Handicap Race 2006
We arrived at the circuit at 07:35 and I just stood back, the team went into their well rehearsed routine of unloading the cars, checking, testing, paperwork and finally scruitineering. Both cars passed with flying colours and apart from extensive ‘pit-stop' practice for our new drivers all went quiet until practice. TSR-2 went out and immediately reported a problem, something was causing the main power relay to pulse on and off…two laps later in the pits it was traced to a simple loose wire, where a clamping screw had not been secured….my fault that one!!
With not particularly useful data from the practice session, the decision was made to run a safe race and to limit the drivers' use of gears. As it turned out, distance wise, it was just good enough for a Gold distance, a bit over 150 miles. We had battery power to spare at the end, not a huge amount, but some. The relative lack of heavy traffic made for a much safer race although we did occasionally have to delay a pit-stop as no slots were available. For cars without two way “comms” this could be a cause of lost time, needlessly slowing for a pit stop only to find they get sent around again. So, please do not ‘hog' a pit slot, the system works very well…. usually……
Our newly licensed M3 amateur radio call-sign holders made our communications a breeze – several people commented on the big mast/fishing pole we had attached to our trailer – this was our ‘base station' and we were able to talk to TSR-2 wherever it was on the circuit (and TRS-2 was able to talk back!). As a solution to your communication problems, I'd recommend it, especially if your team have an interest in technological things. Very often the training is provided free (by a local Amateur Radio club), the only charge being for the actual examination and room hire. Contact the Radio Society of Great Britain ( www.rsgb.org ) and ask about Foundation License training in your area. Being able to use up to 10 watts on an empty frequency makes a difference!! We were running about 3 watts from the base station and TSR-2 had 1 watt. The license free handhelds are limited to 8 real frequencies and 1/2 a watt unless you borrow some ‘pro' ones which have 5 watts out but on the same 8 frequencies…and with the same 8 sel-calls, and the same DCS codes! Our pit-stops were slow for TSR-2, it is now a lot harder to get the drivers ‘in and out' so we need to practice that a bit. The larger bodywork has provided some much needed extra room for our larger (and growing!) drivers, but at the last minute we found out that one of our previous stars would simply not fit in the car any more! Faced with this, we need to recruit more new talent and get them competent as soon as possible in anticipation of a hard race at every venue we have entred. Limiting them to a ‘safe' speed whilst finding out what doing a ‘gold' feels like may provide the new talent we need for a TSR-4. Although sleeker, the new TSR-2 is distinctly fatter and it has lost its very small frontal area. We have some minor improvements still to make which will help in other areas, we hope…as usual, the next race will tell. In the meantime we need to improve the reliability of our data loggers as fitting them all in one box has proved ‘less than ideal' – 5 minutes data from a 6 hour race leave a bit to be desired!! The team are working hard on ‘ruggedising' all the ‘toys' and we hope to have some pretty cool stuff at the Sussex/Surrey heat.
