Well with my plans for 2001 not coming to fruition, drastic steps were required over the winter to make my car more competitive for the 2002 season. The main source for potential improvement was in the engine department. Those that have read my articles from last year will know that there is a common theme here! My protestations to Alan Warpdropper of Scholar Engines at the Formula Ford Festival did bear fruit, in that he agreed to see if he could find some more power from my engine. So there was cause for some optimism over the winter months.
The engine that I had returned to me was considerably better than before, however I still wasn’t convinced that it was going to be good enough for me to win this years Sports Championship. Having discussed this with an American friend of mine, he informed me that the American Sports 2000 series were moving away from Pinto engines in 2002, consequently there should be some good engines available at reasonable prices. Well that was it, wheels were put in motion and a second-hand engine was located that would be airfreighted to me immediately after it had been rebuilt and its specification altered to UK specification. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be the dream start to the season that I hoped for, as there was a delay with the engine, which meant that I would have to start the season with my upgraded Scholar unit.

Race 1 of the new season took place at my least favourite circuit in the country, Silverstone. Qualifying proved that my concerns over the performance of my newly rebuilt Scholar engine were entirely justified. Despite qualifying half a second quicker than ever before I came in from practice to discover that pole was half a second under the existing record and I had only managed to qualify eighth.
The race itself was fairly uneventful with the leading trio making a break from the rest of us and very little shuffling of the pack going on. Consequently after twenty-five laps around the club circuit I finished exactly where I had started eighth overall and fifth in class.
Immediately after Silverstone my new engine arrived from the USA. With the help of John Hewat I had arranged to do a back-to-back test on an engine dynamometer of both my Scholar engine and the Quicksilver unit from the USA. That way we could establish whether the Americans do really have better Sports 2000 technology with their professional series compared to our own amateur series. Well to cut a long story short the Scholar engine produced good power, but the Quicksilver was significantly better. As a bonus we even got another three BHP by running some special plug leads that had been sent over with the engine!
First race for the new engine was a non-championship race at my favourite circuit, Spa Francorpchamps where great things were expected. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. During testing at the circuit on the Friday the clutch pedal went to the floor. We tried bleeding it, but to no avail as the pressure only lasted for half a lap. Despite having no clutch and there being loads of traffic, I still managed to get within a second of my own lap record. On further investigation that evening, by removal of the gearbox and bell housing, we discovered that the clutch slave cylinder had failed. The following morning we tried to obtain a replacement. The car uses a unit from a Saab 9000, unfortunately Saab dealers in Belgium do not open on Saturdays and consequently a temporary fix was attempted. To avoid boring you too much let’s just say that we had the back end off the car three times that weekend, I never managed a lap of practice and I never even made it to the grid of either of our two scheduled races. It was a weekend that I really want to forget. To cap it all it rained constantly all weekend and we even had sleet on the way to the circuit on the Sunday morning and this was in mid-May!

Race 2 I’m glad to report that things went considerably better at Oulton Park. With beautiful weather and my clutch problems behind me, I was able to quickly get to grips with the International circuit. Despite having raced at the circuit many times before, I had never used this particular configuration before and boy is it exciting. On the run down to the Shell Oils hairpin, Island Bend is an almost flat in top gear left-hand corner that gets the heart rate up nicely before you are hard on the brakes for the sixty mph hairpin! Interestingly for me the new engine didn’t feel hugely faster than the previous one, but the power delivery is better with a much flatter power curve after peak power. Well it obviously worked as I found myself on pole by two-tenths of a second and a few of my rivals wondering where this newfound speed had come from.
I managed to make a good start at the beginning of the race held what I thought was a comfortable lead of a few car lengths. However, on the second lap the yellow flags were out at Island Bend as one of my fellow competitors had gone straight on into the barriers. The race was then stopped and restarted over a reduced distance; again I made a good start and created a bit of space for myself. Five laps later I was under significant pressure and Rupert Russell dived down the inside of me into the first corner. Unfortunately he dropped a wheel over the kerb on the exit and then spun into my path. I took avoiding action, but he hit the side of the car and I ended up spinning down the grass. Luckily I didn’t hit anything and managed to keep the engine running so was able to rejoin in fifth place. I then discovered two things; the nosecone had hoovered up loads of grass cuttings and was throwing these into my helmet as the speed built up, secondly I had lost use of fourth gear! Luckily I managed to hold off three other cars for the remaining three laps of the race without fourth gear.

