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September 2/3 SNETTERTON (Page 2)

Meanwhile, Dave was struggling with a car that was misfiring and also handling erratically. The track did not help as there was oil in many places. However, after eight minutes, a red flag halted the race for eighteen minutes after Kermit's Proton lost a back wheel at the end of the Revett straight.

When qualifying restarted, Dave was still fighting with the car. He had a number of minor slides but, quite surprisingly under the circumstances, managed to put in a 1m 19.825s lap just before the close of the qualifying session. This jumped him up to a respectable eleventh place.

Kevin and Tim returned from their trek to Swindon at 8.30 on the Saturday evening with the spare engine. The team worked hard to reassemble it prior to retiring for the night at around 9.45, leaving the engine to be re-installed the following morning.

The engine did go back into Kevin's car the next morning but things were not right. The oil pressure read low but the car seemed all right so it was decided to start the race with a warning to Kevin to keep a close eye on things.

Slight adjustments were made on Dave's car to try to correct the handling problems he had in qualifying yesterday. A small oil leak was also found and was fixed. Hopefully the cause of the misfire too had been traced. An earth lead on the ECU was loose and could well have contributed to the problem. Only the race would tell.

The weather was dry but rain was a constant threat as the race got underway exactly on time as 12.15. It was immediately obvious that both of the Civics had problems. Dave's fine eleventh place in qualifying disappeared on the very first bend as the engine almost cut-out and then spluttered its way back to life again. He found himself back in last place, but struggling, as it was apparent that the misfire was still present.