By Laura Harris
April 28, 2017
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Mighty Minis Championship 2017
Race 2 - Anglesey Blog
The latest round of the Mighty Mini Championship was held at Anglesey's ‘Trac Mon’ circuit. Probably one of the most picturesque tracks in the UK with stunning, and quite distracting views of the coast. I did the Mini Grande 24 hour endurance race there last August so I’d already done over a hundred laps so knew the circuit well.
Credit: Image from Anglesey 2017 - mhpic
I arrived at the circuit at 5:30 pm on Friday after what seemed like an endless journey through the Friday afternoon traffic on the M62 over the Pennines. On arrival I got my tent set up before anybody pinched my spot then unloaded the car. An early night was in order although it’s very difficult to sleep with the drone of generators going until midnight!
Saturday
Sign on at 8am, followed by scrutineering… everything fine. On the drive back, however, I noticed a squeak everytime the left front wheel turned. Got back to my spot in the paddock, jacked the car up and spun the wheel…n othing, no movement in the hub either. Whilst waiting for our briefing I asked one of the other drivers, he said it could be the CV joint starting to go, but as there was no movement in the wheel and I’d only just changed it at the previous race, I didn’t think that could be the cause and put it down to something else…
10:15am QualifyingI kept getting caught up around other cars, I slowed down to let the group get away to try and get a clean lap, but soon got caught up by the supers who are a lot faster, so never got a clean lap. Then 13 minutes into the 15 minutes allowed, I went into the hairpin put my foot on the brake and nothing, even with the pedal flat on the floor! I turned it onto the grass on the inside of the bend to bring the car to a stop, then limped back round the rest of the circuit and into the paddock. Having to use the handbrake coming down the corkscrew to slow myself down was not fun! After a quick look, the cause was instantly apparen, the split pin was missing from the front hub, the CV joint had given in!
With the race not until 5:45pm, there was plenty of time to get it changed. So I spent the next few hours sat in the sun changing the CV joint, replacing the bearing spacer and cone washer at the same time. The split pin was still present, minus the ends, the hub nut had sheared them both off!
Credit: Image from Anglesey 2017 - mhpic
5:45pm Race 1 I had qualified 11th so that was my starting place. I started ok but didn’t manage to make up any places, and to be honest it was a pretty boring race! I spent most of it with about 8 car lengths between me and the car in front and I just could not make up any ground. I finished the race where I started in 11th place.
Sunday
I spent the morning giving the car a once over, fuelling up and packing up so I could make a quick exit after the race! After some advice I also tweaked the suspension settings to see if it would help me through the corners.
2:10pm Race 2I got a good start, although, once again I didn’t manage to make up any places but stayed right on the bumper of the next car. 5 minutes in I went past a spinning Mick! He pulled back onto the race not too far behind me and soon he was on my bumper. I managed to keep him behind me for a good 5 minutes but whilst defending my place I let the gap to the next car increase and he passed me on the start/finish straight! I stayed right behind him all the way to the tight left hander at the top of the hill and sneaked through on the inside. He stayed right on my bumper through the corkscrew, along the straight and round the hairpin, but passed me on the back straight.
Credit: Image from Anglesey 2017 - mhpic
Alice, who must have had problems earlier as I passed her going very slowly, was now right behind me. She’s a quick, experienced driver and soon passed me on the start/finish straight, but I managed to get the draft on her and passed on the back straight. I held her off until the start/finish straight where she passed me again. Coming out of the hairpin she made a signal to me but I had no idea what she meant. It turns out it was ‘draft me’. Getting right behind the car in front has the effect of making both cars go faster, meaning we had a chance of catching up to the next car. But I had no chance of catching her!
Credit: Image from Anglesey 2017 - mhpic
With 5 minutes to go, every corner was harder and harder to get around. My tyres were well and truly baked and I had very little grip, slowing me right down. Fighting to keep it on the black stuff through every corner I held it for the final few laps and finished again in 11th place.
6 weeks until Thruxton and a lot of work to do. I need to check that CV joint again as it was squeaking again after the 2nd race, maybe I need to re-bush the front suspension and some work on the head which will hopefully solve the lack of power issues I’ve been having.
So next stop Thruxton for the truck festival on the 3rd and 4th of June. Make sure to come and say hi if you’re around!
Follow my blog page for all of the race build ups and the races themselves throughout the season!
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