September proved to be a very busy time.

After a weekend at Santa Pod for the FIA Euro Drag Racing finals, it was back to autotesting, and a chance to try the new engine in Red Shed II.

This was a 1.8 ‘135’ engine donated by James Hall, all standard just with a new head gasket.

The event started well, and the tests were smaller than recent ones but this seemed to suit me with a decent lead starting to build up. However at the end of one test a cloud of steam and a coolant leak wasn’t welcome….

After filling the system back up with water we were at a bit of a loss as to why it was leaking. It turned out the coolant cap failed with the thread on it coming loose. A spare cap from the kit was found, and then it was back out for more fun and no more issues.

By the end of the day we had a decent lead and took the overall win.

The weekend after it was back to the ZR and acting as Car 0 (Safety Car) on the Bath MC Targa in the Dark after being asked to carry this out by CoC Dave Whittock. The event ran very smoothly we no real issues for us to deal with as Car 0. I viewed this as a good chance to shake the car down before the Preston rally later in the year. The car ran fine apart from a fuel leak, which I will need to sort before its next event.

Then another weekend later and it was back to the South West and time for an AutoX in Red Shed II. The course for this featured a lovely banked corner, making for a read fun and challenging course. Sadly dust meant we had to run ‘1 on 1’ so no real racing but a good chance for a fun thrash around. As a two day event, the Sunday was very slippery to start due to overnight rain, but it soon dried out and the track was faster than the previous day. By the end of the day I finished a few second up taking the class A1/2 clubmans win.

Finally I found out recently that I took the South Oxon CC Autotest Summer Championship