Another detour caused by fun on the A14 meant we weren't setup and eating pizza until 10pm. We set up camp with the usual rabid crew, most of which had been testing that day and reported of a very damp day! Surprisingly Dave's car was still in 1 piece, bobs bdn was all OK even after numerous off roading trips, but Marc nordons MNR LMP was going through a rather comprehensive rear end rebuild after twisting both rear drive shafts after its first trip out on track. Another sad sight was Colin Chapmans rather bent BDN, he’d had an accident in the 2nd test session of the day after aqua planning down the straight then bouncing off the Armco, battering both front and rear ends.
Saturday morning and off to scruitineering as usual, which was running behind as usual, returning back to camp after an hour as usual, luckily with no issues as we wouldn’t have had time to sort anything anyway. AMG TV then came over and filmed a quick interview as they were featuring RGB in the TV coverage on Motors TV the following week. I garbled some words out and then hoped it would be left on the cutting room floor, but unfortunately it was not:-
I’d never driven the 300 before, so the 15 minute pratice session would allow me to do 6 or 7 laps in which to learn the circuit and record a grid position. Due to this I wasn’t too hopeful on getting a good time or grid position, but there were a lot of people in the same situation, especially due to the poor conditions on the Friday. With 35 entrants, another great entry for the RGB grid, there were plenty of cars out on track, but its also a very long circuit with plenty of room so I had a pretty clear run, and other than trying to drive Coram for a couple of laps like it was before the circuit changes and having a rather large spin, it went pretty well. I felt there was plenty of time still to get out of the circuit but it was great fun and the new infield section was challenging and I could see plenty of opportunities for over taking. When the result came out I was surprised and delighted to have qualified 1st in class for both races and 10th on the grid. For the first time there was a real divide between classes, the top 9 were all Class R’s, followed by 9 Class F’s. Although this is showing up the speed differentials on the faster circuits, it meant that the class F’ers should be able to concentrate on the class F race rather than being mixed in with the R’s.
Race 1 started OK, I got a decent start, didn’t bog down and went off in the pack, Andy Hileys car was on my inside and I could have probably kept my toe in carried around the outside of him into the first corner, but the risk wasn’t worth it it so I backed out and tucked behind him and was slowed by the braking pack into the Montreal, this allowed Steve Bell to drive round the outside who if you look carefully at the video gives me a wave as he goes past on the way to Palmer corner ;-) I tucked in behind steve and then chased him down for the next couple of laps working out where we were quicker/slower than each other. I got level with him on the outside coming into Riches, we both left room for each other around the corner and I made it first and took the lead. I managed to pull out a small gap and then the rest of the gaggle of F’s (Paul R, Nick Donaldson, Colin Spicer and Andy Grant) caught up and whilst they fought it out I managed to pull away a little more and concentrated I just maintaining the gap rather than blistering pace. I lead the race up until Riches on the last lap, Paul R had put some storming laps in and coming up the start finish straight my mirrors we full of him, I decided (badly) to take the inside line coming into Riches, but out braked myself and Paul came flying past. This ruined my corner and exit speed from Riches and Paul pulled a good gap. Ontop of this it turns out he had a flyer of a last lap and set the lap record to which I had no answer and he grabbed the wi!!! Although I had lead for the majority of the race, Paul thoroughly deserved the win and I wasn’t disappointed in the 2nd at all.
In race 2 I had a cracking start and i think I was up to 6th overall by the time we came into Montreal and had a 3 class R cars between me and the next class F. I didn’t put any resistance up as Hiley and Dave Wale came past, but I still Had Tim H between me and the next class F car, something I wanted to maintain without slowing me down. Tims car is affectionately placed in its own class, class B, standing for Bisexual as it looks like an F’er but is infact an R. It is nearer the class F pace rather than the R (I think there was 3 seconds difference between him (9th) and 8th on the the grid) so I was hoping to use him as a buffer. For a few laps we had a great time swapping places, running side by side and letting each other have the track space rather than balls out defending, which meant the lap times stayed up. Unfortunately after I got passed Tim, his driveshaft popped and he had to pull off. This left the road clear for Steve to up the Greenway hunt, again on the last lap I could see lots of him in the mirror and made a royal cockup of Oggies, locking up and missing the apex, with Steve almost going up my chuff (he did say afterwards he’d considered trying stick his nose up the inside at this point but would have most likely result in a collision so decided not to). I managed to hold on for the rest of the lap and claimed the victory, which I was rather chuffed with as can be seen in the video.
On the negative side, the most of the other of the Rabid gang had a pretty awful weekend. Bob had gone well in practice, but on the 2nd lap of the first race his throttle jammed open as he came into Coram and he ran straight on into the tyre wall, crunching both nearside corners and side pod, Dave’s run of random problems continued, in practice his battery died and he lost all power, race 1 he had to retire with the car going into limp mode due to some electrical failure, he then had a small fire in the wiring loom whilst repairing the electrical issue and in race 2, although he did finish the water was boiling up (turns out the water pump had packed in and whilst sorting this out discovered the gears on the end of the crank to clutch were damage).And to round it up Marcs LMP poo’d its rear CV joints in race 1 as the driveshafts were too short, meaning no race 2.
Photos from dan
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