Brands videos

Here’s the video from the BikeSports race – nice to have the Neuros functioning properly again. Fab start, lost touch part way through the race with Adrian (Blue Genesis) and Austen (Yellow Fury) but started to gain on them again as they fought each other. James Walker (Red Westfield) caught me on the last lap and very nearly got me when the engine started dying on the last corner and onto the finishing straight. I thought it was fuel starvation but was wrong. I started 12th, finished 10th.

And here’s the video from the RGB race. Another flying start then managed to stay in touch with the pack for quite a while before losing ground. It’s only a matter of time before I can hang on! The battery warning light was on as (I discovered later) the rectifier had failed and the battery voltage was dropping, this led to me retiring early. You can also see the Neuros and/or the camera weren’t too happy with the low voltage either.

On Sunday I dug out the rectifier that came with the 2007 engine and swapped it over – still no joy, battery volts staying low and warning light not going out. I then checked the main 30A fuse on the starter solenoid and discovered that had blown. Changed that and all was hunky dory again Whether the fuse was the original problem or not I don’t know, I could try the old rectifier on there, but if the fuse blew it’s likely it’s cos the rectifier was misbehaving. Far better off with the newer one on there.

When I’ve downloaded the logs from the DigiDash I’ll try to overlay the data onto the fastest lap and will add that on this page.

Brands Again

My last visit to Brands was somewhat eventful with a clutch problem followed by a misfire. It was also my first time ever at the circuit. So I was hoping for a better experience this time! This weekend we just have a single race on the Saturday, and I’ve decided not to go up for testing partly due to the expense and partly because of the time. I did however succumb to the temptation to join a few of our guys in the Bikesports races – due to their low grid numbers Robin Knight at the 750MC has been inviting our guys to join in their races. This adds an additional qualifying session and 2 races to the day which should make life interesting, not to mention the fact that most of the Bikesports are quicker than us as they run slicks, aero and lower ride heights.

I’ve really done nothing to the car since Anglesey. On Thursday I had a look at the Neuros to sort out the lack of sound and finally downloaded my log files from the DigiDash (my laptop died at Angelsey and I’ve replaced the hard drive). Friday was a day off so I made a start in the morning getting ready for the trip. The motorhome needed a good clean after being parked in the swamp at Anglesey, the tools etc. were all stacked ready where I’d unpacked them and the car was ready to go apart from doing my usual spanner check.

Although Brands is 230 miles compared to Anglesey’s 165 it’s an easy drive. The M25 was like a glorified car park on a Friday evening but we still got there in 5 hours. We’d been allocated the pit garages this time so we grabbed one between Tim Hoverd and Al Boulton and got the motorhome parked level, Fury in the garage etc. than had a couple of beers and some food. Tim had been testing and had a misfire again. he was desperately hoping not to have another Snetterton experience. As was I!

Saturday was going to be pretty hectic with scrutineering and 2 qualifying sessions in the morning and 3 races in the afternoon. The scrutes came to us in the garages and I had a particularly personable one. I also nipped down to George Polley in the main paddock to get my ‘wet’ tyre on my new front wheel. I planned to qualify on the wets to conserve the dry set hoping they’ll then last the season. We were out at 9.30 for qualifying, about 8 Bikesports and 8 RGB cars so not very crowded. I had a good session with some dicing with James Walker in his MegaBusa. The early laps were very slippery, James nearly lost it in front of me at Druids and one of the Bikesports spun in front of me at Surtees. My lap timer wasn’t working as I hadn’t set the DigiDash up properly but it felt faster than last time here in April. The results came out and I’d managed 54.85, James 54.64. I was 12th on a grid of 17 with 2 Radicals behind me. Poor old Tim was at the back as his engine was still not performing. Last time here I managed to break 57 seconds once on the test day but managed no better than 57.53 so a big improvement.

RGB qualifying came around very fast – the sessions so far had all been incident free so the stewards were bringing everything forward. It ended up a bit of a rush getting to the Assembly area for the session. It was the smallest RGB grid I’d seen with only 18 cars. My fastest lap was 54.94 but this time James did a 53.85 so clearly he’s a bit quicker than me. Tim was last again and on return to the pits decided to do an engine swap.

