Race Report
Castle Combe
2004 British GT Championship - Rounds 7-8

Team Jedi Racing, no joy at Castle Combe!

Team Jedi Racing suffered reliability problems in both races at Castle Combe this weekend.

The team had a new driver for the weekend. Ian Stinton who races a Harrier in International Group C, stood in for Frazer Corbyn who was attending a wedding.

"The weekend was ruined before we even got to the track!" said Rob Horsfield.

Gearbox problems had kept the team working deep into the night at the workshop and prevented the team from taking part in the 90 minutes of free practice that takes place on Saturday morning. Things went from bad to worse when a broken CV joint rubber prevented Horsfield from posting any race speed qualifying laps for the Sunday race.

Race 1 on Saturday was going well for Team Jedi, Ian Stinton, who had never sat in the car before, very quickly got the measure of the Lotus and was making strong progress. Things were looking potentially good for a points finish until disaster struck immediately after the driver change. During the pit stop a heat build up in the braking system meant the brake fluid began to boil, so as Horsfield left the pits he discovered there were no brakes! He managed to nurse the car round for a few laps in the hope that things might cools down, but eventually had to give in to common sense and retire the car.

Sundays race was just as bad, but in reverse! Overnight the team had sorted out the potential brake issues. However, from lap one it was obvious an electrical issue had materialised. The car had a missfire. Horsfield circulated for several laps hoping the problem might clear itself, but in the end had to pit to try and sort things out. The team spent 20 odd minutes working on the car and found the problem to be a failed sensor on the engine. Gavan Kershaw Racing very kindly supplied a replacement part and Ian Stinton was able to join the race for the final 20 minutes. The car ran reliably from there on in, and Ian posted some very creditable lap times for someone who had never driven a Lotus before this weekend. The race was then red flagged a few minutes early because of rain, shortening Ian's race even further.

"We are learning every time we go out," Said Rob Horsfield, "Ian has given us some very good feed back and we are confident of making progress over the next couple of races. We just need to get some testing time and more race finishes under our belt."

The next GT rounds are at Oulton Park in Cheshire on the 17th and 18th July.