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June 24/25 NURBURGRING (Page 3)

The second session, which started at 7.30 that Friday evening, was a cause for immediate concern. Bill Stilwell was set to go out on the first stint when fuel was noticed pouring out from under the car. It took an hour to find and fix the fault, which was caused, by the two fuel tanks moving apart from the load of a full tank. At first glance it looked like a split tank which would have been catastrophic.

Bill went out at 8.30 for his three compulsory laps and managed an 11m06sec on his final lap. Dave went next and did three quick laps bringing the team's best time down to 10m46sec. This left just enough time for Kevin to complete his laps in the dark where he clocked a best time of 11m59sec
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The Civic finished twenty-fifth of the forty cars that qualified from the group that the Civic was in.

Race day was overcast with a constant threat of rain that never really materialised. The proceedings started around three o'clock when all the cars were lined up on the grid in three groups of seventy cars. The Synchro Civic was about halfway back in the second group.

The first laps went to plan. Like last year, Kevin Hicks started the session and drove well. By the seventh lap, his lap times had come down to 10m54sec and he had managed to get the Civic into the top 112 cars. But then disaster struck. Ironically the Civic was being shown on the television around the circuit when a large cloud of smoke was clearly seen belching from the car. Kevin managed to nurse the car back to the garage where it was discovered that an engine valve had snapped and destroyed the engine.

Desperate attempts were made to get the car back on the circuit but to no avail and late at night it was reluctantly decided to call it day.

Nurburgring 2000 was over. The car, for the short time it was on the track, had looked and felt good. The cause of the failure has been discovered and, hopefully, eliminated.

The 24-hour Civic will be repaired in time for the Spa race in a months time. The action, though, continues next weekend at Donington when Dave Allan rejoins Kevin Hicks for round seven of the National Saloon Championship.