SUMOPOWER EVO 8 TIME ATTACK ROUND 2

SUMOPOWER EVO 8 TIME ATTACK ROUND 2

Well... having done reasonably well at Round 1 I thought my chances at Round 2 would be good and couldnt wait for the JTS show to come around!

Roger Rally (www.turnaround360.com) sourced a 5 speed GSR gearbox to replace the broken and weaker 6 speed we had originally that died at Donington and once it had arrived Rich from RG Motorsport came over and got his hands dirty to make the conversion complete.

We sourced roll centre adjusters and adjustable pillow mounted steering rack ends and installed them and then looked at reducing the weight of the car to help on track.

I started by removing the door trims from the car then set to work cutting the excess metal for the door itself, as I was going for plexi glass to replace the stock glass i removed the whole front face of the door leaving just 10mm around the edge, with this gone i took out the crash bars and glass and weighed the doors again, uncut and with no glass the rear doors (including my Do-Luck over fender kit) weighed 17.3kg, once cut 13.85, the front doors started at 18.5, once cut 13.35kg.
The glass was next to go and replaced with plexi thanks to Plasticsforperformance & Danny/Clive @RC.

The electric window mechanisms hit the spares bin weighing in at 1.45kg each, front belts & associated trim 2.65kg each, rear wiper motor & blade 1.35... the list goes on

When I was writing it all down it didnt really seem much, a kilo here 0.10kg there but added together and there is a considerable amount of weight in there!

In total i had saved 56.3kg in my cutting, removing & replacing frenzy!

With the car back on its wheels it was time to corner weigh it, 1318kg, not bad considering I have the Do-Luck wide body kit on the car which bonds over the original rear doors and rear quarters!


Sunday morning at Silverstone and the most glorious sunshine known to man, I decided to use the T1R tyres for the warm up/sighting laps not only to save time as they were already on the car (i was expecting rain) but to preserve the R888’s for later in the day, the car ran faultlessly, previous boost pipe issues resolved, roll centre adjusters making turning in a pleasure.

The first practice session saw me complete 4 laps before the boost pipe on the inlet manifold/throttle body blew off, the only piece of unbraced piping and the gremlins were out with the spanners loosening it off for me!

Out came the jubilee clips, 4 in total and it looked like it was going nowhere, the practice session was over but I was sure it would hold for the qualifying super battle session, how wrong I was, 2 laps into the qualifying and off it came again, this time I broke out a Mikalor clamp and a 13mm socket and tightened it until the veins were popping in my forehead, checked the clock, only a few minutes to go, helmet back on, back out, 2 laps to warm up and then I squeezed the throttle on the third lap to get some speed up for the forth which I decided would be all out, go for broke, out of Luffield with under steer (as did everyone on the day) I flew down the start finish straight into Copse, a dab on the brakes, down into 4th and round to the right, through maggots, onto the brakes and round Becketts virtual hairpin onto the club straight, third, fourth, fifth, the car was awesome, under the bridge, into Brooklands back down into third, clip the apex into the complex again trying to balance third but to no avail, back into second to try to get things back under control and keep the revs up, Mr under steer came to greet me sending me out wide, over the kerb, mowing the grass, back onto the black stuff and over the start finish to what was to be my hardcore lap.

My foot was well and truly planted now, I had broken the beam and headlights were blazing, I was going for it, then out came the chequered flag, arrgh, no hot lap, that’s it I couldn’t have qualified surely!
I never got a chance to get my lap in, early bath I thought until that was I pulled back into the pits, Glen came trundling down the pit road in his buggy with thumbs up and then changing to hold up 9 fingers, YES I had done it, by the skin of my teeth I had managed to qualify 0.001 second behind Martin ‘Pookie’ Green in the bright orange RC car things were looking up.

Clive Seddon from RC had managed to qualify in 1st place with an awesome 1:02.115, close behind despite his troubles was Simon Norris with an oh so close 1:02.215, ‘Pookie’ in the Orange RC car managed 8th place with a 1:03.188, I was 9th with 1:03.889 and Lee Broadhurst finished just outside the qualifying top ten with 13th place and a 1:06.347, The Mitsubishis were on form and the MLR gang were proving to be a serious force to be reckoned with.

My boost pipe had held, temperatures were spot on, Mr Under steer was still riding side saddle with me but I had a chance now to gain some more valuable points in the final, with two hours to go the guys from Sumo in the garage checked the car over and we were good to go.

I sat buzzing in the line of the top ten cars for the final, I knew the car had more in it, I knew that if I warmed everything up for a few laps I could get a good time in, the circuit conditions were constantly changing but I felt at ease now even though the top ten line up had some serious competition in it.

The pit road lights went green and we were off, after a slow first lap to get comfortable I switched the headlights back on to full beam and started to push a bit harder, five laps into the session, coming back out of Luffield a huge burst of smoke came out through the bonnet vent and oil covered the windscreen, I had almost passed the pit lane entrance, I checked my mirrors, stamped on the brakes and flew into the pits, I could smell the oil but the gauges inside the car were still showing ok and there was no sign of fire, the Sumo team lifted the bonnet and came back round to the window signalling to switch the car off , a hose from my catch tank had worked it way off and had covered the entire engine bay and windscreen in oil, there were still 13 or so minutes left on the clock, the crew tried in vain to get the pipe to go back on and stay on but no joy, our day was over and I had only posted a 1:04.147 lap so far.
It was not good enough to get me up the points ladder as far as I had hoped and I ended in 8th place.

So hopefully fingers double crossed Knockhill will see the car back on track and closer to the top of the table!

The Time Attack website has been updated with a report and lots of pictures so get on and enjoy

Share:	Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | reddit | Stumble It! |
Tags:	bs  evo8  no  realdeal  sumo  TimeAttack  timeattackcar
Groups:	Time Attack Series