A very early Saturday morning June 17 I drove towards Padborg Park - the car was loaded with spares, tires and a hint of optimism: Friday evenig I collected the car from the rolling road of Kurt Mejer, and the latest session showed 90 horsepower. Still not as expected, but much better than Ring Djursland. I hoped the weekend would give decent results, even though there suddenly were 3 Porsches in our division A2.
It started badly, as the engine lost water - small dripping turned out to be from a core plug. My technical advisor from the Danish Triumph Automobil Klub looked closely, and we chose to carry on - with an eye on the temperature gauge. Furthermore a front brake caliper was sweating a little, and I had to keep an eye on this as well, while setting a decent qualifying time.
Although I thought the session went well the times were disappointing: My best was actually half a second slower than my previous best in 2004. But I was held up by a slower car on lap 3, and felt confident for Sunday. And I did shave another second off - but most others did as well, so mygrid position was about the same. I realized that I once again was no threat for the Midget - more than 2 second separated us. Before the Sunday race 1 my tech crew adjusted the rear brakes, as they tended to lock up under braking at the end of the straight.
Unfortunately I blew the start, again because of too low revs, and I came away very badly.
On the other hand I handled the traffic quite well, and soon was behind a Lotus Cortina - which was of course ver much faster than the Spitfire on the straights. But in the curves the Spitfire was much faster, and since I did not brake for the chicane I was able to pull alongside him twice out towards the looooong lefthander. After two halthearted attempts I breathed deeply and went for the inside though here - and nice and easy drifted the Spitfire past the Cortina, which used all the tarmac and a bit more. That was a nice feeling, and as I entered the straight with good speed, the Cortina couldn't even fight back.
It didn't last though, as the engine started missing 2 laps later. It kept running, but unsure of the reason for the rough engine I stopped pushing it, and lost places the rest of the race.
Then my tech team went under the bonnet: The Webers were dripping badly, and their manifuld nuts were tightened. Ignition was checked and the coil changed, valve play was too loose. The 12 liter tank was filled, and suddenly Race 2 was on: The engine actually went better, and I was hoping the best.
This time I hold the engine at 5000 revs for the start, but the same happened - it only spun the wheels shorthly and then overdosed on petrol and had no power - the rest of the grid flew past, and I tried to take up the fight. But heading for the chikane the engine missed again, and coming out of the chikane it almost died. I realized that would not work for the whole race, and pitted. Even though the tech crew checked away nothing definitive came up, and the laps were ticking away. I stayed in the pits until the race was flagged off, but I drove half a lap around afterwards, and there the engine responded as usual - very strange, and my first ever DNF (Did Not Finish).
As if that wasn't enough the technical inspector found my ride height too low - and on the way home the differential screamed like nothing I've ever heard before. At least the weather was nice and sunny for open motoring. Strangely the Spitfire went perfectly well on the 200 kilometer drive back home.
On the other hand my newly rebuilt close ratio gearbox was perfect for Padborg Park, the weight 697 kilos was not as far from the minimum of 675 as I had feared - and when the engine wasn't missing, it went sort of allright. Under the circumstances my lap times were OK, but must of course improve dramatically to threaten the Midget.
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