By the time we got to the afternoon they were running half an hour early. Since the Bikesports run slicks we had a green flag lap to warm up tyres, once we got back round to the grid I was alongside James and behind Austen. As the lights went out I got another great start as did Austen in front of me. I got in front of James and Adrian who was alongside Austen on the grid and past one of the Radicals in front and followed Austen and David Wale into Paddock Hill Bend in 9th place. What was nice was that I didn’t immediately fall away and I hung onto them round the first lap. A black Radical came past me out of Druids (he went on to win the race so must have been having a sleep in qualifying!) and Adrian had a little look along the Cooper straight but I hung onto my place. I knew it was only a matter of time before Adrian came past but I hung onto Austen even got a tow and was right up his chuff at the end of lap 2. Adrian was all over me round lap 3 but didn’t get me until we came around into Clearways. I got back alongside him along the straight but had no intention of challenging him around the outside of Paddock Hill! He and Austen got away from me a bit but then proceeded to have a great dice with each other and I caught them up again. On the one hand they were slowing each other down a bit allowing me to stay with them but on the other they were racing very close and both were sliding the cars round a bit (I’ve got some great video of them!) and I was minful that one of them making a mistake would take the other out and probably me with them. This was great fun until Adrian slowed at Graham Hill Bend (overheating) and Austen slowly got away from me then. On the last lap James started to catch me and it was all looking fairly comfortable till my engine spluttered coming round Clearways! It felt like fuel starvation and it came back to life again as I hit the power for the dash to the line. It cut again and James was gaining fast, I was ahead by 4 hundredths on the timing sheet Austen was only 2 seconds ahead of me after the finish at lap 21 so again I was pleased with my improved performance – still a long way to go and I’ll never be a driving God but fastest lap was 54.27 so over half a second quicker than the morning and definitely more competitive.

Back in the pit garage the DigiDash said I still had 8 litres left so I wondered if it was my slightly dodgy swirl pot. I stuck a bit more fuel in for the next race. Apart from this the car was performing brilliantly with no work needed between sessions other than topping up fuel. The prop and diff bolts had all been fine not needing any tightening since Cadwell.

We’d been in the Assembly Area for quite a while when Tim arrived to a huge cheer and applause. Apparently there was oil on the track so they gave us a green flag lap in the RGB race as well. This time I was 15th on the grid of 18 alongside Judi with James Waker and Richard Wise on the row ahead. When the red lights went out I got past 5 cars this time and was alongside Austen going into Paddock Hill. I definitely enjoy these race starts! It was all pretty frantic into Druids with a lot of tyre smoke and James Walker sneaked through the inside. Around Graham Hill and onto the straight Colin Chapman’s car was leaving a huge plume of blue smoke from his left rear tyre rubbing on bodywork after presumed contact in Druids. I was keeping in touch but inevitably the faster drivers I’d mugged off the line gradually made their way past me, first Adrian then Paul Rickers then of course Tim who was going well with his new engine. My red battery warning light was on but I decided that wasn’t serious enough to worry about and decided to ignore it. After about 6 laps I gradually lost touch with them and was on my own for a while. Around lap 16 I was gaining on Judi when the car started cutting out again around Clearways. I kept it going for a lap or two but it got worse and worse and everyone was streaming past me so in the end I pulled off – apparently that was actually the last lap and another 400 yards further and I’d have finished

Back in the garage I decided it was fuel related so I checked first the low pressure fuel pump flow then the flow in the engine bay and both seemed fine. I had a chat with Andy Bates and mentioned the battery light and he immediately reckoned that was the problem and diagnosed a failed rectifier. This all made sense and I remembered I’d left the 1999 engine’s rectifier on there when I did the loom swap, I wondered if the new one was in my box of bits in the motorhome but it wasn’t. So we packed up and made our way home.

Pity to miss the last race but if it is the rectifier it’s a 5 minute fix and apart from that the car’s perfect. My driving’s improving slowly, I’m definitely carrying more corner speed than I was and am getting onto the power earlier – I really noticed this out of Clearways, I was pulling gaps on people down the straight this time actually making some use of the power I’ve got.

