Eurocup Round: 1

Bernay, France – June 4/5^th, 2011

Well, the first round of the five-pull Eurocup series, held in Bernay, France, brought some much-needed excitement for the Clarke Pulling Team.

Having not been down the track since Ahoy – which this year had to be the most disappointing event we’ve had for many years – there was much anticipation over how our new engine would perform in Fever, and also if our new data logging system would collect the information we needed.

Hot weather during the Saturday night pull also meant engines didn’t want to run clean. And not just our own. Almost all the alky burners ran rough during their first pulls down the track.

But once the heat of the day started to withdraw, that characteristic alky buzz returned with anger.

Having hitched to the sledge while fighting a loose visor that didn’t help his view, PC set about boosting Red Fever. Wheels broke loose and a good strong pull saw him easily achieve a full pull.

But the tractor didn’t want to run properly at the end of the track. Something was not quite right and it sounded like lots of misfires in the engine.

Geoff’s arrival at the sledge was much less complex. After tightening the chain, the tractor ran smoothly down the track, floating past the 100m-mark.

Time for the pull-off, and with 11 of the 12 super stocks in the pull-off, it wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

Difficulties in tracing Red Fever’s poor running mean that many things were tried out, before we were forced to make the difficult decision to scratch from the pull-off. New spark plugs made no difference, neither did disconnecting the MSD rev limiter. We checked the timing. Could it be ignition related? Had we burnt one or more pistons? We couldn’t take the risk, and settled on sharing joint 9^th place with Hobo and D’nAerdvruter.

It was down to Red Alert to fly the flag.

With more rpms and a determined effort to leave the line with greater speed, the old cast iron tractor put in a very respectable 4^th place on the loose, peculiar French track. The distance of 104m was only just beaten by Well Done Deere, Incredible Deere and the new All or Nothing Case Puma from Bram Kools.

With points to make up, we’re now looking forward to the second round on June 18th in Made, NL.

RESULTS