Sadly it was second event in a row where we had to take an early bath with a mechanical failure.
There was a 30 minute wait in the holding area for the track to be cleared following a red flag in the session before us. When we eventually got the green light, I had trouble starting the car. It fired and stalled but then ran a bit lumpy. It was hot and we still haven't solved our hot start / sluggish starter issues, so I put it down to that.
As soon as I headed out on track there was an obvious vibration. I was trying remember braking and turn points from out track map At the same time, the handling was incredibly loose. I dare not go full throttle anywhere for fear of the car throwing me the track.
We'd gone for a soft setup similar to Castle Combe as a bit of an experiment and it was probably a little extreme for me.
It was hard to concentrate as the vibration got worse with speed - or was it revs? It felt like wind buffeting with the roof off - and the whole dashboard was shaking at 130mph. It can't be that wheel bearing - this was way worse.
I posted a basic lap at 1m30s (2s off SP2 pole) and then another with traffic. All the time thinking I need to pit. Am I doing irreparable damage?
It didn't matter - fait intervened and as I braked hard for the first chicane a massive cloud of smoke filled the cabin, and in a panic I parked it at the first marshal post I could see.
Apparently I was the 6th visitor of the morning and we were only 3 sessions into the timetable!
These things always seem happen when we have people coming to watch. Handily another driver - also broken down - was able to radio to the pits that I was ok and it was just the car. They saw the smoke from the start /finish line!
It's hard being on the pit wall, when the car doesn't come back around or there is a red flag. What has happened? Is he alright? The CALM series is a great community.
After a lengthy wait, the car was lifted onto a flatbed and returned to the paddock where we set about investigating.
The engine started, there was still some vibrations - but not crazy. And it revved ok. So it wasn't a total bottom end engine failure. However it was smoking badly.
We pulled the spark plugs on cylinders 4,5&6 and all seemed ok so we removed the intake and found it full of oil. So as a minimum we needed to replace the AOS. This needs at least a couple of hours and is a bugger of a job.
In amongst all this, I was called to the clerk of the course, who told me I hadn't completed the mandatory 3 qualifying laps so I'd need to fix the car by lunchtime and complete qualifying behind the safety car.
With only 90 minutes to lunch we admitted defeat, put the car back together and went to get a burger.
In hindsight we should have pro-actively changed the AOS on one of the (three) occasions we had the gearbox out last year. They all fail eventually - we aren't immune to it.
I later realised the clerk was completely wrong & I had 3 timed laps before the blow up. So we had nearer 3m hours to fix the car.
But we still had the vibration, unclear if that is engine or drivetrain related, and a live race isn't the place to start testing these things out.
We had an enjoyable lunch on the grass banking. The sun was out and we watched a great race, won by a 911 (996) over a Cayman in SP1 with the cars side by side through the final chicane after 40 mis.
So a great day out regardless.
** Update: We changed the AOS the following weekend and after leaving the car running over lunch, the smoke eventually cleared. We also redid the wheel bearing (just in case). However the vibration is still there. It's related to wheel speed, rather than revs. More work required to look at the drive shaft that we fitted or possible the hub.
