We set out thursday evening as had the friday test day booked, we had high hopes for the weekend, a full days testing, 2 races and the RGB BBQ should be a perfect weekend, especially if the weather would stay dry. The weekend was 3 hours in when the first incident happened, whilst unloading the bus (10 minutes after arriving), one of the spare wheels stacked ontop of the upper level in the bus decided it would try and unload itself, launching itself from the upper level, and landing ontop of my head while i was knelt down undoing the wheel straps. This almost knocked me out, i was dazed and lying on the floor, with blood dripping down my forehead. Dave came to the rescue and bandaged me up like Basil Fawlty in "The Germans"!! After cutting my head at doni in a similar fashion Bob had said he carried medical kit and could have stitched it up if he was there, unfortunately he wasn't at the circuit again, even though he had planned to be there. This time his 3 year old motorhome had decided to spit its guts out in the middle of nowhere and was waiting for various RAC people to arrive!
Waking up Friday the weather didn't look too promising, but the 3 sessions in the morning stayed dry and other than a small twiddle on the front dampers the car was feeling great and really planted. I was in the 1min 14's, and was certain i could get into the 13's in the afternoon, which looking at others times should have put me up at the front of class F alongside Al. During lunchtime we borrowed Bobs corner scales (who arrived at 7.40am after a torrid evening!) and set the ride heights. During lunch we had a heavy downpour, but by the time our first afternoon session arrived it had stopped and the track looked ok. I decided to go out and was surprised how grippy the circuit was. The next session is when the weekend took a turn for the worse, whilst approaching Church i saw yellow waved flags, so i backed off and soon saw Arthur (owner of Geoff Masons old Spire) sideways on the xit point of the corner, i had 2 choices, try and come inside him, or scrub off a bit more speed and take to the grass. I chose the latter as decided it was less risky, which in a normal situation would have been the correct decision, but following some distance behind was a locost who obviously feels the need to ignore yellow flags, doesn't understand the flag system or is completely blind and proceeded to punt me up the backside, removing my rear undertray and bending the stays. I was fuming, something you will see in my video when i get round to uploading it (no broadband at home at the moment, thanks Virgin!), the only saving grace was my damage was repairable and the impact with me probably saved Arthur from being T boned by the idiotic locoster!!! Just to rub salt in the wounds i had to go and see the first aiders and bumped into the offending locoster, he never even made an apology just saying he had no where to go, which i suppose is true if you dont bother slowing down for stationary cars and yellow flags!! William did find the car later and give it a kick which made me chuckle.
Spaghetti bolognese and a few beers were consumed with team greenway and mortimer in the bus, listening to rain pounding outside. Dad and Jen attempted to drink as much wine as there was water failing from the skys, only giving up when Bobs home brew dried up!
Saturday morning arrived and was dry, we had to refit the undertray after the previous days repairs and then headed of the usual fun of scrutineering. I went out for practice towards the back of the pack, but managed to get a clearish 3rd lap and then had a decent 4th lap but ran wide on the exit of the final corner and ran over the grass, this caused lots of grass to fill the radiator mesh nd i had to pull over as the car started to get too hot. These 2 laps put me 12th (3rd in class) on the grid for both races, which was a little disappointing as the times i was heading for on friday would have put me alongside Al. Before th race we had nothing to do so decided to fit the new stickers from my new sponsor. Autotech (www.autotech.co.uk), who i work for, have agreed to sponsor me (hence the new website title). They are starting up a new training academy, taking on 20 fresh faced young people to help them with their continued growth and expansion. We finbished the stickers with only minutes to spare for the race. Dan decided that he would get some shots during the race to show the new livery off. But the weekend was about to get a lot lot worse..... I had another below par start and entered the first corner on the inside of Tim H's rear end, Dave Watson was in a similar position on my inside and his front end and my rear corner had a small kiss, this slight touch sent me into a spin, collecting Tim, after 180 degress of spin my rear corner struck Daves rear wheel in a fairly hefty blow, lifting my car into the air and accelerating my spin, sending my front end into tims rear corner again. The resulting evasive action of other drivers had caused James W to lose his bonnet and throttle bodies after catching the rear of David Wales BDN, plus numerous other cars taking to the grass. This incident finished Dave Watsons, Tims and James's race. I continued for 5 laps, and although the car seemed to be handling OK it was getting very hot, and i ended up pulling off after the first corner and hastily removing the bonnet as smoke started to come from the front side pod. This turned out to be the GRP smouldering on the exhaust, so thankyou to the marshalls for helping me pull it all clear.
I was supposed to be on the burners for the RGB Marshalls yearly BBQ, but ended up making a late entry due to all this messing about. Lukily my fellow RGBers, Mr Strongbow and Mrs Stella made me forget my troubles and we had a fantastic evening, involving a pyromaniac doctor, chinese lanterns and finished of by a reverse Houdini father (you all know who you are!!)
Sunday was dry again, but the rather patched up car was about as good to look at as myself and few of my fellow revellers. By the time the race came i was feeling normal and ready to try and redeem the weekend. I made a tentative start just trying to keep out of trouble. Dave Watson got ahead of me, but at church there were a few spinners and i was 3rd in class behind Dave. Dave was going well and i had a couple of rear engined cars nibbling me from behind, the car wasnt feeling right though, the back kept stepping out and i was struggling to hold the car on line. Tony and Dave Wale got passed me and there was now a bit of a gap to Dave Watson infront, i managed to close the gap down, but the car really didnt want to grip at the rear, i was aware the temperatures where getting very hot and i think the water was starting to boil over, lubricating the track just infront of my rear wheels. This all ended in a spin coming into the corkscrew, and i watched colin spicer, bob and steve bell come past me.
I was determined to try and get infront of steve as he is my rival for overall 2nd in class for the season, but the car just wouldnt handle and it was getting even hotter. I ended up running wide at the first corner and doing some seriously high speed grass tracking, folding the front of the bodywork under the car and launching the car into the air. After getting back on the track it was obvious something was now very wrong, the temperatures went through the roof and the steering was all over the shop so ended up pulling off and retiring again.
So to sum up, a cr@p weekend of racing of the biggest magnitude, i've kissed goodbye to anychance of 2nd in class for the year and we have loads of work to get the car ready for Doni next month. On a plus side it was a great social weekend, and even after all the problems i wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!
We would just like to say a big thankyou to everyone who helped us over the weekend and lending us tools, parts and materials. I will be bringing a box of gaffa tape to doni to hand out replacements for the rolls we used!!!
Dans pictures of the weekend:-
Videos to follow once i have broadband again
It's quite impressive.
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