Sorry about the delay, people. Work, eh?
It just gets in the way sometimes.
Well, the event on 22nd Feb was the first event
in the UAQ Solo Race Championship. Run
over a new 13km course, it was scheduled to start at 1.00pm. 1.00pm came and went, and I had my picnic
lunch. Then, at 2.00pm and without any
prior warning, the Motorplex wheeled out a huge feast. There was enough food crammed into that tent
to feed the entire population of Umm Al Quwain for a week, and most of it went
untouched. Nice gesture, but we actually
wanted to get some racing in before it got dark.
Finally it kicked off close to 3.00pm, with the bikes and
quads doing three laps back-to-back.
Then the Barracudas and 4x4s went out to do three single timed
laps. I got through to almost the end of
the first lap and felt that it was relatively tidy, but the clutch pedal seemed
to be sticking a bit. I reached a fast
stretch in 3rd gear, leading into a hairpin left. I turned in, dropped it into second, let out
the clutch – and nothing happened. By
the time clutch pedal came back up, I’d overshot the corner. Tried to correct it, but the exit was through
a gap in a berm and I was too far out of line to make it, and ended up hung up
on the berm. Eventually I was towed off,
and finished the lap in 20+ minutes – unimpressive.
Richard tried bleeding the clutch, but the hydraulics
weren’t holding any pressure. Started the
2nd lap on the starter motor in 1st gear, and if I could only
have got it to shift up to 2nd gear I’d have been good to go. But I couldn’t, so it was a DNF. Bugger.
Dave Mabbs ended up winning in the FJ and taking home Dh 2,500.00. Nice one!
Both clutch cylinders have been re-sealed now – the master
cylinder lives next to the exhaust so it has a pretty hard life. So we’re up for another go-round at UAQ on
Friday, although having DNF’d the first round, the championship is probably out
of reach now. Anyway, we’ll give it our
best shot.
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