Racing Tales

Well, what a day! Absolutely superb day out, if not a little wallet-bashing…

  1. Arrive at 8am, set up.
  2. Sign on & pass scrutineering. (Phew!)
  3. Worry about noise test - straight thru (Hello!)
  4. Qualifying - first lap, crack exhaust but stay out to do the 3 required laps to get in the race.
  5. Flat battery in pits - get pushed back to paddock.
  6. Open Edwards Boyz miracle workers box.
  7. Hey Presto - spare exhaust fitted (thought I would fail noise test), plus chap with 340R sorted charging problem.
  8. Lounge about for a while trying to look cool, but crapping myself.
  9. Line up 10th on grid, three behind me.
  10. Lights go out, race on. Let Mark D & Neil past so I don’t hold them up.
  11. First corner, clouds of smoke & two spinners, take to the grass, back up to 10th, wohoo!
  12. Couple of laps to settle down, then start to close on the Sport 190 Elise.
  13. Titanic battle ensues, with an overtake under braking into knickerbrook, he got back into Druids, then back past down Cascades.
  14. Started to pull away a bit and tried to concentrate on catching next man.
  15. Elise starts flashing me, thought he was pissed off coz of my overtaking manouevre.
  16. Looked in the mirror, see huge flames, pull over, pull extinguisher, jump out.
  17. Think “Oh bugger” as the marshalls finally put fire out.
  18. Recover to pits and watch as Team Edwards wash the powder off and pull bits of charred plastic away.
  19. Pack up (Thanks Dad) and go home.
  20. Curry, wine and off to bed.



    BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!

I had a thought this morning - that oil pipe was obviously ready to go, so thank [censored] it happened at a race meeting with marshalls on every corner, rather than a trackday!

Not sure if you hung around for the end of the endurance race, but our oil cooler split with a lap to go. Came down the pitlane (still in the lead) instead of on circuit with 59 minutes on the clock…

Thats racing I guess!

Glad you still enjoyed it Russ!

Cheers

Mark

That was really tough luck Leading from the start, your car was “noticeably” quicker than eveyone else This series is great to watch, & everyone who can, should go & suppport those out on track

You’re absolutely right about Russ’s car - we’d come to same “positive” conclusion - it would have been a damn sight worse if it had happened at a trackday, or a real disaster on the open road/motorway

Ah well, jolly to Le Mans on 10th June is next thing to look forward to

Russ,

Some pictures to help explain the day!

A day in pictures

Commiserations again mate.

Hope you didnt mind me putting all the picture up.

Robbo

Don’t mind in the slightest mate. Ta very much - a photographer friend who was at the circuit reckons she has a series of shots of the whole thing, so I will post them when I can.
Cheers

Well done!

AND

Very sorry to hear it!

Any idea what caused it yet?

Ian

Sounds like you all had fun guys

Russ - tough luck - but damn lucky at the same time - thats what you want in racing I guess

Russ, sorry to see you end up the way you did, I hope all is not lost with the car. Talk about baptism of fire!

What a lot of people didn’t see was the nearly but not quite other accident (thank god) with the Lead car (who hadn’t bothered to slow down for the yellow flags) and the fire car that helped you out (who decided that doing a three point turn in the middle of the circuit was a clever thing to do!). Unbelievable!

I’m pretty sure I have some of your racing on video if you are interested.

Steve

Tough luck Russ , just when you were getting into the groove and having lots of fun out there Thought you’d switched the Honda’s afterburner on with those flames

Great day tho’, good series and hope your wallet doesn’t take too much of a hit…Roll on the next race…

Maggsy - Yes please.

IDG - no idea yet, awaiting Edwards Boyz inspection - I will post when known.

Good to hear you’re taking it so well Russ (obviously too loaded to care about a piffling Exige )

Good to hear you’re safe + sound too !

Russ

I thought you did really well on your first time out !!

I saw you playing with the sport 190 on the corner at the end of the straight and it was first class entertainment.

Hats off to the Edwards boys for giving you all that support

Next time will be even better - roll on Snetterton, eh?

Russ,

As we said on the day not a problem to do the spannering only a shame that you didn’t get to see that chequered flag, But let’s be honest, It could have been So much worse.

And it also holds up the tradition of “you never know what’s gona happen on an Exige’s day out”.

Cheers for now Martin & Steve.(The Edwards Boyz)

Good thing that Mag wheel didn’t get too hot!

Ian

I’d just like to say a huge thanks to Pesky and Russ for making me feel welcome at the test day on Friday and to everyone else I met on Monday.

I had my own little fire on friday when the fuel rail worked loose and allowed the no.1 injector to fire in 2 directions at once!

Glad to see that you were OK afterwards Russ and if it’s any consolation the commentary people were convinced for quite a while that it was me on fire and not you. A real kick in the teeth seeing as I never made it into the race.

Huge congratulations for how far you got and commiserations for the bad luck at the end.

Steven H

Steve

Was great to meet you & Dave on Friday, & to see you both again yesterday We were sorry to see you having the fuel rail problem/fire on Friday, & hope you get the ECU sorted soon. Before that hiccup, you appeared to be going very well, given that it was your first time in the car, your first time at Oulton, & it was also pi$$ing down with rain. I’m sure that you will enjoy & acquit yourself well in the race series

Don’t know who you got introduced to yesterday, but hopefully you can now put some faces (ugh!!!) to some names of fellow Exigers, as there must have been a dozen or so around during the day

PS Veronique says hello too

Never been on here before - a mate called me today to say that the photos of my appaling line through the chicane are on the internet!

Good site chaps.

Anyway, my claim to fame is that I got the closest view of Russ’s fire - about 3ft from it as I was in the Sport 190 slipsteaming down the straight with a view to getting up the inside at Old Hall. My screen was completely covered in oil and soot! Causing me to do a very slow last lap looking out of the side window.

Russ - I’m lookind forward to another battle at Snetterton on June 12th.

Great “baptism of fire” for you. Let’s get more people from Exiges.com racing.

Plans Motorsport built and run the S2 (thanks for all the nice comments on here!) and run Mark(46)'s Exige. Mark Fullalove was impresive driving it to a huge lead in the endurance race.

If you want to race your Exige we can help with everything - see www.plansmotorsport.com

Russ

My hat off to you mate… I can imagine exactly how you were feeling before race start (well at least i know how i’d be feeling)… thanks for the superb potted summary.

Sorry to hear about your guy fox moment and hope its not too difficult/painful to sort out… rock on to yer next one mate

ps – youve got my favourite number as well

Graham

If it makes you feel any better, I owe you a couple of quid change - the Optimax was bought at a “bargain” 86p, not the �1 you sent me via your “Financial Controller” I’ll return the dosh next time we meet, or alternatively Vinyl Veronique will be your “private dancer” for a couple of minutes behind Race Control

PS Link in your post should be http://www.plansmotorsport.com/

PPS Yours, George’s & Mark’s cars are extremely well prepared

Cheers Steve - sorry you did not get ready in time, but look forward to seeing you on the grid soon, a three car dice at the back could be interesting!!