So a little work needed before Mallory Park in 6 weeks but hopefully not too much. I’ve got some nice video with decent audio this time so I’ll get that up onto YouTube when I can get it edited.

Le Mans 2009

OK, nothing to do with the Fury but a few days after getting back from Anglesey it was time for my annual pilgrimage to Le Mans for the 24 Hour race. After staying with my friend Richard, David and I headed off at 5am Thursday to Eurotunnel with Richard and his son Andrew to met the rest of the gang. Joe was in his Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and he arrived at the Tunnel immediately before us. We were in fact behind him in the queue and his car is truly deafening. It has a ‘sports exhaust’ which apart from looking like being big enough for a family of refugees to hide in it seems to provide absolutely no silencing whatsoever. That combined with the car being pearlescent orange mean it’s not exactly a stealth mobile. The other cars in the convoy were a Jensen Interceptor S, a rebuilt/re-engineered classic with an LS2 V8 engine driven by Steve who co-owns the company who build them, a 911 C4S Cabriolet, an Aston V8 Vantage, an a couple of quick Mercs. And my Cayman S and David’s Civic Type S.

We were being pretty sensible on the way down through France but after a few miles the Cayman developed a misfire. It did it once before when it was cold but it went away straight away. It did again after switching off and on again, but then it came back. And got worse. We were near Rouen so we looked up the nearest Porsche Centre and limped there. One of the nice things about owning a Porsche is the level of customer service you receive. But I wouldn’t buy one in France! To say the service manager was disinterested would be an understatement. After about 30 minutes we saw my car going out, presumably on a test drive, with 2 people in it. After another 25 minutes it returned with just the driver in convoy with an older 911. So it looked like they’d used it to go out to collect a car! After another half hour or so we were told it needed an ignition coil pack and that they didn’t have one in stock and it would probably arrive Monday. Despite the language difficulties we made it pretty clear we would really like it before then and that we had to return to the UK on Monday. He said to ring tomorrow at 11am to see if the part had arrived. So we all piled into the Civic and made our way the remaining 200km to Le Mans to catch up with the gang who were already ensconced in Le Scarron on the beer by the time we arrived. I wasn’t a happy bunny.

Friday we went to Les Hunaudieres on the Mulsanne straight where there was the usual gathering of Brit petrolheads in various machinery ranging from the sheds purchased and painted up specially for the trip to the exotica including some quite rare spottings such as a BMW Z8 and a Spyker, also lots of very nice classic old Astons etc. We rang Porsche Rouen, no part, ‘maybe Monday’ … grrrrrrrrr. Time to involve Porsche Assistance. Off to Arnage for lunch then back to Le Scarron …

Saturday we headed into the circuit and met up at the Champagne tent for some lubrication prior to taking our seats in the grandstand for the race start. This year we were in the stand immediately overlooking the finish line opposite the pit lane. As ever the start was an amazing spectacle – all the cars park up as they used to in the old days obliquely down the side of the track, peel off one by one as they’re green flagged and form up as they come round again for a rolling start. They make an incredible noise, from the eerily quiet diesel Peugeots and Audis to the F1-howl of the Lola Aston V12s and the very deep V8 Corvettes. Of course within a few laps the faster cars have lapped the slower ones, a few cars have pitted and you don’t have a clue what’s happening I forgot to bring my radio to the circuit – Le Mans Radio often helps keep track of what’s going on. So we err … went back to town and Le Scarron.

We had a meal booked at The Auberge de Mulsanne for Saturday night so the 12 of us pitched up there having never been before. It’s unsurprisingly on the Mulsanne just on the exit to one of the big chicanes and you could just go through a few trees in the garden and emerge right by the main circuit barriers a few yards from the track. Absolutely brilliant view of the cars coming out of the chicane in 3rd gear hard on the gas. Phenomenal speed differential between the GT1/GT2s and the LMP cars, later on the brakes, much higher corner speed and vastly faster acceleration. You could hear the cars going through the gears out of sight and holding 6th gear flat out for what seemed ages before you heard the crackling of the over-run into Arnage corner. It was even more awesome as it went dark. Couldn’t hear each other speak during the meal of course

