Croft-apology

[stevengriffin]

Gentlemen, please accept my apology for ruining the last three laps of the Saturday race at Croft.
As I turned the final right hander of the complex before the hairpin my car suddenly gyrated through 360 degs. I assumed I had spun, I was pointing in the right direction so I engaged 1st gear and tried to drive off. The sight of a very familiar wheel bouncing past me made me realise that perhaps it was more than a simple spin.
I am most grateful that nobody ran into me, I imagine that Tony Cotton will need counselling for a few days, I think he was right behind me when it happened.
Inspection of the car shows that the stub axle has torn out of the bearing. The wheel is nicely still bolted on but the hub and disc have disintegrated.
Such is life, just glad it didn't happen in one of the fast right handers at the back of the circuit.

[tristancliffe]

I don't think an apology is necessary - it's motorsport, and these things happen. Just glad everyone is okay and no harm was done to anyone or anything else.

The little Fiat 500 safety car was driven very slowly to start with - I kept trying to indicate for it to speed up. For the first one-and-a-half laps I don't think it actually braked it was going so slowly. Then it picked up speed and temperatures could come down.

Hope you can get it fixed and come out to play next time.

[RedRedWine]

We were all sorry you weren't there on Sunday.

I must admit I wondered if there was a conspiracy with Russ spinning in front of me, you losing a wheel in front of me and then on Sunday Graham spinning in front of me. Anyway, no counselling needed, but please can Mrs Griffin recommend a good biological washing powder?

[Vincent Fox]

'No more tears', ok, its a shampoo but it seems to work well on race suits

[broadside]

I also have a 'land rover' tyre mark in my nomex, as the wheel was about 15 feet in the air when I came round the corner!!

I was glad to see you were ok on the next lap, hope you can get it fixed quickly

[stevengriffin]

Thank you all for your concerns.
I have dismantled the hub, it appears that it was the casting inside the bearing that failed. The disc is in bits and the wheel has seen better days. The upright and the disc bell-housing are fine, even the stub axle is okay, the wheel nut is still nicely tightend on!
I have sent it to Medina Motorsport to repair, I think a professional job may improve my life expectancy.
My season is over I will tidy that corner up on the Van Diemen and start my winter project. Turning a Sierra Cosworth from a track day car into a racing car.
See you next March.

[broadside]

Good luck with it all Steven, sounds like you'll be busy!