Birkett 2010

The long awaited Birkett relay had arrived! RGB pups now consisted of 4 myself, Bob, Ben and James (not forgetting the background team of support and Tim as team manager). With only 4 cars running this year we really needed the cars to behave themselves as there wasn't room for cars to start dropping out. Last year all 6 cars started and finished the race without a hitch, we may have been faster in a boat, but we had all finished unscathed! This year we hoped for the same, but not in the weather department. Last year was miserable, but this year the forecast was good, and when we awoke on saturday morning it looked very promising! This year we were on the old GP circuit, not many, if any of the RGB'ers competing had ever done this circuit before, meaning most of us tried to get some sort of testing in on the friday. A final BBQ of the year and a nice social evening followed and sums up the great atmosphere within the RGB paddock

Although the weather was looking better than last year, car behaviour wasn't. Bob had suffered a suspected fueling problem in testing on Friday and although he thought he had found the problem wasn't able to try and replicate the problem in practice as the damp track meant he couldn't push on, this meant that although the car had worked ok, he wasn't confident that it would be ok in the race. Then as Ben went to pull out of the garage for his practice session, the oil filter o-ring decided to make a bid for freedom, resulting in lots of oil being dumped onto the garage floor!. After lots of mopping up, a new oil filter, more oil and some discussion about the possibility of the oil pressure relief valve being stuck Ben managed to get out in a later practice session (thanks to Tim for sorting that out seamlessly), taking it easy for 3 or 4 laps just keeping his eye on the pressure gauge rather than the track ensuring he was allowed to race (you have to complete 3 laps to be allowed to race).

Bob is a great starter, so again was unanamously voted to be driver number 1 and line up on the massive 60 car grid!!! As usual bob didn't disappoint and got a flying start, but after a couple of laps, as he came up to speed the engine problem returned!!! Luckily Dan (who was out trackside watching and photographing) spotted him slowing and called back to the pits so we knew bob was coming in and i got straight out without losing much time. Whilst Bob tried to diagnose the problem with Andy, myself,  Ben and James held the fort, doing a 35-40 minute session each. I think its safe to say that we all returned with grins bigger than a teenage boy upon finding his first "girlie" magazine in the bushes!! The GP circuit is simply fantastic, fast, flowing, technical, loads of room for overtaking and very safe, this coupled with a field of 60 cars with massive speed differentials makes an amazing racing experience. You are constantly involved with a handful of cars, overtaking, being overtaken or scrapping for position! If you could bottle the Birkett, it would be the essence of fun!!!!

When i came in from my 2nd session after having a fantastic battle with Tim from RGB east, we were 5 seconds ahead of them and were runinng in 19th place, 2nd in class B and the highest pure RGB team, things were looking good and far exceeding my wildest dreams!! I suddenly became very competitive and was transfixed on the positions table being broadcast over the TV's. This was soon shattered by a catalogue of car problems and mistakes. Bobs car was till playing up, James's car had developed an oil leak and his brakes were not good. This started diverting our (mainly Dads who was previously on pit board and pit wall spotting duty) attentions to garage repairs, which then lead to Ben not being ready when James came in, then shortly after sending Bob out on track thinking that Ben had gone AWOL, when infact we had just missed him coming past, twice, so ended up with 2 cars on track. After getting Ben in, Bobs car started missing again and this time stopped, resulting in me having to go out again, but in doing so having 2 cars on circuit meaning another lost lap. And just to finish the day of car troubles off, Bens clutch arm snapped leaving him stranded out on circuit and not being recovered until after the end of the race, and another lost lap, then james's non existent brakes resulted in a restyled nose cone after a brief meeting with a clio cup!

We ended up 50th on scratch, not very good really and disappointing after a very very promising start. But on a positive side it was bloody good fun and i can't wait to do it all again next year!!!!!!