Silverstone 20th April 2002

Silverstone, the first race of the season. Qualifying went badly in the pro race as the water pump pulley came loose and Nik completed only three laps so he was well down the grid. In the pro race he moved up through the field and set the fastest non pro car lap time but still felt the car had poor balance. We had only time to do a quick set-up on corner weights as the pump had to be repaired. The second qualifying saw him in third place but still unhappy with the balance.

We found a spirit level and a flat area before resetting the corner weights which were miles out and we can only assume the lock nut on the rear push rod was turning with the rod and upsetting our adjustments (we found this out later). The race itself was a disaster with only a couple of laps gone Nik outbraked himself on the entry to Brooklands and were brought lots of gravel home as well as a car that would not have looked out of place in the Paris Dakar rally.

To cap all of this the Duratec car blew a piston in the first hour of testing on the Friday and we did not race that at all!. We came home feeling very depressed as our hopes for the season had taken a big blow already. Sunday morning dawned bright and breezey, the vacume cleaner and power washer were employed to good effect and by evening we had Niks Pinto car looking almost as good as new.

The Duratec was taken to Van Diemen, engine out and Back to Scholar for reports. Their verdict, "lack of fuel pressure". New engine refitted to car and Van Diemens pressure test showed no problem with pressure. Tomorrow we will go back to Snetterton to test the car and both Alan from Scholar and Van Diemen will attend so we should find out who gets the bill!!