Thruxton Report-May 7

Thruxton May 6/7

Team:-

Andy Scott	Tim Sopp
Gary Scott	Andy Lofthouse
Will Scott	Rob Coombs
Martin Dickson	Chris Duckett
Will Scott	Phil Belcher
Transporter Driver:	Ken Sly

Sunday May 6
Sunday was cold but dry for the start of the second meeting of the BTCC season at Thruxton, near Andover in Hampshire. Thruxton, the fastest track in the country, is the closest circuit in this year's timetable to the Synchro base in Swindon.

A lot of work had been put into the Honda Accord since the last meeting at Brands Hatch and hopes were high for an improved performance.

Testing started at 11.30 and it was noticeable that the car was better. Dave Allan went inside his previous best around Thruxton by 4 seconds. However, things did not go quite as planned toward the end of the session. The rear brakes started to snap under braking making the car extremely difficult to handle. Dave finished in thirteenth place of the eighteen cars in the test but he was close enough to the cars ahead of him to feel reasonably confident about the afternoon's qualifying.

However, new special wheel studs, fitted on the previous Friday, caused a problem just prior to qualifying. Whilst refitting the wheels, one of the wheel nuts locked. The nut was freed but it meant missing about ten minutes of the afternoon session. It also could not have helped Dave's mental preparation and the session did not go well. Dave failed to improve on his morning time and finished a disappointing fifteenth.

Page 2

Diagnostics from the car's onboard computer indicated that there was a fuel pressure problem. This proved difficult to isolate. It was eventually tracked down to the fuel pump, which had damaged the fuel regulator valve, the original suspect, and the replacement. Both the pump and the valve were replaced and, according to the diagnostics, seemed to cure the high fuel pressure.

The team also had to sort out the wheel stud problem. It meant re-cutting the thread on the wheel studs with a die, which the team had to finish the following morning.

The first race tomorrow was scheduled for one o'clock. It was the Sprint race over fifteen laps.

Monday, May 7
Monday was sunnier but still with a cold wind. Crowds, as with Brands, were large, adding to the atmosphere of the meeting.

All the outstanding problems from the previous day were quickly resolved and the car was ready for the Sprint Race, the first of two races scheduled for the day. The Sprint Race had a different format from the one at Brands. For a start both the Tourers and the Super-Production cars would be in the same race. The Touring cars would have to complete sixteen laps and the Super-Production cars fifteen. There would be a twelve second gap between the green light for the Tourers and the flag start for the Super-Production cars. This effectively put the Tourers just over three-quarters of a lap behind.

With the weather remaining sunny and dry, the race started five minutes late at 13.05. Dave managed to stay out of trouble on a difficult first lap and was thirteenth as they came by the pit wall for the first time. By the end the second lap he was up to tenth, hard on the heels of Richard Meins and Toni Ruokonen. He passed Ruokonen on lap four and moved up to ninth.

Page 3

Dave was now lapping consistently and looked very comfortable. The Accord was performing well. As the stresses of the race took its toll on many cars, Dave had moved up to fourth by lap 14, the position he held until the finish of the race.

The result was a huge boost for the team. It was the manner of the result that was so pleasing. The Accord is, technically, very different from Dave's Civic from last season and, with the team's growing confidence in the car, they now feel very positive for the coming season.

The car needed little work before the feature race at 16.20, which was over 30 laps of the 2.356-mile circuit. Dave started as he finished the Sprint Race and steadily worked his way up to a comfortable sixth position just behind the Focus of Gareth Howell and Jim Edwards' Accord. However, on lap 20, he was forced to make a pit stop as his tyres had started to cause a problem. This was a common factor for most of the cars over the weekend.

With the tyres changed, Dave returned to the track but was then penalised for alleged speeding in the pit lane, although the officials were unable to confirm the speed. This meant that he had to drive through the pits again, which he did on lap 23.

Effectively any repeat of the morning race's success had now disappeared and he finished back in fifteenth place. The finishing position, though, belied the fine performance. Dave reduced his best lap time again in this race to 1m 24.204, an average lap speed of over 100mph!

The team is now very optimistic about the next meeting at Oulton Park in two weeks time. There is also testing at Donington this Friday (11th), which Synchro Motorsport plan to attend.

Click on image to enlarge