For Race 3 we moved to the bumpiest circuit in the country, Castle Combe. I had a problematic practice, the first few laps were fine and I was getting down to a respectable time, but then I seemed unable to go any quicker. We discovered later that the nearside rear shock absorber remote reservoir had become detached from its mounting and fallen to the track, where it then destroyed itself. I had qualified fifth but was struggling to see how I was going to race without a fully functioning shock absorber. Luckily for me the F3 and Privilege GT teams were practising at the circuit that day and I managed to find someone who could affect a temporary repair.
I made a really good start away from the grid and made up one place on the run down to Quarry Corner. The following two laps I managed to make up further places by exiting Camp Corner at the finish line much quicker than the cars in front and I eventually found myself staring at the exhaust pipe of Jonathan Loader the race leader. He and I disappeared into the distance having an amazing race where we were never separated by more than three tenths of a second. Despite trying just about every race tactic I know, I was unable to pass and take the lead. However at the last corner I dropped back a little to try and take a run at him over the finish line. It almost worked, as we were seven hundredths of a second apart at the finish (or half a nosecone).

For Race 4 of the championship we moved to the Brands Hatch Indy circuit for our annual Sports 2000 festival weekend. With forty-four cars taking part over the weekend the meeting would be split into practice, two heats, followed by a last chance race and then the final. Practice worked out really well, despite all the traffic, as I managed to qualify on pole for my heat. However I had noticed during the later stages of the session that the clutch was starting to go away. On checking, we discovered that I had a recurrence of my Spa problems, but this time we found a Saab dealer in Pembury who had the required part. My girlfriend offered to go and collect it while I removed the back end of the car. Thankfully despite a few dramas, including her getting stopped twice for speeding; once on the way to Pembury and once on the way back, and on different roads by the same Police motorcyclist, we managed to get the car back together with fifteen minutes to spare before my heat.
At the start I made a good getaway to head the field and even managed to pull out a slight lead as two of my championship rivals fell over each other fighting for position. It carried on like this for most of the race, I was driving at a reasonable pace trying to maintain a small lead and not make any errors. However, the two guys behind were having a real ding-dong battle. Unfortunately it ended in tears at Clearways a few laps from the end when Rupert Russell made a lunge up the inside and banged into Nik Johnson. Rupert ended up finishing back in thirteenth spot and Nik was black flagged for fouling bodywork, all of which meant that I ended up with a comfortable win in my heat. It also meant that I was on pole for the final due to my heat having been faster than the other one.
The final took place late on the Sunday afternoon and to try and secure my win I invested in a new set of tyres for the race. I was determined to make a good start by making an early break in this twenty-four-lap final and that is exactly what happened. By the end of lap two I had a two second lead and was keeping an eye on what was going on behind me. Anthony Wilds who had been in second place made a mistake on the fifth lap and dropped further down the order, which left me with an even bigger lead. My main championship rivals had had various problems in their respective heats and I was waiting for them to appear from the chasing pack, but the challenge never emerged and I ended up with one of the easiest race wins that I have ever had!
In summary, its been a difficult year so far with too many problems for my liking, but the performance from both me and the car is beginning to show, so who knows how it will all turn out! Now, when’s the next race?

Overall Mark: A- (2nd in the championship, showing a steady improvement)

Colin Rodger

PS. the Brands Festival race should be shown on SkySports during early September.