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Big Tee Racing - Race Reports
OMRA CALSHOT I 2010
The Team elected to travel to Calshot on Saturday in
order to get tents pitched and have a quick test with Phil's new
Pacer 70 prior to the race. There was also talk of a few other
racers arriving on the Saturday too, so a bit of socialising was in
order.
Saturday afternoon saw the team arrive at a very cold
and damp Calshot, although the rain was beginning to lift on
arrival. Tents were soon erected and after a bit of fettling Tony
and Phil plumped on giving the Pacer 70 its maiden run. With the
exception of a few tweaks to the auxilliary water pickups, the 70
ran straight and true and Phil was very pleased with the result and
was even more happy with the handling. A quick clean up and
all was pretty much ready for the following day.
The evening saw a gathering of about ten or so in the
Spinnaker Bar at Calshot and afterwards back in the big team tent, a
few more tinnies were sunk!
Sunday morning dawned even colder with a bitter
northerly wind, which Phil was quite pleased about as the Pacer 70
was designed for use in rough conditions. The 60s would find it a
bit more challenging so both Phil and Tony elected to add weight to
the 2 works 60s in order to dampen down the boats action on the
water.
Heat 1
Cam and Tony were both drawn in the first heat and
Richie Haydock of MCop Racing kindly pitted for Tony. Tony was
driving steadily during the first D heat when all of a sudden the
CMB-engined Pacer 60 stopped. After its retrieval, Tony worked very
hard to try to restart it only to be foiled in this attempt.
It later transpired on closer examination between heats, that the
coil earth on the CMB had snapped completely, thus shorting it out.
There was no way Tony could have started it under this circumstance.
Cam's first heat was not too bad with only one
stoppage later on. At one point all the other boats except
Luke Copley's new Phantom 145 had stopped and it was just Luke and
Cameron running. A spectacular submarine later on in the race
finished the heat for Cameron as the Pacer couldn't get re-started
before the final hooter. A good result for Cam in this first heat
with a second placing.
Phil's first heat started well, with the big Pacer
shouldering the chop out of the way and making light of the
conditions. One of the drawbacks of offshore model powerboating is
the amount of water to come into the engine bay during races and to
this end, Phil had fitted an experimental electric bilge pump to
clear the water as fast as possible after the problems experienced
at Torquay a few weeks earlier. The pump worked perfectly
under lab conditions however, during testing the night before, it
was found that the inline filter would clog very quickly due to
particulate matter found in sae water. Phil elected to run it
anyway, but it became quite clear early on that the 70 was starting
to bog down due to water ingress. The pump had blocked and was not
shifting it fast enough. This caused a stoppage and a long
wait for the rescue. A restart saw a couple more laps but only a low
score was made during the first heat. Phil was happy with the
overall performance of the 70 but a bit of tuning of the carb was
necessary during the break as it was running very rich.
Heat 2
This went much better for Tony after fixing the coil
on his 60, although the conditions by this time were very choppy and
windy. Even with the extra weight in his boat, it was still being
blown about. Cam suffered a similar fate for a few laps and then
recovery after a stoppage revealed that the starboard stringer had
come away from the hull, making the engine loose. That was the end
of Cam's second heat due to mechanical breakdown.
Phil suffered a similar fate in that after another 6
laps of the 70 running well, it started to go sick so he brought it
back in. A quick check over ensued followed by a restart.
Unfortunately the same thing happened again twice more wasting time
and laps. Finally it was discovered that the coil mount had snapped
and was not earthing properly. A hasty temporary fix was made and
the 70 shot off purposefully only to yet again grind to a halt with
engine trouble. It was elected to call a halt to the proceedings and
go back to the workshop to fit a more robust coil mount.
Tony took 7th overall with the second highest laps
for heat 2 after fixing the engine issues and Cam also managed to
bring in 2 points for his steady effort in heat 1. Phil, whilst not
managing to swing any points was happy nonetheless, with the way the
big Pacer had handled the conditions and is going away to sort out
the mechanical issues on the 60 and 70 and look at another type of
pump which should hopefully address the problem of blockages.
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