Team Jedi Racing, No Joy at Castle Combe
22 June 2004
MSportUK-Featured Team Jedi Racing suffered reliability problems
in both races at Castle Coombe this weekend.
The team had a new driver for the weekend. Ian
Stinton who races a Harrier in International Group C, stood in for
Frazer Corbyn who was
attending a wedding.
"The weekend was ruined before we even got to
the track!" said Rob Horsfield.
Gearbox problems had kept the team working deep into
the night at the workshop and prevented the team from taking part in the 90
minutes of free practice that takes place on Saturday morning. Things
went
from bad to worse when a broken CV joint rubber prevented Horsfield
from posting any race speed qualifying laps for the Sunday race.
Race 1 on Saturday was going well for Team Jedi, Ian Stinton, who
had never sat in the car before, very quickly got the measure of
the Lotus
and was making strong progress. Things were looking potentially
good for a points finish until disaster struck immediately after
the driver
change. During the pit stop a heat build up in the braking system
meant the brake fluid began to boil, so as Horsfield left the pits
he discovered
there were no brakes! He managed to nurse the car round for a few
laps in the hope that things might cools down, but eventually had
to give
in to common sense and retire the car.
Sundays race was just as bad, but in reverse! Overnight the team
had sorted out the potential brake issues. However, from lap one
it was
obvious an electrical issue had materialised. The car had a miss
fire. Horsfield circulated for several laps hoping the problem might
clear
itself, but in the end had to pit to try and sort things out. The
team spent 20 odd minutes working on the car and found the problem
to be
a failed sensor on the engine. Gavan Kershaw Racing very kindly supplied
a replacement part and Ian Stinton was able to join the race for
the final 20 minutes. The car ran reliably from there on in, and
Ian posted
some very creditable lap times for someone who had never driven a
Lotus before this weekend. The race was then red flagged a few minutes
early
because of rain, shortening Ian’s race even further.
‘
We are learning every time we go out,’ Said Rob Horsfield, ‘Ian
has given us some very good feed back and we are confident of making
progress over the next couple of races. We just need to get some testing
time and more race finishes under our belt’.
The next GT rounds are at Oulton Park in Cheshire on the 17th and
18th July.
Visit the official Team
Jedi Racing web site.
See 2004 series calendar for British
GT
Related Story 07.06.2004 - Team
Jedi Racing, Disappointment at Snetterton!