After another late night (I’m sure I was approaching my 21 units of alcohol for the week by now) we went back to the circuit in the morning. We’re lucky boys in that Richard had a personal invite from David Richards to visit him at Aston Martin Racing, so the four of us made our way to their hospitality marquee which had a great balcony overlooking the braking area into the Ford Chicane just before the main start/finish straight. After a while we got a nudge to go off with David’s PA who took us on a buggy and sneaked us into pit lane to meet David Richards at the Aston garage. This year’s Astons are Lola chassis’d LMP1 cars in the iconic Gulf Racing livery and the piles of carbon fibre body parts lying around looked stunning, as did the bin of beautifully fabricated manifolds. All was quiet in the pit garages with the mechanics all sitting round either looking bored or asleep. It always amazes me how spotless these garages are, not quite like mine!

We got a lift back to Aston’s marquee for lunch then walked back over to the grandstand to watch the last hour of the race. Of course bar crashes and breakdowns it’s all pretty much done and dusted by then and in the last half hour most of the teams get their slower cars to back off so their leading car can catch up and they come in at the end in convoy. So the end of the race is a bit processional but a spectacle nonetheless.

We left Monday morning in the Civic and called into Porsche Rouen to be told the part hadn’t arrived. I spoke to Porsche Assistance who said they’d already spoken to the service manager who had told them it had arrived but hadn’t fixed the problem and they’d now decided it was an injector problem. The part might arrive Tuesday … yes, I was tamping. I explained to Porsche Assistance that I needed to get back home anyway so they asked when I planned to come back for the car! I said I wasn’t planning on it and they’d need to recover it back. They said that would take up to 15 days. I was even more pleased. I asked the service manager for my paperwork (the original car sales invoice) and after a quick rummage on his desk he didn’t find it and shrugged his shoulders. When I said I wasn’t leaving without it and he’d need to find it right now he got angry with me so we asked to speak to someone else. Eventually they found it and we left for the long drive home.

So, a great trip apart from the broken Cayman – I can live with a car breaking down but the awful customer service was a bummer. Amazing really, the first time I went to Le Mans Richard and I went down in the Ultima GTR I’d built and had no mechanical problems, we go down in a two and a half month old Porsche and have a nightmare! At the moment all I know is that the car is finally fixed but no idea when I’ll get it back. Porsche UK Customer Service have actually been very good after a phone call en route back from the Tunnel they had a nice Merc CLS delivered to the house later the same evening.

Brands next weekend

Anglesey race weekend

Having loaded the car onto the trailer Thursday evening David and I left just after 7am for the trek up to North Wales. We made good progress till we were north of Dolgellau where I foolishly ignored my instinct and took TomTom’s advice resulting in about 20 miles of very narrow very windy roads that were actually quite difficult to negotiate with a 7 foot wide motorhome with trailer. We got there just before 12 having averaged 33mph

The paddock was very crowded and there was no room on the tarmac so we parked up on a levellish bit of ground near the RGB section and got the car off the trailer and the new gazebo up. Phil Alcolck kindly lent me a tarpaulin to use as a groundsheet for when the inevitable rain arrived. You can see my nice new tyre rack in this shot as well.

I signed on to find we only had two 25 minute sessions for our money and our group had 37 cars! We went out at 2.30 with all the RGB cars and the Locosts which despite looking like some of the RGB cars actually aren’t. They have Ford Crossflow engine with a control cam and control tyres meaning they were slower everywhere – acceleration, cornering etc. I actually quite enjoyed it – one of the problems being a back-of-the-packer is that you don’t do much overtaking. I was seeing blue flags everywhere and this time I wasn’t (usually) the slower driver. The standard of driving was actually very good and they were letting us through very obligingly. I’d fully expected not to get a full 25 minutes but I barely saw any yellow flags let alone red.

