The last race of the season!!! I can’t believe the year went so quickly! And have no idea how I’m going to wait 5 months to get back out there again!!!
There was only a single RGB race, but as there was an all comers race the same day I thought it would be rude not to enter!!! The weather started off dry but could see the rain coming in the distance. Qualifying for the all comers was dry but the surface was fairly slippy in places. Qualifying went without a hitch, but I just couldn’t seem to get into it and was over a second slower than when we were at Mallory last. I put some of it down to the fact I was worrying about smashing the car up for the Birkett and I had managed the entire season so far without any serious incidents so was being subconsciously conservative trying to look after the car. Added to the fact I had a lot of people coming to see me race today, the wife, 3 kids, parents, parents-in-law and grand parents plus my usual crowd so was very aware that it was a recipe for a big one!
As we were lining up to go out for RGB qualifying, the heavens opened! The session was very wet, but I felt like I was starting to push it a bit more. I seem to qualify well in the wet so kept on trying to push, until a huge spin at the Esses! There is a small hump as you change direction in the middle of the Esses, a couple laps previous I had some fairly big twiches, but not enough to slow me down, but this time it snapped out to the right which I caught but it sent the back out hard left. I was slidding on complete opposite lock at 90 degrees to the track, the back wheels went onto the grass and I slammed the brakes on to try and reduce the speed of the inevitable collision, by luck more than anything else this kept the car at 90 degrees, rather than continuing in a clockwise spin which would had definitely have sent me into the Armco. The rear wheels must have dug in and it spun me anticlockwise back onto the circuit, I did 420 degree spin and was now back on the outside of the circuit travelling backwards onto the grass towards the Armco, but luckily I travelled in a straight line until I stopped with the rear off side corner a few feet from the Armco. I was convinced during all this I was going to end up in impaled in a wall, as was my dad who was watching on the hill, so I consider myself very lucky not to have damaged the car!! The spin definitely knocked my confidence and I took it easy for the rest of the session.
The All comers race was proper wet, and with all the different machinery and larger tintops out there I felt rather intimidated. I got a decent start and squeezed past a couple a few cars but the car infront sprayed oil or fuel up up off the track infront of me and covered my visor, the first few laps were horrific, I could not see anything, wiping the visor just smeared the goo across it and I was struggling to even see the edge of the track. As the race progressed, the MR2’s, who were all a lot further down the grid after the dry qualifying, started to pass me. At first I thought I was just being an idiot, but they worked there way up the field as there weight obviously helped there grip levels in the wet. I ended up 10th after qualifying 11th, so was fairly happy, but just happy I it was over as it was not nice out there!
In RGB I’d qualified 10th, 5th in class, not as good as I was hoping for, but there was very little in time separating me from the front of class C wasn’t too disappointed. By the start of the race the track was drying nicely and the sun was peering out. I had had a good couple of hours with the family eating pork pies and scotch eggs up on the hill, it was nice they were all there but definitely not the way to set you mind up to try and race on the ragged edge!! I had a cracking start and was up to 4th overall and 2nd in class by the Esses! This was unknown territory for me, but it was to be shorted lived. I couldn’t get gerrards right and just kept getting passed on the straight into the esses. I really was lacking confidence after my big spin and the thought of binning it infront of the family was playing on my mind. After a few people came past I let Tony through as I knew he was in a battle for 2nd in class B championship with Tim and was then on my own for the rest of the race, well until I saw Tony Spin off at Gerrards, marginally missing the Armco before rejoining. I finished 10th and 6th (last) in class. I was over a second slower than last time and miles off the pace from the other class C boys so finished the session pretty disgruntled with myself! I’m putting down to being too conservative due to what was going on in my head, and is something I must banish for the start of next season!!!
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