Le-Mans, France - October 2002

Le Mans hosted the third round of the Anglo French Challenge in October.

Although I'd crashed out of the 2nd event in Germany, the Brits were still winning by a considerable margin. I'd had my instructions from my Team Leader Stuart who was not going to be in here. He was, instead, going to be in the final round of the European Championships at the Lausitz Ring in Germany. If the French Racers finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd on both days they could still win the cup back. Therefore I had to be in the top three on both days and get all of my fellow Brits to beat as many French as they could! Talk about all of the British hopes on my shoulders!

Late on the Friday evening things looked better because Ross turned up having decided half way to Lausitz that the British cause was more important than his FIA Europe money. He'd come to help me! Good job he did, as you will find out!

On the Track, I found I had a problem with my engine power - like I didn't have any! I would be lucky to finish 5th at this rate - she just didn't seem to want to give me full power, only about two thirds max. There was nothing I could do about it either, as I did not carry any diagnostic equipment with me, at this Meeting.

Ross kept the Brits in the top three with a little help from Dave Jenkins when he wasn't getting a Stop and Go penalty for something in the pit lane! I battled with some French Nationals further down the field all weekend, being beaten by some of the Brits who must have thought it was their lucky day, as I was approximately 5 seconds a lap slower than I should have been. Just like before my up-grade in Zolder.

Then the comments and banter started up and down the paddock. The French Racers were saying, " Your new engine's slower than your old engine Steve! Was it cheap?" Brits were saying, "You should have stayed with your old engine Steve! We're going to beat you again at Donnington in a fortnight!" Anyway we regained the Cup, and that was the main thing! Thank you Ross, I couldn't have done it for England without you!!

Back at base, and we had only got one and a half weeks to try and sort out the engine problem before Donnington and I was thinking I'd rather die than go to another Race Meeting without full power.

Fax and E-mails to the far off country started, but would they help me? They had been paid in full, and the warranty was only until the end of the Zolder meeting. But - three days passed and I received a fax informing me that the engine had shutdown modes in its software, which was beginning to explain most of my earlier problems. How can a Race engine have shutdown modes? I'm trying to learn!! We had to find an electronics expert and some diagnostic equipment quickly, as it is rectifiable by the press of a few buttons.
A friend in the next village builds Racing Cars, he put me onto his electronics wizard who arrived the next morning. Under my desk was some diagnostic equipment I had borrowed. We had full power back by lunchtime on the Tuesday before Donnington. Although I must admit that I didn't let anyone outside our Team know about it, as I wanted to see the change in people's faces after qualifying on Sunday.

The problem had been faults registered in the engine brain, if the same fault i.e. engine over-speed occurred four times, or for a certain period of time, together with something like water levels low, it would put the engine in shutdown or limp home mode! So to recap on earlier problems - when we fitted the engine back in July - we must have picked up a fault, which caused shutdown, before we even drove out of the workshop! Plus doing donuts for the crowd in Ireland, with max revs on the engine governor might not have helped! It was only in Zolder that the faults were cleared, but in the last Race I must have picked up enough faults to cause shutdown again, without noticing. The turbo/exhaust was blowing and the smoke boxes were starting to block up, which would lower the power as it was! I did the whole Le Man Meeting on 2/3rds power! Ah well at least we are starting to understand how this engine works before next Season…

One thing is for sure - the diagnostics equipment and the operator are coming to Donnington this weekend - even if he doesn't want to!!!

We are now 4th in the Championship, trailing by one point with Roy Clarke in 3rd. Stuart is 32 points ahead of me and Ross 26 points. We'll try for 3rd then……