Paul Butcher

The start of the day was pretty hectic. Jedi had forgotten to send exhaust
mounts to replace the ones which had failed during the test at Mallory. We
therefore organised for a race supplies company based at Silverstone to
leave an envelope with some in it for me at the gate. Amazingly, this
worked, so the first job was to fit these before scruitineering. This wasn’t
helped by the fact that the paddock organisation was the normal Peterborough
Motor Club shambles, resulting in us having to move the car and trailer
after having unpacked everything. Hey ho.

The weather forecast was for rain all day, and sure enough it started
raining just before the first practice session of the day. By the time we
were due out, the rain had stopped, but the track was still wet enough that
rain tyres were clearly the right choice. A number of people managed to
throw their cars at the scenery in the conditions, resulting in the session
being red flagged after a couple of laps and many yellow flags throughout
the rest of the session. It was very difficult to find a clear lap, but
other people obviously found it even harder than I did, and I ended up
qualifying 2nd (although more than a second slower than John Lord’s pole
time).

By the time the race was due to start, the track was completely dry, and
although the sky looked threatening and there were the odd spots of rain,
slicks were order of the day. The arrangement of the grid was slightly odd -
for some reason they decided to put pole position on the left hand side of
the track when the first corner, Copse, is a right-hander. I wasn’t
complaining, as this definitely worked to my advantage.

I was a little apprehensive about the start, as this would be the first time
I’d done a racing start with the new engine, and I wasn’t entirely sure of
the best technique to use. As it happened, I got a pretty good start – not
great, but good enough to mean that I was in the lead into Copse, although I
had both John Lord and Andrew Cowell (who had qualified in 4th and therefore
right behind me on the grid) very close in my mirrors. On the run down to
Maggots, Richard Cottrell appeared from nowhere and shot past the whole lot
of us. Pretty impressive given that he’d qualified in 7th!

I was still in 2nd at the end of the lap, but was having some problems
keeping John Lord behind me. The engine was bogging down in the middle of
corners – at first, I berated myself for being in the wrong gear, but it
quickly became clear that this wasn’t the problem. The engine was fantastic
above 10,000RPM, but there was nothing at all below that. Unfortunately, the
gearing just isn’t close enough to be able to keep the engine revving that
high

I managed to hold 2nd for a short while, but it couldn’t last and both John
Lord and Peter Whitmore both got past me on lap 3. That was it until the
flag, and I finished in 4th.

We’re not sure what the problem with the engine is. The fact that it’s fine
at high revs is encouraging, as it probably means that whatever the problem
is isn’t too serious. The most likely culprit is carburetion. It will be a
little disappointing if this is the problem, given that the car was on a
rolling road, supposedly to get the carbs set up correctly, less than 2
weeks ago! I will be calling the rolling road to discuss first thing on
Monday

Next race (and the first Formula Jedi round) is a double-header at Croft on
the 17/18th. As ever, let me know if you don’t want to receive my ramblings
and I’ll remove you from the list…

If you don’t want to receive any further messages, please just let me know
and I’ll remove you from the list.

I was planning to make some upgrades to the car before the 2003 season, but
my argument with the tyre wall at Mallory Park on Boxing Day meant that the
upgrades turned out to be a little more extensive than intended In the
end, as well as the planned limited slip diff, I also ended up fitting new
front dampers, upgraded front and rear wings and a new rear undertray. All
of these upgrades were improvements, but the LSD and the new undertray were
particularly successful. The LSD made the car both much more satisfying to
drive and easier on the rear tyres. The new undertray generated significant
downforce (unlike the previous design!) – to such an extent that finding a
way of attaching it to the car firmly enough so that it didn’t pull itself
off was a problem all year!

Unfortunately, the first few events of the year were compromised by a
recurring engine misfire which took us a long time to diagnose. After a
following a number of blind alleys, we finally worked out that it was the
result of fuel vapourisation caused by exhaust heat getting to the
carburettor float bowls. Once diagnosed it was pretty easy to fix by
fabricating a baffle to fit over the exhaust (thanks, Dad!). It was annoying
though, because it meant that I failed to finish the first few events.

From that point onwards, most of the races followed a pattern. There was a
group of two or three faster cars which were consistently ~2 seconds a lap
faster than everyone else, then there was me, and then there was another
group off cars consistently ~1 second or so slower. Unfortunately this meant
that in a lot of races, I was largely alone on the circuit. There was a
battle ahead of me, a battle behind me, but I mostly just drove around by
myself

I had a few good results, including a couple of second places, but these
were as a result of the guys ahead of me having problems rather than me
doing anything particularly clever.

I blotted my copybook in a pretty big way at Croft, when I managed to lock
up going into the first corner and promptly disappeared headfirst into the
tyre barriers. As it happens, this was captured on video by the wife of
another competitor and you can watch me making a mess of it [here](http://www.paulbutcher.com/assets/2007/1/21/croft.mpg)

The car was eligible for two championships during 2003: the Monoposto series
I competed in during 2002 and a new 1000cc class in the Formula Honda
series. For various reasons, I ended up doing a few races in each series
without doing enough in either to really mount a full challenge, so I didn’t
finish particularly well up the final placings in either. For 2004, I’m
planning on concentrating on Formula Honda (which is likely to be renamed
Formula Jedi). I may still do a few Mono events, but I’ll make sure that I
do enough Formula Jedi to be able to place well in the championship.

In order to try to find the 2 seconds a lap which I’ll need in order to be
up with the front-runners, the car is having some very extensive upgrades
over the winter. I’m getting a new chassis (replacing my short-wheelbase,
low nose MkIV chassis with a long-wheelbase, high nose MkVI chassis), and a
new engine (replacing my Fireblade with a Yamaha R1). Enough other things
will need upgrading a result of these changes (bodywork, wiring loom,
exhaust system, …) to mean that it will very nearly be a completely new
car by the time I’m finished. I hope to pick up a large pile of bits which
will then need bolting together from Jedi this weekend, after which I’ll
have my work cut out getting everything together in time for the first race
of the season…

The draft calendars for Formula Jedi and Monoposto have recently been
released:

Formula Jedi:

April 17/18: Croft (Double Header)
May 22/23: Snetterton (Double Header)
May 30/31: Silverstone
June 12/13: Brands Hatch (Double Header)
July 4: Cadwell Park (Double Header)
August 21: Oulton Park (Double Header)
Sept 12: Mallory
Oct 9: Rockingham
Nov 6/7: Brands Hatch (Double Header)

Monoposto:

March 13 Silverstone
April 3 Silverstone
May 23 Mallory Park
June 5/6 Croft (Double Header)
June 19/20 Anglesey (Double Header)
July 31 Oulton Park
August 30 Castle Combe
September 25/26 Snetterton (Double Header)
October 23/24 Donnington (Double Header)

If anyone fancies coming along to watch, you would be very welcome indeed!
And extra pit-crew are always welcome