|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
  |
|
- The Project
- As well as Bill's own racing exploits, the Bill Richards Racing have also been represented by one of their cars regularly at Sprint meetings throughout the year:
- The Team
- Finding a car
- Initial Results
- Dave McNair - The 2005 Sprinting season so far - Updated 31/07/05
|
UK's leading tuning specialist for "A" series engines |
|
Apart from having fun, Lee and Dave were raising money for Leukemia Research at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Thus they were seeking sponsorship so for those of you who wished to buy some prominent advertising space at very reasonable rates on what promised to be a high profile car as well as support a worthy cause, give Lee a call at Bill Richards Racing.
So how did they get on ? Throughout their first season the team took some good results including 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in their class which goes to show that you don't need the most powerful engine or the most expensive car for it to be successful - reliability was definitely the key factor. The photos on this page are mostly from their first Castle Coombe Mini day which as ever was enjoyed by all. The team only managed to damage a brake pipe this year and picked up some body damage to the n/s/f wheel arch from going over the curbs too fast and hitting a bollard, but at least it showed that they were trying. Lee has now moved into circuit racing with his beautifully prepared Miglia (see another section of this site for Lee's racing adventures) however Dave is continuing to campaign the Sprint car and an update of his progress continues below: Dave decided to enter the ACSMC
Guilford tyres sprint championship this season as most of the rounds are in the
south of England and he could then concentrate on dialling in and developing the
Mini rather than driving all over the country to race.
The third round was again to be
contested at Lydden Hill and this time there were only two drivers in Dave's
class. The car's rear tyre problem had been solved by the purchasing of a pair
of new un-cut wet compound Dunlop slicks to replace the Miglia compound that the
Mini had been wearing - these had proved proved to be slightly too hard. From
the first run Dave found that the Mini had been transformed with the new
tyres and soon found himself easily leading the class. As the day progressed the
lap-times improved and by the end of the day Dave had won his class and picked
up maximum points in the championship. The fourth round was to be held
yet again at Lydden and was on the 16th of July. For this round a healthy number
of competitors had entered the class and Dave was looking forward to seeing how
the Mini would perform with both the tyres and handling being spot on. After the
first timed run Dave found himself in third place - time for word with Lee about
sorting out those racing lines. During the second timed run Dave followed Lee's
advice and made a huge leap forward and found himself comfortably in second
place. On the third timed run Dave managed to post his quickest
time around Lydden but this was not quick enough to beat the very
experienced Paul Bernal-Ryan and his rapid Midget. Dave ended the day second in
the class collecting more points and being very happy with the improvement in
his lap times. At the mid way point in the 2005 season Dave is now running in 5th overall and first in class in the 'King of Lydden trophy' and 2nd in class in the 'ACSMC sprint championship' so he's very pleased with his performance so far. With both the Mini and its engine feeling very strong he can hopefully climb further up the leader board in the second half of the season.
|
Originally
the Sprint car team consists of Lee
and his Dad, Dave. They fancied a go at circuit racing but decided
it was beyond their budget. Sprinting is a much cheaper option and
would allow the team members to learn the ropes without bouncing
off other cars - if you have accident whilst sprinting, you only have
yourself to blame!
Having decided to go sprinting, they now required a car - one
of their friends had a race Mini which had been laid up for 10 years
and was partially stripped out. They bought the car as a rolling shell and
scoured the workshop for any unused/second hand parts. The car was equipped
with a beam axle and a set of leaky shocks - a design feature which
has remained with the car ever since ( yep, still leaking !) The car was stripped and re-built, replacing all the
important parts with new + unseizing and cleaning the original
remaining parts. Bill Richards kindly donated an engine to the project
which has been absolutely bullet-proof and reliable for over 30
sprints and 200 laps of Castle Combe. The engine specification is deliberately
quite soft, It has under 100 horsepower and in this state of tune is
flexible rather than 'cammy'. This is just the sort of thing to start
out with, our sprint team had a lot to learn and wanted to avoid an
engine which was going to give them a hard time.
The
first round of the championship took place at Lydden Hill on the 9th April.
Although his class had a large entry he decided not to concentrate on lap times
but just use this round as a test day. Dave's first run went well enough
and he was pleasantly surprised to record a competitive class time. Back in the
paddock he had a de-briefing with Lee and told him that the clutch did not feel
right and it was hampering smooth gear-changing. Lee decided to fit a new clutch
master and slave cylinder to eradicate these as being the fault. For the second
run, slight changes were made to the tyre pressures in an effort to get some
heat into the rear tyres. The Mini was starting to feel better but Dave was
still not happy with the gear-change. He persevered with the faulty gear-change
for the rest of the day as the problem seemed to be more complex than a
simple hydraulic fault. Dave finished his 3rd and 4th runs with no major
dramas other than a high speed spin at the fastest part of Chessons Drift. With
the final times and positions published at the end of the day Dave had managed
to pick up maximum points in the championship and finished fourth in his class. 