Last weekend was the first round of the Formula Jedi series, at Croft (near Darlington). Unlike Monoposto, Formula Jedi is a one make series, only open to Jedis. Although there are a few people competing in both series, a lot of drivers are only competing in Formula Jedi and in general the level of competition is rather higher.

The weekend did not start well - the journey up to Croft was awful, partly because of several traffic jams but mainly because the trailer developed a nasty “snake” at one point. This was a very frightening experience (particularly as not very long ago one of the mechanics at Jedi had the same thing happen to him, and he ended up with the van he was driving on its roof). Luckily nothing so severe happened to us, but I will definitely be taking steps to stop the problem recurring!

We went to the circuit armed with various suggestions from both Jedi and the rolling road who set up the carburettors for things we could try in order to cure the engine problems we had at Silverstone. I thought that we’d found the problem when I removed the needles from the carbs and discovered that cylinders 1, 2 and 4 were running almost full rich whereas cylinder 3 was running full lean. Unfortunately, making the settings consistent didn’t have any noticeable effect on the track, and neither did anything else we tried throughout the weekend :-(

The track was mainly dry for qualifying, but there were still a few damp patches from the overnight rain and even a few patches of standing water. I ended up 6th overall, which was actually rather better than I expected given the engine problems. I was in the middle of a group of cars approximately 3 seconds off pole (which is a very big gap!). I’m not going to be able to challenge for the front of the grid until I have the new, tuned engine ready (hopefully in time for the next race!).

After practice, the whole field was called to see the Clerk of the Course for a wrist slapping. He said that he’d had the largest pile of reports from the marshals he’d ever seen and was worried that the race would be carnage. As it happens, he wasn’t far wrong…

The race started OK - I picked up one place at the start, but I very quickly came under pressure from two cars behind me. I was able to stretch my lead through the faster sections of the track, but as soon as we got to anything twisty the engine would bog down again and they would be right on my tail. On lap 2, we passed one of the leaders who had stopped with mechanical trouble and then on lap 3, the red flags came out to stop the race.

For the restart, I was in 4th, but the 3rd place car was missing (presumably involved in the incident which brought out the red flags) so it was a “virtual” 3rd. I didn’t get a great start, and I went into the first corner side-by-side with another car. We both tried to outbrake each other and as a result, both braked too late. He left it slightly later than I did and ended up spinning in the gravel trap. I also went into the gravel, but managed to keep the car pointing roughly in the right direction and get back onto the track. Unfortunately, in the process of getting back onto the track, I tangled with John Lord and we hit (my right-hand rear to his left-hand front). This deranged my suspension and I had to pull off at the next corner :-(

The race turned out to be something of a demolition derby with several cars hors de combat by the end. Only three of the top 7 qualifiers finished!

The collision had written off the right hand rear upright and a couple of rod ends - not too bad considering how bad it could have been. My pit crew put in their usual sterling effort, and the car was back together, with all of the wheels pointing where they should be, in time for the second race the following day.

My DNF in the first race meant that I would be close to the back of the grid. I got a pretty good start, and picked up around 6 places before the first corner. I made up a few more places throughout the rest of the race, and eventually finished 11th. It should have been higher, but on the second to last lap, I spun at the hairpin as a result of trying to keep the engine revs up and avoid bogging down. This allowed two cars past, and gave me an unpleasant moment when my visor immediately steamed up making it very difficult to see whether it was safe to restart!

All in all, not a very good weekend :-( Full results are here

The next race is in 5 weeks time at Snetterton on May 22/23. Hopefully I will have the new tuned engine in by then, and working properly!