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In preparation for this meeting we took the front off the Beetle to check pulley alignment and find the oil leak. The oil leak turned out to be from around
the dipstick tube. Although it was fixed in tight the rubber seal was not fully seated down into the block. By changing the bend in the tube Martyn managed to
get the seal seating fully down into the block. Nothing wrong could be found with the pulley alignment so as precautionary measures we changed the power steering
pump pulley, replaced the belt tensioner, new belt and refurbished the alternator with new bearings and new clutch mechanism. The Vento gearbox was removed and
taken to the gearbox builders, Road and Race in Shoreham. They found debris in the selectors and a cracked synchro on 4th gear. The gearbox was refitted and
hopefully all will be well. The final bit of preparation was to sew the two championship sponsor badges onto our overalls as we had warned by the championship
organisers that we were contravening the regulations by not displaying them. Getting fireproof thread was quite a chore as nobody stocks it. Managed to get
some but ended up with nearly 1,000yds of the stuff, maybe I should sell some on ebay.
We had decided to make Zandvoort a bit of a holiday and booked an early ferry on the Tuesday before. As we could not setup at the circuit until the Thursday
we stayed at a campsite just outside the circuit. We had a day trip by train to Amsterdam on the Wednesday. Thursday we moved into the paddock area, setting up
our awnings and getting out the deck chairs as the weather was nice and warm. Met the circuit manager who promised to give us a quick familiarisation ride around
the circuit in the evening. This he did. I must admit I did not realise how quick a VW Caravelle could corner with six people inside, pretty amazing.
Friday was testing day with two half hour sessions for everybody to get used to the track. I always thought the Netherlands was flat but it looks like they
used all the soil dug out from the canals to build the circuit, it was much more undulating than most UK circuits making it quite challenging but exciting.
Friday also had a compulsory drivers meeting during which we were told that because there were no speakers in the paddock area we should go to the collecting area
0.5hr before race start times. Testing, qualifying and the races would start on time so don’t be late or we would not be let out. We duly turned up on time only then
to be told they were running 0.5hr late and so it continued throughout the meeting. The broken down vehicle recovery was quite interesting. They did not stop the sessions
but would send the recovery pickup out to the incident showing white flags, slow vehicle, whilst it was on the track, then waved yellows while they pulled cars from the
gravel etc and again white flags while they towed the race cars back to the pits. It kept the sessions running well but several drivers were surprised to find a race car
on a length of rope behind a pickup truck mid corner.
Test session one went quite well, a bit off the pace but getting faster. In session two the Beetle ran ok but the Vento suffered a gear change failure after a
couple of laps. This turned out to be a retaining clip failure which Martyn fixed using a different form of retaining clip.
Saturday was always going to be a busy day with scrutineering at 8am, qualifying 9am, drivers briefing 10am and two races 12:40pm and 4:10pm all on the same day.
We were scrutineered in situ which saved some time.
Qualifying went ok for the Vento with me cruising around as usual and only qualifying 19th of 23 starters. Martyn only completed four laps in the Beetle before
the power steering pump failed forcing him to pull off but he still managed to qualify 13th. Luckily for us Paul Taylor had a spare which we fitted ready for the 1st race.
In race 1 I had a great tussle with Robin Riley in his RSI Beetle and Didge Dziurzynski, swapping places several times. I made the Vento as wide as possible keeping
Robin behind but lost out on the line to Didge by 0.1 seconds finishing 13th. Martyn ........ finished 10th. He looked distinctly sick in parc ferme, seems all the
undulations of the circuit had made him travel (sea?) sick. The travel sick pills he had taken earlier in the day did not last as long as he thought they would.
During the after race checking we found the Beetle’s nearside outer CV joint rubber boot had failed and the joint had started to dry out and overheat.
Martyn changed the joint while I finished checking the Vento and I then checked the Beetle. Because the joint had overheated Martyn found it difficult remove.
The other cars were going to the collecting area by the time he finished which did not give us time to check the tracking.
Race 2 was very enjoyable. After a couple of laps I lost touch with those in front of me but this time Alex Dziurzynski was with me. We pulled away from the
following cars and spent the race swapping places. I seemed to be able to pull away from Alex on the tight corners but he was quicker on the faster corners and
the straights. Alex said he enjoyed our tussle as well but he deflated me a bit when he said he only had 4th gear. Still, as we only went down to 3rd gear on a
couple of corners I did not feel too bad as I had really enjoyed it. I finished the race in 10th. Martyn’s run of bad luck continued when on lap 7 he heard a bang.
On looking in his rear view mirror, to see if there was smoke indicating an engine blow-up, he saw a bunch of ball bearings bouncing down the track. The nearside outer CV joint had exploded.
Overall we had a good race meeting and holiday.
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