SUMOPOWER EVO 8 ROUND 1 DONNY!

SUMOPOWER EVO 8 ROUND 1 DONNY!

Well what an interesting start to the season..

The bullet reamined pretty much as she was from last years spec list other than us fitting an uprated radiator and adjusting suspension settings over what we were running towards the end of 2006.

Usual story in the run up to the event, plenty to organise, no time to do it but we managed to get both the evo & our 350Z ready to play and we did have a sportsmans bet running between me and Andy has to who would kick who's backside.

Saturday morning came, glorious weather, everyone in the paddock in high spirits, loads of old faces from last year and some new blood fresh talent thrown into the mix..

I jumped (squeezed really) into my suit and was hyped up ready for the off, a few sighting laps and everything seemed to be going great, temperatures spot on, car handling fine, still couldnt find my elusive sixth gear so was hanging on to 5th in places where a little more speed could have seen a drop in lap times for sure but ho hum, crack on.. after a few laps I decided to stretch the old girls legs and blow off the cobwebs, full throttle, full boost was a little too much for one of my hoses and off it popped (despite haing every other hose strapped into place, sods law), the boost hose from the outlet of the turbo didnt want to play ball, its a tight fit in there so myself and Mark got cracking with dismantling everything in its way and popping it back on with some more clamps, next practise session, despite having used my stretch armstrong muscles to tighten it up it decided to pop off again, off with everything, new plan, different clips etc, all best laid plans etc it did the self same thing in the third practise round on saturday, more drastic measures needed to be taken..

The guys from Roger Clark Motorspot with the Subaru gobstopper offered us use of their workshop facility just a few miles down the road if we were stuck, we dismantled the compressor housing and checked out the raised section used to hold the pipe in place, given the boost pressure etc it wasnt man enough for the job, Matt Clark, my hero of the weekend decided to take matters into his own hands in what can only be described as a 'whittling' session and proceeded to modify the housing with a file from his utility belt, a short while later he had finished his whittling masterpiece and it looked 400% better than when he started, we spent the rest of the evening putting the old girl back together again..

Sunday morning and it was time to test the bullet to see if the modification would stand up to the punishment, the first session I decided to give it full warp speed at places where I would be on full boost later in the competiton to test it, whilst giving the loud pedal a large right foot it held perfectly and my adrenaline was stacked ready for the next session, unbeliveable to think that without gunning it round in the first session it posted a time of 1:19.759!

Super battle qualifying was up next, time to go for it...

I was feeling much more comfortable with the car, the earlier 1:19.759 had given me a boost and off we went to see if there was a better time to be had..
I managed 7 laps in this session and ended with a 1:18.114 better than the previous time but it still felt like there was a bit left in there to be squeezed out and was i right, the 1:18.114 was good enough to secure 5th place in the qualifying for the Sumo Bullet a result that given the previous days shenanigans was a target we were pleased with.

Final time!
I ran the first two laps cool, getting comfortable, back into the swing of it, then, switch my lamps on full beam and plumetted the gas pedal into the floor once more, a 1:17.323 popped up, the guys on the pit wall waving furiously to go faster i knuckled down and tried to get on with the job.

My luck ran out as 4th gear decided to elope with the missing 6th and we were down to just 1st-2nd-3rd and 5th, i couldnt push anymore, lady luck looked down and said id had enough for one day and I drove back into the pits 0.739 seconds behind Simon and the flying bogey.

Good news is that i now have just under 7 weeks to get a new gearbox, lose more weight (from me and the car) and make a few adjustments before round 2 at Donington where I shall be gunning for a higher place!

Fingers crossed.

Thanks to Do-Luck, Toyo Tyres, Castrol Oils & HKS

Rob

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