The most space I had all weekend

The New Team Bailey transporter ready to leave Snetterton Norfolk

My winning margin over Damien Harrington in race one

Race 2 me and young Zack slogging it out

Engine out of Chris Slades 43 car again

Mini No.2 at the Snetterton Speed Shop

Snetterton Speed Shop the home of Team Bailey

Team Bailey cars all over the place at Slake racing

The queue outside Slark racings dyne.

Team Bailey with Mini Spares has had a very busy winter as you may know from some of the previous blogs I have written, and the run up to the first race at Castle Combe was to be no exception.

Besides all the car building I have taken on a new unit at the Snetterton race track in Norfolk  to start the  Snetterton Speed Shop as well as this being the new home for Team Bailey racing. since October last year I have built up 2 new cars for myself a Mighty car 2 and a Super car 4 as well as my 2 team mates new cars a Mighty for Justin Cooper and a Super for Chris Slade, Chris and I headed to Brands Hatch in Kent for our first runs in the 2 Supers, both cars ran well and on the pace during the day and we both looked forward to a track day test at Snetterton where my new Team is based now, we would also give Justins new Mighty and mine a run for the first time!. Simple or so we thought !!

As I was moving all the new equipment provided by new sponsor Cannon Tools into the race shop and re preparing the 2 Supers time flew by to the day of the test, Justin was as excited as ever he is with the enthusiasm of a small boy at christmas eager to play with his nice new car, where as Chris and I new our Supers were good and I had not given too much attention to my new Mighty as I had been so busy with the customers cars, at the test I went out in Justins car to give it a little run for him and Boy what a car its feels light and fast and i am sure its a winner, I then jumped into my Super and I love this car as its fast as well as very forgiving, and I can't wait to race it at Silverstone in May, I will only try and race the two classes at the 2 day meetings as its to much for me in one day as well as looking after Justin and Chris, something I was to find out only to soon at Castle Combe.
Chris car was running well right up until the last lap of the day when he came in and said to me the clutch was not working, i sat in the car and it felt like the clutch had indeed collapsed.

So all the cars were driven back to the workshop and I had a busy few days getting ready for the first race meeting, I removed the clutch from Chris's Super and found a lot of fragments from a slipper washer in the flywheels nose and wrongly assumed I had found the fault, So Paul Inch engineering in Plymouth sent me the parts I requested and I put the car back together as well as prepping the 2 other cars to be used at Combe, Justin and I had decided to travel down to Neil Slark's rolling road so we had the Thursday and should we need it the Bank Holliday Good Friday to sort out the cars, I have always used Neil Slark's for my rolling road work as he is one of the best in the country at sorting the Spi engines, even though very soon I will have my own rolling road at the Snetterton Speed Shop for the time being I had to use Slarks.

We set off from Snetterton with the Team Bailey new 3 car transporter and Justin driving the Team Bailey Transit van with our new Bailey Unicorn Madrid caravan behind, we decided to camp the night at Thruxton Circuit as its only a few miles from Slark's and free as well as secure and quite at night, once sited we made tea and Justin and I drank a good half a bottle of whisky and then showed Morgan how to dance lol.

The next morning at Slark's we decided that as Slade's Super still seemed to have a clutch problem we would start with this car, the clutch would clear and be OK then start to drag ? I had an idea it was the drop gear seizing onto the crank once the motor was hot, something Neils dad and Mini legend Brian Slark agreed with me on as he was there that day making one of his fantastic cylinder heads, so with Brian (God) on my side we pulled of the flywheel again but this time removed the drop gear even though when cool it turned freely on the crank.
What we found was a catastrophic collapse of the drop gears bushes and worse still it had gone into the rest of the engine, so the only option was to swap the motor with a spare unit that we have,
Justin and I started the long task of swapping engines while Neil Slark continued the set up on Justin's Mighty then mine, we new Justin's was good from the test but it tuned out to be more than just good and is in fact one of the very best Neil has seen on his rolling road dyno.
Neil then did a final check over of Justin's and we put it back onto the transporter see pictures.

We were still very busy swapping motors so Neil set to on my Mighty after the first run it was apparent that all was not well with this car as she had a bad misfire at high revs, we all worked until very late swapping loom and lots of things that on the Spi cars can cause this, eventually at about 9pm we had it sorted and mine was fine, not as good as Justin's or my old car now owned by Zack Booth but in Neils words good enough for you Lewis.
We had the engine swapped on Slade's Super and gave her a final run up on the Friday morning and thankfully she seemed fine, so with all 3 cars Justin and my daughter Morgan we set of to Castle Combe full of first race expectations.

Once at Castle Combe we set up the caravan and the new Kampa Air awning from another of our new 2013 sponsors Kampa, this awning is great as you just thread it into the awning groove on the caravan and pump it up, so fast and simple, we went to the local Sainsbury's and stocked up on supplies and whisky lol.

