Snetterton 14th March 2010

I couldn't make the allcomers race on the saturday as the wife was on her sister hen do on the saturday night, so i was left literally holding the baby. I consider myself a modern man and am heavily involved in the care of the the kids from day 1 (although i don't think the wife shares this view entirely), but i had been dreading this night for months! Henry, the newest (and last) addition is a handful at night, he only sleeps if attached or next to his mom, and the longest he has ever slept in one go is 2.5 hours! When Emma was taken into hospital a few months back he basically screamed for 2 hours until he eventually fell asleep, slept for an hour then screamed again for 2 hours before going back to sleep. I blame it on breast feeding, plus when he has to have have a bottle (only 3 times in his life) he has no idea what to do with it. The wife scoffs at this and it usually results in a "disagreement", and there is no way i am going to win this argument against a breastfeeding midwife!!! So after a lot of crying and pacing around i got him asleep at 9.15pm, i had a drink and decided i'd better try and get some sleep. Just as i was dropping off he woke up and i spend until 1am trying to settle him again, at which point Emma came home and he shut up instantly!!!!

at 3.30am the alarm went off!! If it wasn't for the excitement of the day ahead i'd have never managed to drag myself out of bed!!! Dad arrived at 4am and after connecting the bus battery up (i'd disconnected it incase the battery drained itself) we set off on the long drive to the Norfolk! The drive was uneventful and the bus went like a dream, and the journey actually flew by. As time was a bit tight dad decided to cook our breakfast on the portable stove while travelling at 60mph down the A11. Luckily i persuaded him that using the full jerry can as a cooking bench was not the best idea!! Note the use of a saucepan to fry bacon on the move, it helps prevent spillage of oil and/or bacon during braking and accelerating!!

We arrived at about 6.40am and parked up in the RGB paddock area, there were very few signs of life from the motorhomes so we started banging around unloading the car and doing the last few jobs on the car. Bob soon arrived clad in lycra, he says he was off for a run, but it does seem to surface most mornings dressed like this so i do wonder ;-).

I hadn't managed to get a new bulb holder due to the diesel shortage in the bus on friday, so the plan was to refit the light and connect up the brake and sidelight to the same bulb connection, a quick 2 minute job. But as usual a 2 minute job turns out to be more. There was a short in the wiring somewhere causing all the lights to come on at the rear when the bulb was connected to the faulty holder. It was nothing to do with the holder, although this was broken anyway. after some scrabbling round it turned out to be the connection plug on the loom at the rear, one of the spade connector clips was shorting out on the earth, so after a bit of  poking about it was sorted. I then went to stick my numbers on, which only arrived on Friday, to find there were only 2 sets, after starting to make the numbers from electrical tape James informed me i could buy them from race control.

So after sign on and sticker purchasing i trundled off to scruitineering expecting issues with the fact i had no nearside side light. In the end he never even checked my lights and i went through with no problems.  I now had a bit of spare time to catch up with some of the guys in the paddock, which i find almost as much fun as the racing!!! I'm looking forward to the first RGB BBQ and proper social night!

As i went down to the holding area i started to feel a bit nervous, it had been a few months since i'd properly been out in the car, 12 months since i'd been to Snetterton and the first time i had been round Snetterton in the Fury. But once out there i felt right at home again, and the adrenalin fuelled high came flooding back into my life!!! The car felt good and i started to build up the speed. I never felt like i had a complete flying lap or that i had managed to get every corner right to the best of my ability for one complete lap, i managed a time of 1.19.96, which was 3.5 seconds a lap quicker than last year in the old car and up there with the class C times posted last year so i was pretty happy. Then when i saw the grid positions and was over the moon, i was fastest in class!!! It was slightly false as Colin had an air intake problem which had slowed him down and there were only 5 class C cars, but i was happy to take it!!!!

The car only needed a refuel and a checkover, so we had time to watch a bit of racing and the start of the F1 race, which turned out to be pretty boring!!  What was nice, was being able to sit in the bus, get out of the wind, and be able to get changed into my race suit without standing in the middle of the paddock in my pants!!

I was 12th on the grid so right in the middle of the pack, i didn't need to overtake anyone if i wanted to grab my first class win, so i needed to try and keep the red mist at bay!! I usually manage to get a good start and it would be a great opportunity to get a few cars between myself and the other class C cars behind, so when the lights went out i went for it and managed to squeeze up a few places. Unfortunately the rain started as we sat on the grid, it was only spitting but as we reached the first corner it was evident that it had been raining for a while up that end of the circuit, lots of slipping and sliding followed and unfortunately my back end drifted out at Sears and clipped colin who was trying it on round the outside, this sent us both into a spin, luckily ending up on the outside of the circuit out of harms way as the rest of the pack went threw. The rest of the race proved very difficult but highly entertaining, myself and colin fought our way back up the field until we caught Phil up and then proceeded to swap positions several times, with all 3 of us being in 1st, 2nd and 3rd several times during the race. Colin had managed to get a bit of a lead over Phil and I but then had an off at the Esses which left me in 1st position, and the pressure got to me!!! I really didn't want to spin off like i did at Brands last year, and the conditions were very unpredictable with the rain stopping and starting at different points all around the track. Every corner was different on every lap, with one part of the track being soaking wet and another being bone dry, then on the next lap it being the opposite!! I ended up backing off slightly to try and preserve my position, but of course this just had the opposite effect, and while coming down the Revett Straight into the Esses i was done up like a right kipper by Colin and Phil who went either side of me and i went from 1st back to 3rd!!  I'll put this down to experience, they are both old dogs who know the score ;-) LOL!!!

Jame in his class A car also came to play in this battle which lead to a very exciting last lap between him,  myself and Phil, which almost ended in tears at the bomb hole where James semi spun infront of me pushing me onto the grass. If that hadn't of happened i think i may have just sneaked past on the putside and had the best line down towards russels pass them both and grab 2nd in class. But as it all worked out i came 3rd in class, my 2nd podium finish and a great start to the season!!

The collision with colin has caused some damage to the bodywork, scuffing my nice new bonnet, cracking the battered rear tub, partially destroying my brand new lightweight side pod and bending some of the new ali panels i fitted! I'll be needing to get the fibreglass out in the next couple of weeks along with the usual checks! I do ask myself is it really worth smartening up the rear tub, should i just leave it in the magic round about colour scheme!!!!!!

Heres the video of the race:-



And here is my new photo gallery with all the pictures my trusty side kick Dan has taken:-