I ended up with a fastest lap of 1:19.58 with which I was happy enough as I’d really only been finding my way around and there had been lots of traffic. I seemed to be getting some clutch slip though which was a bit worrying, and towards the end the rear end was getting very loose on the power, apart from that the car was fine. I checked the tyre pressures as soon as I parked up and they were a bit high, especially the left rear. The surface at Anglesey seems slightly lower friction than other circuits so I guess the sliding was heating the tyres up more. I let them all down to 21psi and got on with my list of checks.

The second session was also without incident and I got down to 1:18.64 which was getting closer to my fastest lap last year of 1:18.10. I was getting better at the overtaking – it definitely does require new skills, you need to be able to go into corners off the usual line and come out of them off line too, also second guess which drivers have seen you and which haven’t before you decide to go alongside them into a corner. All good fun. I checked the tyre pressures at the end and the left rear was still a bit high. I was undecided whether I was getting clutch slip or wheelspin and suspected a bit of both.

I spent the early part of the evening going over the car getting it ready for the next morning, we were first up for scrutineering at 8.30 and qualifying at 10am. Then it was time for a couple of beers, some food and brother Andy arrived with his family about 9.30 so we sat in their capacious tent out of the rather cold wind for a while.

The rain moved in overnight along with a stiff breeze, so the scrutineering queue was a mass of umbrellas. Today was the first day I’d just signed on without having to attend a first time at circuit briefing. The scrute didn’t spend long on my car then it was back to the motorhome again. Our qualy session was clearly going to be wet so following a chat with Paul I added a couple of psi to all 4 tyres – checking them cold the left rear was just under 15psi which is definitely lower than usual. I also removed the ARB drop links and softened the dampers off. I doubted I was going to notice the difference but everybody reckons it’s a good thing!

The qualy session was indeed wet so I tippy toed my way around trying to keep the car pointing the right way. The right hander out of Rocket was interesting, huge understeer all the way around then the rear stepping out as soon as I got on the gas, it’s quite tricky modulating the throttle in second gear with the Busa, it really does have masses of torque. Towards the end of the session as I caught Judi and was trying to work out where to pass her Derek came past me on the finish straight, watching him exit the fast left hander (Turn 1) was quite scary as he had the car sideways the whole way. Not just smoothly sideways either, lots of twitching and correcting going on, amazing car control skills. Even though it was Derek having a car sideways a few feet in front of you on the exit of a fast corner in the wet does raise questions in your head about what happens if he spins … so I backed off and Judi got away enough for me not to get close enough to pass. We took the chequered flag at the end of the next lap.

I’d actually enjoyed the session more than I expected, the grip was quite consistent, there was no aquaplaning and I did start to get used to getting to the sliding point and catching it. Needless to say I was pitifully slow and my fastest lap was 1:36.38 putting me 23rd out of 26 surrounded on the grid by all the usual suspects! I was closer to Tony Gaunt than usual, he wasn’t enjoying the circuit much and seemed to be struggling compared to his usual pace so he was only 20th. Unsurprisingly there had been no evidence of the clutch slip but there was lots of wheelspin during the session. Again the car needed nothing other than refuelling and routine checks – before every session I go over all the suspension rose joints, diff mounting bolts, prop shaft bolts etc. They’re all marked with paint so it doesn’t take long and it’s nice knowing they’re all OK before going out.

We had a driver’s briefing at 2pm and we were due out at 2.30. The weather had worsened with a strong wind and persistent heavy rain. The briefing was mainly about exhorting drivers to not dilly dally on their green flag laps but the Clerk of the Course, Viv, did also say she was going out round the circuit to see if it was OK for racing and they’d let us know ASAP. Someone asked if we’d get a green flag lap (you don’t normally if you’ve been out in similar conditions), since it was pretty wet when we qualified we were told no green flag lap. I was already in my overalls etc. and ready to go so just sat waiting round till we heard them call us over the tannoy which they duly did at 2.20.