We had a nice few days before the stress of the bank holiday Monday meeting which had been renamed in memory of the late Howard Strawford who had done so much to keep Combe the fantastic track it is as well as to make the many improvements he had done over the years, I was lucky to no Howard and considered him a friend so to race at the first ever meeting in his memory was an honour.

on the Sunday the rest of the Mighty Mini drivers Super and Mighty's arrived including young Zack Booth who has my old car and who's Dad has been a friend of mine for many' many years, I have sort of taken Zack under my wing a little as a favour to his dad as well as I just new he was going to be something special.

First onto the track was the Mighty's with quaky at 9am sharp I was first in the Que. and just lit the car at the start as I wanted to be sure we had cured its misfire, I did all the laps until the flag came out and as far as I could tell the car was good, It turned out I was won pole by over half a second so I felt quite happy, Justin was in 9th and not very happy with himself but he was over expecting in my opinion as he still has a long way to go in his driving development weather he has a fast car or not ! Zack was also disappointed as he was back on the grid but as i told then both it does not matter where you quaky as at the end of the first lap the person in 10th on the grid can be leading.

Chris qualified his super in the top ten but felt he could have been faster if the clutch oil seal ha not blown drowning the clutch in oil, so I got changed and set to with some help from Zacks new mechanic Paul re named new Ted ( we are all Teds in the team) and Chris Slade's mate Chris re named Big Ted (he's a big lad), this was to prove why I could not have done the Supers at Combe as with only a few minuets left I finished Chris car and changed back into my race gear ready for my race, in between all of this I had about 20 sponsors tun up to watch and we had laid on some nibbles and drinks in the Kampa awning for them, once out on the grid in pole I just thought this will be a hard race as the wind was against me down the long straight and making break was going to be very hard if not impossible .

It was a very tuff race with so many lea changes I have forgotten but I was in second going into the last lap behind Damian Harrigton so I made sure I got threw the last chicaine as fast as I could and sold him a great dummy coming into Camp for the flag he went for the dummy and I managed to draft in front to win by 7 thousands of a second, according to all who watched it it was a great race and will make good TV when its shown later in the month.
I was happy to win but felt my car lacked the power needed to win race 2 ?

Justin came in in 8th and Zack was disappointed to have been up the front but made a small mistake and gone back a little, I had a word with him as he was being far to hard on himself after a great debut race, and only sixteen years old, hence the tittle to this blog a Star is Born in young Zack, he is  going to be a big star in the future I have no doubt.

we set to preparing all the cars for race 2 for the might's but before that we had the Super race one, with his clutch fixed Chris was well up in contention with the top 3 cars during the race but started to struggle again as you guest it the clutch started to go again, after the race I was looking for a priest as I was now convinced that Chris car needed an excorsisum  to rid it of its clutch demons, we eventually changed the master cylinder and the slave, we had a top international hairdresser friend of Chris’s help us do the master cylinder as this is a twat of a job as I am sure you no !! we are so lucky to be sponsored by the fantastic Mini Spares centres and we had all the parts we needed on the Team Bailey van so once and for all the problems with Super car 43 were fixed...

Race 2 for the Mighty's was a very tuff one as I had guessed my engine was now down on power and i was having to make up for any problems under the brakes and threw the fast chicains.

The race was again according to the spectators a hum dinger to watch and again great for the TV, the lead changed about 5 times a lap, I was very lucky as i was being pushed down the order ? one lap i was down in 5th and thought thats it Im stuffed but lucky for me I never give up and drafted back to the leaders, which included young Zack, I love it when you find a true talent come along and watching young Zack was a pleasure to see, and I can not believe this boy is only sixteen years old and in his first race meeting ???? even at 52 I still think like a young lad and thought sod this I need to get back to the front so at Tower on the last lap I sold Zack a dummy and slid up the inside of him and realised that to get Damian who was leading by about 4 car lengths I would have to do some silly move at Camp to try and catch him, I did and it did not work as I slid onto the grass coming out of the corner and had to settle for second by 5 thousands of a second this time lol but to come second in such a great race is no bad thing, and to be on the podium with Zack for his first time will be something I feel I may have to get used to lol, a great 2 races and a great start to 2013,

The Super race 2 was much better for Chris and he was on the pace during all the race and the clutch is al last fixed in his car, he was happy and beat Louis Inch Paul's daughter and they all had fun, I am looking forward to getting in my Super at Silverstone and seeing if I can run at the front.
So we said goodbye to all our sponsors who were very happy with our results as well as the long strip down of all the equipment and drive home to Snetterton, I have lots of work to do over the next 5 weeks as well as a mates wedding in Yorkshire, I need more speed from my mighty, Chris needs a new engine, and Justin well lets say he is now on the same diet I have been on since January as he has to loose 2 stone.. next blog Silverstone and remember always come and say hi if you see us or give us a wave..  

Jonathan Lewis