FBR bounces back 20/07/09

Full Blue Racing bounced back from a tough Saturday to make it into the endurance run…

Having suffered a catastrophic failure yesterday, hopes were now set on making it into the endurance event so that track time could be maximised - the team is now looking to Hockenheim for the results wanted and any further data to backup work between now and FSG09 is valuable. The replacement plenum was finished overnight and fitted to the car first thing. Following some brief engine tuning the team then went onto pass noise test first time, and pass the driver egress test for Mike (our second endurance driver). From there the team had to perform a dance of the tyres whilst the weather constantly drifted from howling rain to bright sunshine. Wanting to maximise its chances for passing brake test, the team was keen to be on the right tyre at the right time.

Finally going with full wet tyres, the team congregated at the brake test area as the sun came out! With the track drying, Graeme (driver 1) did a great job of keeping the tyres cool with puddles and took the FBR09 its first steps. Brake test was passed! The SAFBR09 was ready to race, and the team had just one hour until it's slot - perfect!

Further tweaks to the car were made in preparation for the endurance event, before the team queued up in the F1 pitlane to start the endurance event (held on the luffield and woodcote corners of the GP track). Finally, the team was off! Graeme performed well in what were now adverse conditions, on tyres that were by now struggling to keep the car on the track. The aim was to bring the car home and test durability, aiming to fix anything that showed signs of causing problems in the future. After 14km of faultless running the car came in for the driver change.

Unfortunately the forced re-use of a sump gasket when changing the oil (due to a lack of spare) had failed and the car was withdrawn with an oil leak. And so the UK competition was over for FBR, and the team is now taking forward the positives gained from the event. Design work has already started on a mk2 intake, with the aim of taking a fully tested part to Germany in two weeks. Spares will be sourced for the car to prevent unenecessary problems and small tweaks will be made to the car. Beyond this the team is overjoyed as the mechanical and electrical systems performed exactly as desired - it suggests a strong performance is within reach for the team in Germany, and with the team placing highest of those that only completed static events the team moves forward with a new wave of confidence. Thank you for keeping up to date with us - we'll be back on here in a couple of weeks to let you know how we get on at Germany.