Hello all,
my 2021 racing season is over. On 25 September, the fourth round of the 2021 BELCAR Historic Cup took place in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. As I didn't want to drive the full championship this year anyway, this was planned as my second and equally last race event of the season. However, it was such a terrible disappointment that I needed a few weeks off before I can report on it here. But first things first:
As written above, I had renewed the brakes all around. I also had to get a new seat. The homologation of the old one was no longer valid and the model is no longer produced. So I had to look for an alternative. I found a suitable seat at Tillett Racing Seats. Unfortunately, the seating position is less optimal than before. I sit more upright and a little higher overall.
In addition, it was not possible to test the seat on the race track before the race. A short shake down on the road had to be enough. So I only knew that the brakes basically worked front and rear and that I could drive okay in the new seating position.
During the practice session in Spa, I quickly noticed that my new seating position meant that I could hardly see the other cars in the interior mirror. This made me feel very insecure and didn't let me really get into a flow. At least the brakes worked well. The balance was set a bit too much to the front, but that could easily be changed after the session. In the 6th lap I could at least drive a little bit faster. Then, unfortunately, the qualifying was already over. However, there was nothing like fast driving or even racing speed. Here you can see a clip from lap 2 or 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNA1aPKFxE . In order to solve the problem with the inside mirror, we taped an outside mirror for the caravan to the roll cage tube in the evening. This provisionally improved the view to the rear.
The first race run was scheduled for Saturday morning at 9 AM. Due to persistent fog, the start was behind the safety car, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Already in the first lap I felt an enormous vibration on the right rear wheel at the end of the Kemmel straight, which got out of hand after a few seconds into a real roller coaster. Fortunately, in about 200 m there was an emergency exit where I could park the car. Since I had actually lost a rear wheel with the Europa once before and almost lost it once again at another occasion, the feeling was very familiar. I had hoped that the wheel nuts had come loose. But unfortunately all the nuts were tight, so the cause quickly became clear: Wheel bearing damage. The central nut of the stub axle was also tight. And that was the crux of the matter...
In 2011, I lost the left rear wheel while driving slowly on the road after the central nut had come loose. Fortunately, the wheel came off for good at walking speed, so nothing significant was damaged. At the Hockenheim race in 2015, the central nut also came loose, but could be reattached before it actually fell off.
Due to these two incisive experiences, the rear axle was converted to BMW 2002 wheel bearings and stub axles. Two wheel carriers were constructed around the BMW wheel bearing carriers as a welded steel construction. After my conversion of the rear brake, I unfortunately gave too much tightening torque to the central nuts. I let myself be guided by my fear of losing the wheel again and tightened it with the big ratchet with all my strength. The outer right wheel bearing did not survive. The balls of the groove ball bearing were more or less pulverised. In the attachment you can see a few pictures.
Of course, I didn't have any spare wheel bearings in Spa, nor did I have the big tools for the rebuild. I will change that in the future. Although it would have been very tight in the short time (2 hours until the second start), but at least I would have liked to try. Fortunately, the hub carrier and stub axle were not seriously damaged, so I could now simply install new bearings and tighten them with the prescribed torque. This was accompanied by generous additions of Loctite and shaft-hub glue.
Now that this damage has been repaired, I can start planning for the 2022 season. I would like to compete in all the BHC heats next season. To do that, of course, I need a significant increase in reliability. Fortunately, all the problems so far have been caused by myself, so I've been able to fix them. But at the latest when I'm finally on the road at racing speed, the next weaknesses will be revealed.
Next I have to seal the housing of my 5-speed gearbox and replace the clutch disc. As part of that, I plan to get a lighter flywheel as an improvement. My current flywheel is a little bit twisted, but still very close to the standard weight of about 8 kg. I would like to aim for about half that. Hopefully there will be something suitable from or for Renault Alpine. An extra-large NASCAR interior mirror will definitely be added. Apart from that, track time is the priority for now, to get the car stable as soon as possible. I hope my schedule will allow for a detailed test before the first race of the new season.
