What a great weekend again!!!! After my testing on Wednesday i felt really happy with the car and the circuit. There were a couple of areas on the circuit where i knew i was loosing time, mainly clark curve and the resulting top speed down the Brabham straight. Initially I kept barrelling in too fast from Mclaren and missing the apex's on Clark, which then meant i was not able to get the power down early enough down for the exit onto the straight. So when i went out for practice on saturday morning with the intention of trying to sort it out and hopefully clock a time as close to 54.0 as possible.
Practice went well for me, i still wasn't getting Clark curve right, i slowed the entry down, but was still missing the apex, i was managing to get faster down the brabham straight as my exit speed from Clark was better, but could still be improved. I clocked a time of 54.07 and was 12th on the grid and 5th in class!! I was over the moon!!!
There was plenty of action in the paddock, Paul Rogers who was out on his new car for the first time had already completed an engine swap on friday night after troubles in testing had limped off after a few laps as the engine spocket had come off!! Also Bob Mortimer was having continuing problems from friday testing with his clutch. Luckily for me mw car was running great and had no work to do on it before the race, so i tried to figure out how to download the digidah data on to my nearly purchased netbook. This didn't go well! I couldn't even get the usb to serial cable driver to work to get it connected in the forst place! after some faffing and Dan (my computer geek friend) having a twiddle we got it up and running. Next problem, i couldn't work out how to get the digidash into data transfer mode without turning it off, which i though would wipe the session log. I messed about for sometime and gave up, and decided i'd give david a call later on or when he arrived on sunday to pick his "new" car up from Derek.
At 3.30pm we were called to the assembly area, the weather was fantastic and i was feeling really good and looking forward to being in the middle of it all. We had a long wait as there was a big accident on the Brabham straight during the Formula V race before us. Eventually we pulled onto the circuit and we made our way upto the grid. There was a yellow and red flag (slippery surface) being held infront of one of the starting positions and about aton of sand/cement spread all over the right hand side of the circuit from the spillage caused from the formula V crash. I was on this side of the circuit and would be passing through it all in the start, great!! As we were sitting there, it suddenly dawned on me that being bang in the middle meant there was no spare tarmac around me and i was soon to be accelerating towards to Paddock Hill bend with cars all around me, and i was a little nervous!!! The boards came up, engines started screaming, red lights off!! We all floored it, i started well, very little well spin and took off, I saw infront tims cars at about 45 degress trying to get grip as he set off from his slippery start position, rob grant was along side me and was so close it actually felt like he was sitting in the car with me, then there was an explosion of debris infront as Dereks Jones's car went into the armco on the pitlane exit, i then duely shit myself! I was stuck on the inside at as we approached paddock and i made my first big mistake, i flew in far too fast on cold tyres, i felt the back step out, i tried to catch it but it was going to save it and i spun going down the hill! I was now looking back up paddock hill looking at 12 or so cars racing towards me!!! I shit myself for a 2nd time!! Luckily i stopped on the inside of the circuit and everyone avoided me!!!
I was now well and truely at the back! What a prat!!!! I managed to catch up and get past a couple of cars by the end of the first lap. After 7 laps i had managed to get past 6 cars and was now chasing Phil in his Pulsar. For 6 laps i tried everywhere to get past, but Phil kept closing the door and defending his position. It was great fun and the adrenalin was really pumping!!!! Eventually on lap 14 phil got a bit out of shape at Clark, i put my inside wheels on the grass and managed to get up the inside of him and keep ahead up Brabahm straight. The next lap and the final lap board was held out and came round and finished 7th in class and 15th overall. Considering my balls up at the start i was very pleased with my finish, and really bloody enjoyed it!!!!!! Most importantly, after speaking with Phil afterwards i learnt 2 very good lessons, be careful on cold tyres and when trying to pass someone, rather than tryingit at every bend where you have little chance of doing it, plan you move, pick the best point on the circuit and plan your lap to try and to do it there!
Sunday was another glourious sunny day, i woke reasonably late (8am) thanks to a little help from Mr Budweiser. I had nothing to do the car as i'd checked it all over on saturday afternoon/evening, so after being raped by the burger stand for breakfast i spent the morning packing up, watching a bit of racing and general milling around.
I was 12th on the grid for race 2 and I was determined to learn from my mistake in the first race and keep the red mist at bay. My plan was to just try and hold my position in the first few corners and not be too agressive. I wanted to try and get over from the right hand side of the track before getting into paddock hill so i had a slighlty better line and hopefully be able to hold a decent enough amount of speed so as not to lose position. As the lights went out a gap appeared to my left and i managed to move the car into the middle of the track which set me up for paddock a lot better than before, but a couple of cars did manage to get through, although a car ahead did get a bad start allowing me toget 1 or 2 positions back. For the next few laps it was very tight and i was more concerned with people trting to get passed me than catching the cars infront of me. Paul Rickers came up the inside of me at Druids as i left the door wide open for him (note toself, hug that inside line when a car is approching) and then a couple of laps later Tony Gaunt slip streamed me down the Brabham straight, but then as we approached Paddock hill, John Cutmore had gone of into the gravel and the race was red flagged. I was quite happy with the stop as it meant the gap that had grown infont of me was wiped out and i could start again. After a lengthy stop and lots of cars getting very hot we wree ready to start again. I had a great start, Tim Hoverd stalled on the grid and i managed to shoot past him, Tony and Paul. For the next 2 or 3 laps i had paul all over the back of me, he tried it again a couple of times at Druids but there was no way i was going to let him up the inside again, at paddock he out braked me and and tried to come round the outside of me, but ended up running wide and i giot back up inside before we got to druids, on the next lap we were side by side round druids but i managed to hold on again, but the following lap he got up the inside of me and out braked me and held onto the position into Druids. The next car i could see behind me was Tim, and he was approaching pretty fast!! I defended my position around druids and stayed in the middle of the track for graham hill bend, but just as we came into the entrance of surtees Tim got his car alongside me and took me before the apex of. I had a bit of clear track behind me now and i was catching Rob Grant in his striker which was looking very lively at the rear!!! The following lap i managed to take him exiting druids down to graham hill, but was aware of Tony closing in behind. On the penultimate lap Tony took me again on the Brabham straight in exactly the same way he had done before the restart. In the end i finished 14th and 6th in class. I was happy with this again and really felt like i had learnt something!!
Roll on Cadwell!!!!!
