the work of a few moments. Wrong! When Mark Softley, a good friend of mine, and myself came to fit the new engine we found a series of problems that in themselves didn’t appear too great, but having them one after another soon caused further delays.

The water pump hadn’t been modified correctly to allow the engine to be bolted to a retaining bracket.
The bracket that fits between the front of the dry sump and rear bulkhead of the tub fouled on some existing lugs, necessitating a modification.
The oil pump was a larger capacity version that required to be plumbed in from the other side of the engine. This necessitated fitting some new Aeroquip fittings and hose to allow the pipe work to pass between the front of the engine and the rear bulkhead of the tub.
The ring gear had been spot-welded on the wrong side and so fouled the starter motor when the engine was turned over.

We finally completed the engine installation the weekend before the first race. As usual we turned the engine over initially to get some oil pressure before finally starting, which it did on the button. All was well until about 30 seconds later, when an oil pressure alarm appeared on the dash. We immediately switched the engine off and to our horror found that there was loads of oil pouring out of the car from the hole in the bottom of the flywheel housing! We then discovered that because of the need to plumb in an additional oil line we had actually selected a tube that leads directly into the integral oil catch tank between the engine and gearbox and once full it had poured out through the overflow, which exits in the flywheel housing!
Having resolved all the engine installation problems, activity then turned to fitting a new tail section and side-pod to the car. Neither of these two items could be fitted until the engine and gearbox was back in the car, as a bracket that is attached to the rear of the gearbox supports them.
On the day before the first race meeting John Hewat very kindly agreed to come to the house to set up the suspension on the car, as he has done before. However, before he got started on that we also finished off a few bits and pieces that were left with the bodywork. There’s nothing quite like running out of time to focus the mind on the essentials!
Anyway we finished the essentials plus the suspension set-up and I loaded the car up for an early start the following morning to Donington Park for the first two races of the season, as support to the American Le Mans Series event. On arrival at the circuit I discovered that contrary to what I thought we actually had two practice sessions during the day, rather than the one in the afternoon that I was expecting. Something to do with not reading the Final Instructions I think! How many of you don’t read them properly too? So that resolved the issue about what gear ratios to run, it would be the Brands ratios that were already in the car!
Very briefly, I managed to qualify a lowly twelfth for the first race and eighth for the second, following a gear ratio swap and finally getting around to fitting the airbox to the new tail.
Race 1 had an added element of interest as it started to lightly rain whilst we were sitting on the grid prior to the warm-up lap. With the car on slicks and the track completely wet by the time we got back to the grid for the start we were in for an interesting race. As the lights turned green I was able to make a good start from the outside of the sixth row and drove around the outside of a number of cars on the run down to Redgate. By the time that we had exited the Old Hairpin two corners later I was up to seventh position. But on the run down to the chicane towards the end of the lap the Red Flags came out to stop the race as there were a couple of cars off in the gravel at Redgate. On the restart, with the rain still coming down, I managed to make another good start and this time got up to sixth place as we came out of the Old Hairpin. However, I then dropped two places due to a 360-degree spin when changing up from third to fourth gear just before getting to Macleans corner! I ended up finishing the race in eighth position.
Race 2 proved to be a replay of Race 1 in that it had been dry for hours and then it started to rain again whilst we were sitting on the grid. I made another good start and this time got up to sixth position on the first lap by the time that we exited the Old Hairpin. Under braking into the esses at the end of the main straight the car in front of me spun and with the grass on my right and another car having a look up the inside on the other, I had nowhere to go but hit the spinning car. We collided head on, however I was able to continue, as did the other competitor, albeit with a damaged nosecone. I charged off through the esses and down the slight hill to the Melbourne hairpin. On reaching the braking area I hit the brake peddle as normal and absolutely nothing happened. I clearly remember flying past a fellow competitor whose brakes were working as I spun off at high speed into a, lucky for me, very large gravel trap! Fortunately I didn’t hit anything and the car was undamaged but for the earlier collision damage. On closer inspection I discovered that during the earlier impact the carbon fibre nosecone had cut through the front brake line causing me to leave the road at well over 100mph!
For Race 3 of the championship we moved to the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. Practice took place on the Saturday morning and I managed to qualify third overall from the 38-car field. I was slightly disappointed with this as last September I had managed to get the car onto the front row of the grid. But this year’s engine doesn’t seem to have the horsepower that it should.
We had a non-championship race scheduled for the Saturday afternoon that in hindsight I wish I had never entered. One of my fellow competitors, who had unusually qualified second, came up to me in the collecting area before the race. He suggested that I should take it easy as we had a championship race the following day and we were all due to race at Spa in Belgium the following weekend. I politely nodded and let him walk away.
When the lights turned green at the start of the race I didn’t make a terribly good start, but neither did the guy who’d spoken to me earlier. He was behind me on the run along Bottom Straight and he had a very late lunge up the inside into Surtees, but overdid it and I came out of the corner ahead with him about three car lengths behind. As we approached Hawthorns down the back straight I looked in the mirror and saw him still behind me. During practice I had discovered that I did not need to brake for the corner, merely have a slight lift before getting back on the power and accelerating through. As I turned in for the apex I felt a bump from behind and then an even larger bang as my fellow competitor had a huge lunge up the inside. The resulting high-speed accident, at the fastest corner on the circuit, took both of us off and out of the race. His car had only minor damage, whereas my car made it all the way through the gravel trap and eventually hit the tyre barrier very hard. I immediately jumped out of the car and saw to my horror that the virtually brand new bodywork was history!
On closer inspection both the tail section and sidepod where beyond repair, the radiator had been holed, the frame that holds the tail was history and the silencer was also broken. All in all about £2,000 worth of damage! My anger at being taken off in such a ridiculously stupid overtaking attempt was later reduce somewhat when the Clerk of the Course endorsed the other competitor’s license. Unfortunately it doesn’t go any way towards paying for the damage caused.
The actual championship race was much less eventful. After making a good start I got passed by a couple of other competitors, due to the perennial problem (i.e. lack of horsepower), but eventually finished fourth overall.
Race 4 was held at Brands Hatch, this time on the Indy Circuit, and formed part of over Sports 2000 festival weekend. The format for the weekend was; practice on the Saturday, with two heats and a final on the Sunday.
Practice went reasonably well, but I was disappointed to only qualify ninth overall. However, due to the format of the weekend I was put on the outside of the third row for my heat. The race was close but thankfully incident free and I managed to finish forth, which would put me on the fourth row for the final later in the afternoon.
I made a good start in the final and made up a few places on the run around Paddock Hill bend and up to Druids eventually getting up to fifth place. However my lack of horsepower meant that I was a fairly easy target for some of my rivals and I eventually managed to finish sixth in a race that was halted slightly early due to an accident.
In short it has been a very problematic season so far which has not been helped by the poor engine performance. A better engine would have helped considerably. (PS. At the time of writing the problem engine has just gone bang in a big way at the Nurburgring, thereby resolving that particular debate!).
Overall Mark: B- (6th in the championship, could go better)

Colin Rodger

The Acorn : August Edition