Furze Platt Greenpower Racing

The over-current lights circuits had been re-made after the Castlecombe race and a small error on the circuit board caused them both to fail at Bedford. The protection circuit that prevented voltage spikes from the motor getting to the sensitive electronics had not been correctly fitted. Thus after a couple of laps under racing load the circuits had blown. This was fixed, tyres, speedometer and motor were ordered.  

TT has carbon fibre wheel disks which were left over from a bike that Miles had made years ago, but we had no more so we asked TRS2’s team how they made their good looking and effective disks. We took their helpful instructions and went of the local model shop for 2 rolls of Solartex and set to work with an iron and scissors. It’s not as easy as it looks and after several attempts and a couple of more rolls they started to resemble TSR2’s (Thanks Gavin).  SS was painted in GRP resin to seal it from water and the bubbles were cleaned, new numbers attached.  SS’s new motor was wrapped in copper and fitted. TT had its tyres changed and its nose repaired, we also raised the front roll bar and altered the seat to allow the now growing drivers to be pass scrutinerring.  We were now ready for the final and with a small amount of time to spare. 

Race day arrived and the cars were again taken down in 2 vehicles, the weather looked OK so it was decided not to put on the Rainex rain repellent and demisting fluid as was done on all other occasions and will now be done with hindsight on all future occasions. 

Both car went through scutineering OK and we waited for practice to start to try out the warning lights to see if the repairs had worked, it was also going to be a chance for the SS team to try SS on Goodwood for the first time. 

We discovered at this time that the Pole position car Super Trug was not at the race, which was a bit of a disappointment as they and TSR2 had been our main rivals from last year and we had not raced them this year.

 The first driver went out onto the track and came back in, the warning lights seeming to be fine but when the body was removed from SS the front retainer got broken, so instead of practice SS was back in the pits having this fixed. TT seemed OK and ready for the parade and the race.  

The cars went the start line with everything operational,  we hoped it would stay that way.  TT was on the second row of the grid but that should not be a problem.  SS was back on the fourth row again not a problem provided it did not get tangled up in the traffic. At the end of the first lap we could see TT with Fireblade going like a rocket in front, had they found some extra power from somewhere or would they over do it? TT kept going at its correct pace and eventually Fireblade was overtaken when they slowed a bit, but they kept their second place almost to the end keeping TT drivers on their toes. 

TT pit stops came and went not as slick as they had been in the Race of Champions, but new pit crew was being broken in and we stated to pull away gradually from the rest of the field. We had a problem with the rear cover latch during one pit stop which meant that the cover was rattling and this damaged the brake light which then had to have its bulb replaced. When the race was stopped for the rain both cars bubbles were quickly coated with rain repellant and de-mister. Without it the driver of SS could hardly see through the cover once the speed dropped off and the air through the front stopped flowing.  TT was actually in the pits at this time so that driver did not suffer. 

SS seemed to be keeping its place in the race as the driver settled in and then started to move forward as the pace of the car was able to be used by the new driver.

This gradual improvement continued until SS had a blow out caused by debris on the track, unfortunately this happened just past the pits so the recovery time was quite long due to having to go round the entire circuit and picking up another broken down car on the way.

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Last modified: 08/06/09