Silverstone (National)

15^th March 2003

First race of the year, and first race in the new TOM's. The car had not been run since it was converted from throttle bodies to carburettors and the ride height increased to 40mm to comply with Monoposto regulations. On Friday's testing, I got very few laps due to the multitude of carburettor problems. 

Dermot and Pete Hammond finally got it running on 4 cylinders long enough to qualify. 

Enormous understeer from 'wooden' tyres clearly visible

Qualifying

I qualified 19th out of 26 with only 3 laps, due to misfires and carburettor icing. We fabricated a carburettor shield to reduce the icing for the race.

Race

In the race, the car stalled on grid. I finally got away in last place behind the ambulance. Misfires persisted throughout the race, but I finally made up a few places and finished (!) in 15th place. Race won by Jonathon Lewis of Comtec Racing in his immaculate 1999 Van Diemen Formula Ford 2000.

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