Martin Galpin | Racing Driver | number66.net

I’d been looking forward to this weekend for months. After all, we’ve only been talking about it since early June. Slowly, little by little, it was all nicely coming together: the kind offer of a car and securing the Vee championship. Unfortunately, as the Festival actually approached it became clear that for some reason, it just was not meant to be.

After the clutch problems at Brands Hatch, things weren’t getting much better. As soon as that was fixed we promptly visited Mallory Park for the morning of testing, except, after the morning sessions were cut drastically short due to incidents, the car began to sporadically cut out. Unfortunately, this set the pattern for what was to come.

Thinking it was probably fuel related we did what you would expect: we checked fuel lines, the fuel pump, the carburettor float level and jets until it appeared the problem was solved. Whilst nothing was drastically amiss, we were satisfied with finding a few irregularities with most areas we checked.

So, moving forward, we had one last chance to get in a decent days testing – Thursday. Despite trying twice already, I had barely got comfortable in the car. Plus, being the final day of testing before the Festival began, the plan was to get a benchmark of where we were, performance wise.

But the status-quo was soon resumed and before I’d even made it as far as Druids, the engine had once again cut out.

As it only seemed to happen through corners, almost as if it were fuel surge (but not), we continued to look at the carburettor. Once more, we took it apart, put it back together and hoped for the best. But no, the problem persisted.

At this point, we were fast running out of ideas. Carlin engineer Andrew Stapley, who was running Mark Edwards in his Swift SC93, suggested it might well be the head gasket. There was a distinctive white smoke being released from the exhaust and so with his kind support, we stripped the engine and replaced it. Sure enough, there was water in the cylinders and after missing session three, we put it back together just in time for the fourth and final session of the day.

Alas, it was only two laps before the problems started. This time, however, it was not the engine – for the time being that seemed to be okay. Instead, I had a left-rear puncture! A quick visit to the pit lane and that was changed and in no time, I was back out on track.

After another two laps the engine began to misfire. As I pessimistically waited for the engine to cut out, I once again headed for the pit lane. This, for a change, was more simple. After everything that had happened that day, the battery had gone flat and I could hardly believe my luck.

We worked on Friday to get prepared for qualification on Saturday. With the engine seemingly no longer cutting out, my only major concern going into qualifying was my unfamiliarity with the car and general lack of [continuous] seat time.

Given the situation we were in, Saturday qualifying was really a damage-limitation exercise and I just had to get myself up the grid. This would not be easy as to add to my existing problems, I also had a brand new unscrubbed set of tyres and new brake pads.

Sadly, four laps was all I got as from then on, the mysterious engine cut out had returned. I continued for one or two laps further, in the ridiculous hope it would fix itself but it didn’t and I returned to the paddock.

Now completely out ideas, I have to admit that we were about to go home. We even checked out of the Hotel. With hindsight, we would have been wise to leave but quitting somehow goes against the grain.
We had wired the camera into the car for qualifying. Whilst it didn’t yield any interesting footage (too much vibration), it actually managed to highlight our problem. We had connected the camera directly to the coil for its power. What was interesting was that there was no actual footage of the engine cutting out because each time it did, so had the camera. We had, of course, already considered an electrical fault but countered that with the fact the Dash was staying on. Therefore, it had to be something within the ignition loop or connected to the coil.

Our semi-final wasn’t until 1030 on Sunday morning. After qualifying and with the help of numerous, other generous people, we rewired and re-earthed much of the electronics. Not being able to replicate the problem in the paddock, we would not know of the outcome until the start of the race.

The disaster that was qualifying had left us dwindling in 18th position. Getting off the grid presented another problem. The gearbox needed the dog-rings replacing and would jump out of 1st gear as soon as I came back on the throttle. I just had to be sure about my start.

I was understandably cautious over the first lap, ultimately waiting for the cars hesitation to indicate that the problem had returned. But, it didn’t. For the time being it had been solved and I was quickly into the flow of progressing up through the field. Overtaking was difficult because the car had no power down the straights. I would exit Clearways quite literally on the gearbox of the car I was following, only to reach Paddock car lengths behind. None-the-less, I was making steady progress, still learning the car and when the race was red flagged on lap 10, I was in 10th position.

That wasn’t too bad, considering what preceded it. It meant we qualified straight into the Final in a lowly 20th position but again, I was fairly confident of making progress during the race.

This feels like a good time to mention that the two green flag laps I experienced were perhaps the worst I have seen. Maybe it is because I haven’t been at the back for a long time but I was having to come to a standstill every 100 metres and remain constantly alert to the threat of over-excited weaving. It was just terrible.

Anyway, as the lights went out again I began to make steady progress through the field. I was finding it more difficult this time as relative to the competition I was even slower at the end of the straight. This continued up until I was up behind the number 7 Van Diemen for 15th position, which I didn’t know at the time, was the third quickest car, overall, through the speed trap.

I was trying lap after lap to find a way through, just some way of getting along side him. I had decided that as I was able to brake later and deeper than he was and carry more mid-corner speed, if I took the outside line at Druids, I could easily be alongside him on the exit.

As I exited Clearways I left a gap and made sure I got a decent drive through Paddock. Up Hailwood Hill I pulled out from under his gearbox to take the outside line. As I went to brake deeper to his left one of two things happened. Either I had misjudged the size of the gap or he had made it smaller. Either way, we banged wheels and it spat me onto the grass and heavily into the wall at Druids. That was it, game over and the worst possible end to a terrible weekend.

Looking back, as it has been pointed out to me, it probably wasn’t worth taking such a risk for a lowly 15th position. But I was running out of ideas and getting frustrated. I can admit that I was probably suckered into it by an experienced Formula Fordster and I’ve learnt that lesson. What I need to make sure of now is that I don’t put myself in a situation where I am constantly on my back foot.

If I have learnt one major thing this weekend, it is that if you are like me and driving to win, rather than simply compete, there is no point at all entering a race knowing you do not have the equipment to win. It may sound obvious but in a lot ways inexperience makes you think that you can ignore that, but you can’t.

I have criticised the car a lot, yes, but not the actual offer of the car. Alan’s original offer of a car for the Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy (which we will no longer contest) was genuine, generous and is amongst the most support anyone has ever given me. In addition, my two rear tyres, one kindly donated by Neil Paxman and the other by Riny, Megan, Jo, Kim, Poppy and Kate were critical in getting me at least as far as we did. Despite everything we managed the ninth fastest race lap in the final.
2007 has a been a good year. After all, we have won a national championship. This weekend is destined to be forgotten but as I slowly start to put the car back together, one thing is clear. Next year I’ll be better prepared and I’m going to do everything I can to win this Festival.