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September 22/24 SPA (Page 2)

Testing actually started twenty minutes late and did not go well from the start for Dave Allan. He was soon back into the pits with a reoccurrence of the misfire problem encountered at Snetterton. It was thought that this had been fixed. To be fair, the misfire was slightly different this time, occurring whilst the car was cornering. The distributor was the prime suspect. This was quickly removed and checked by Paul and Gary. However, Dave still lost around thirty minutes of the test session.

When he did return to the track, he managed to put in a 2m 51.952 second lap to put him in nineteenth place. This was not as quick as he had hoped but still quicker than his best time from last year.

Kevin took a while to get into stride. He had had a new engine fitted since Snetterton and had nursed the car in the earlier stages of the test. However, even during the latter stages of the test his times were not as quick as he would have liked. His best time of 2m 57.111 was nearly four seconds slower than he had achieved in the 24-hour race earlier in the season and one and a half seconds slower than last year. He finished twenty-fifth overall.

The main purpose of testing is to check out the car and change the settings, if required, for the driver to get the best out of the car during qualifying and in the race. Hopefully today's testing will have helped to cure the misfire on Dave's car. The team worked quite late into the evening in attempt to bottom out the cause. The real test of this work, though, will be revealed tomorrow when the first qualifying session of thirty minutes takes place at 2.15 in the afternoon. The second qualifying session is on Saturday morning and the best time from either session will determine the grid positions.

The first qualifying session started on time in bright sunshine. The entry list had been boosted by two cars from yesterday's test session by the addition of Brian Ward in his Honda Integra and the Dutch driver, Pierre-Yves Corthals in a Renault Megane.