Practice/Qualify Day

Today was the official start of the event. Scrutineering was different. I just had to give them my log book. They will return it at the end of the weekend's events. To get a wristband, I had to show my FIA license and sign in. I will have to sign in like this every day of the event.

We had two 15 minute practice sessions, and one 10 minute qualifying session. The first practice felt pretty good. Could concentrate on lines and braking points, rather than what was over the next rise. On the cool down lap, the engine started sounding funny, like a really big exhaust leak. No signs of any external problem. Pulling the spark plugs showed a problem with #4.

Electrode insulator missing

The ceramic insulator was gone from the centre electrode. Looking through the spark plug hole, I could see some damage to the top of the piston. We decided to pull off the head to check how bad it was.

The second problem was immediately obvious.

Blown head gasket

The head gasket was blown between cylinders 3 & 4. Not sure which happened first, the plug or the gasket. There was dents and other marks in the piston and the head where the insulator pieces were trapped. Dave scraped and filed the marks to reduce any chance of hotspots forming. New gasket & new plugs. All done with 10 minutes to spare before the second practice session. Many thanks to Dave for the hard work.

The second practice was shortened due to the clutch needing adjustment and a red-flag shortening the session.

Qualifying was also interrupted with a quick red flag. That put me in a bit of traffic, but all the fixes stayed fixed. I will start the first race in 15th out of 22 qualifiers.

Qualify Results

I will have to talk to timing/scoring in the morning regarding car #72. I am pretty sure there is only one Dreossi Special in the field.

The day ended well after working through the issues. Racing starts tomorrow.