Well people the Peerless went back to Le Mans again this year. The 2007 Legends race. This is the race before the real 24 hour starts. A showcase of past entrants. On thursday we had the qualifing races to get through. Unfortunally the rear near side spline let fly at the end of the start finish straight. Ian was only in fourth when it happened!! It seems the spline sheared just on the shoulder before to reaches the flat bolt flange. Unfortunately the Le Mans weather got to it by the time I took a picture but when we initially checked the damage you could just make out a slight line were a crack/fault had been. Ian suspects that it was caused by one of his drifts that court a curb. This fracture then went unnoticed due to grease/dirt etc. then under extreme conditions i.e. Ian hammering towards the Dunlop curves it let go. One stud did a valiant attempted to subdue the inevitable outcome. This was not caused by the studs/nuts coming undone as they are known to. Anyone running these splines even on the road should check them after a knock, if buying used then really check them over. If Celia & Ian were to crack test all the components after each race they would never get out there. Yes the car could be in better shape as it has been campaigned hard for two seasons but is generally a reliable car. We work hard on the car all day and finally rang the scrutaneer at 10pm to ask what he wanted to do. He said and I quote "if your happy with the vehicle so am I". We were and he checked it over first thing Saturday morning and was very pleased with our handiwork. The upside to all this calamity in the pits was the support from other teams. They offered tools and time which was very kind. The camaraderie was superb and we may not have finished but we got back out there after what was a serious off and that I can tell you did not go unnoticed. The "powers that be" commended our make and mend initiative and it was commented that quite a few other teams could not have taken on such a rebuild in the time. It was unfortunate that we missed the fractured fuel line which was near the float chamber. Had we had more experienced members on hand not just the two of us then maybe it could have been picked up. Celia did a great job cajoling other teams to supply fixings, Frank and Phil kept supplying drinks and encouragement. And considering Ian and I had to find the time to go out and buy bits and bobs including opening an account to buy a 2 metre sheet of acrylic with out the luxury of an interpreter at 5.00pm on a Friday we did quite well. In hindsight we should have worked straight through the night and done a total shake down check. I was very aware that Ian was not just a mechanic working on the car but he was to get into it 8 hours later and race IT! I persuaded him to stop so we could at least eat, we then realised how tired we were and so set alarms for early morning. Our neighbours were late getting to the pits so we did preliminary checks on their car (by picking the locks etc to gain entry!) as Ian could have driven it down to the pits as Celia was driving the Peerless. I did more on their car than our own at this point. We will have a full report in the next Traction for all to read. We thank the TR Register for their contribution and sincerely hope we havent let them down.
