All change for Caerwent stages

After the engine had been overheating on the last round I needed to try and find why it had been losing water. I only had two weeks to try and get it sorted before the next round at Mid Summer Stages. 

Changing the water pump.

The first week, I had changed the water pump and the head gasket, but the engine was still losing water, I then suspected that the Arden Head was porous.

So with a week to go I decided to change the engine. I had rebuilt the Rally Wales engine so was lucky to have a spare built. This is a risk, as you never know what problems you may come across. Luckily everything worked out fine and I found time to fit new brake pads ready for the long stages of Caerwent.

16 Minis had entered the 4th round of the HRCR Mini Cup, including our love:mini/RP Joinery Mini co-driven, as always, by Anton Bird.

We were again seeded first of the Minis, but towards the rear of the field. This would again mean catching cars on the stages. We had finished in the top 20 of every event this year, how can they seed us at car 60?

Caerwent is still an active base, so restrictions about who could get into the venue applied, with no spectators allowed.

Engine swap.

The roads are narrow and have kerbs that will bite you, so care would be needed. The event was due to run six stages of over 10 miles long each.

As we were due to start the first stage, and as we were in Wales, guess what - it was raining, and had rained heavy all night. There would be standing water around, so I decided to start with a pace that would be on the safe side of flat out. 

I set off at a pace that was safe and trying to save the brakes, but still had the brake pedal go to the floor, having to pump several times to get the brakes to work.

I dropped time to several Minis, so after a quick check over it was back out for another 10 mile stage, and having given myself a good talking to.

We managed to take 15 seconds out of everyone over this stage, and lay just behind the leading Mini. The brakes were completely gone towards the finish.

Wheel paint blistering at Caerwent.

At the service interval we bled the brakes, but I noticed a CV boot had come off the driveshaft. I decided that the best plan would be to change the drive shaft completely. This we did and were ready for the 3rd stage and ready to continue to push to try and take the lead.

The stage started well and the car was running great, but with 4 miles to go, I cut across a mud bank and lost drive to one wheel. I drove slowly out of the stage using the limited slip diff but dropped over 2 minutes on the stage.

When we got back to service I discovered that the new driveshaft had failed, so it was another change, but this time having to put the old one back in.

We were well behind and pushed on all of the remaining stages, setting times quickest of the Minis.
We were taking over 20 seconds on most stages from the other guys but could finish no higher than 5th Mini at the end of the day.

Top Mini was Jim Brindle with Adrian Kermode not far behind.