Mallory Park 14th October 2012

Mallory is not my favourite circuit, but with the 2nd place battle set up with Steve i was looking forward to it!! I didnt qualify great but Steve had a problem meaning he was starting well behind me. I got past Dave after a couple of laps, but could see him and steve close behind, steve got past Dave and i could see him looming in my mirrors, i missed a gear at the hairpin, and steve nudged into the back of me, no problem only a kiss and we accelerated out of the corner, next thing i know there is a car on my roof, which then drives down my bonnet and bits of cars are everywhere. I end up sitting in the car on the side of the track looking around wondering what the hell has happened, Steve is impaled in the armco, and Dave (who was the car on my roof) was no where to be seen.

Luckily no one was hurt, Dave was parked on the apex of the Devils elbow (nice!) with the front car of his car missing, not upside down in the lake like i imagined, Steve was fine, unlike his badly bent car, and my dive for freedom (and roll cage) had saved my head (and life). It looked unlikely that any of us would make it out for the 2nd race, upon further inspection, Steve and Daves weren't going anywhere soon, but my car had only had its airbox and injectors pulled off and the body work destroyed (again). Luckily i actually had my old bonnet with me, so a bit of gaffer tape, tie wraps, and a big straightening bar meant i could get out for the 2nd race. I only needed to get 1 point to get 2nd in class overall, so infact only needed to line up on the grid, but stayed out there and got a rather poorly driven 3rd in class. To be fair my head wasn't up for the race at all, the accident had shaken me up, and my hatred for Mallory only confirmed.

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So i got 2nd in class for the season, which was my aim this season, so success, and another step up the ladder. It also transpired that i achieved 4th overall so get the no 4 next year, another move up. But its been a frustrating season, lots of problems and many many hours spent in the garage repairing lots of damage. Also 5 DNF's, very irritating!!! If other class F'ers hadn't also had such a torrid season i would have never have got 2nd, so count myself very lucky in some ways.

Donington Park 2nd September 2012

Sorry its been so long, i just dont seem to have any time to keep up with this!!! I'm not going to go through everything now, plus i lost some photos off my phone and some video, so cant do a full report anyway.

After the Anglesey disaster i was feeling rather nervous about the race and my chance of 2nd in class for the season was all but over, i just wanted to finish both races and go home with the car in 1 piece. I think my qualifying highlighted this as i was 4th in class and nearly a 0.7s slower than Steve and Paul Rickers. I had an awful start in race 1, and dropped back another couple of places in class, but Steve then had a problem  (i think his undertray got bent into his back wheel) and had to retire. Colin Spicer who had got past me on the my tentative start, spun off the chicane. I then managed to get past Dave Watson (who was going well) on the 3rd lap. I couldnt catch Paul Rickers and had consigned myself to 3rd, but on the last lap i almost went off on oil at Mcleans and then saw Paul on fire at Coppice (oil leak caused the fire). I can honestly say i have never been so gutted to get 2nd place, Paul had a rotten run of luck and deserved the 2nd place

The clutch had been getting more and more snatchy through the season but i had just lived with, but after my woeful start we decided to have a look at it before the 2nd race. This turned out to be rather fruitful as we discovered 4 of the plates had broken up!! I have no idea how the clutch was still working, but it was consigned to the bin and another one fitted.

Race 2 started better, Steve was ahead of me with 2 class R cars in-between us, but it was inevitable they would get past steve so decided just to follow them round until then, then mount my attack on steve. The plan was all going well and i was tucked up right behind him, then his clutch went and he had to retire again. I was gutted as i was really looking forward to a proper battle with steve. Between us we had a lot of problems through the season and actually only both finished the same race twice! So i collected 2nd place again with an easy drive, and with steve not finishing it meant we were both on 99 points with the last race of the season at Mallory lined up as the decider.

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