I must admit to feeling a bit more nervous in the Assembly area than usual – it really was very wet and I haven’t raced in the wet before. I wouldn’t say the Snetterton crash has made me a neurotic wreck but it does make you a bit more circumspect about joining in the inevitable melee of the first few corners. We went round onto the grid and I couldn’t see any of the boards being held up, they were simply too small to see from my back of the grid spot. I did however see them waving us off with a green flag rather than the red lights so although they were letting us race there was clearly some concern about the amount of water on the track. I was glad we did have a green flag lap – there was quite a bit of standing water at the apex of Church and loads on the approach into Rocket. Apart from that it wasn’t too bad. We made our way back onto the grid and waited for the red lights. I had my usual good start where I get the car rolling, get on the gas than have to ease off a bit as I catch the people in front. I was directly behind David Wale in Derek’s old BDN S2 and he had Tony Gaunt alongside him on the right. I moved across to the gap between them but that got closed off as the two of them caught the car in front. We all got safely round the first corner and I was tucked in behind Tony going into Banking. I was glad I’d got away in front of the slower cars as I just knew they’d be difficult to pass in the wet. It was much wetter than qualifying, there was spray everywhere down the back straight and I hit the brakes into Rocket on the end of a long train of cars. I kept in touch with Tony for 2 or 3 laps before I started to slowly slide back, I think the main place I was losing time was the fast bit between Church and Rocket, it was really very wet and you’re near the top end of 5th gear on a curve at not far short of 120mph, so I just couldn’t bring myself to use full throttle. After I lost touch with them I was on my own for a while until I started to see Phil Alcock in my mirrors. He closed me down and the final half of the race was great fun trying to keep him behind. I wasn’t blocking but there were bits where he was clearly better than me and others where I had the advantage. I was clearly braking earlier than him for Rocket and he obviously wasn’t getting quite the same amount of understeer as me round the second part of Rocket. At one point I did open a bigger gap but then Adrian rejoined the circuit just in front of me having spun at the exit of Banking and having a car right in front of me coming into Rocket slowed me more than usual so Phil caught me again.

After a few laps I could see Derek was trying to get past Phil and realised there was a risk that Phil could take advantage if I was too gentlemanly letting Derek through. In the end Derek overtook me up the inside of Turn 1 again and yet again his car was all over the place on the way out. It does inevitably compromise your own exit and I had Phil’s nose alongside me going into Banking. I managed to hang on to the apex and got away on the run to Church where Tim Gray then lapped me. For the next lap either I went a bit quicker or Phil slowed a bit but I opened a slightly bigger gap, Phil did close it a bit again braking for Rocket but he then ran a bit wide compromising the second part of the complex and I was away and had a clear mirror across the finish line for the chequered flag.

It had been an amazingly incident free race considering the conditions, a couple of the guys had had spins but there had been no car to car contact and I’d seen no yellow flags for the whole 20 minutes. It had probably been my most enjoyable race to date by dint of firstly keeping in touch with the quicker cars for a bit longer early on followed by the great tussle with Phil. I finished 21st, my fastest lap was 1:34.99 with Derek’s fastest 1:27.25 so I was pretty pleased.

Back at the motorhome the lake around us was growing Not good but not much I could do about it. It just carried on raining all evening. Our RGB barbecue still went ahead though and David and I ended up sitting up quite late and probably drinking a bit more red wine than we should in Andy’s tent! It was a bit of a wild night with the motorhome rocking around but by the time I got up at 7 it had stopped raining. The forecast was for more rain by lunchtime and our race was at 11.45 so we just had to hope it stayed dry.

By 10.30 it was make your mind up time and I decided to go for dry settings, so the ARB got reconnected and I let a bit of air out of the tyres. It stayed dry and we got called a bit early for the race. David hung around in Assembly for a little while then headed off for his vantage point on the hill above the Corkscrew from where most of the circuit’s visible. We went round to the grid and set off on our green flag lap. It was nice to be out on a dry circuit! Somehow Phil ended up gaining about 3 places on the grid during the lap so I suspected we might have a reversal of our previous tussle!

When the red lights went out I had yet another really great start. I was right behind Tony Gaunt for this one and wanted to try to keep in touch a bit better. As it was I shot past him but as soon as I had to slow for the first corner he came around the outside again and I was right behind him coming into Banking. On the way out he got stuck behind a black Fury and I exited the corner on the inside and was about to go past when he suddenly pulled out across me. All a bit close but no contact. I was all over the back of the Fury and over took on the right heading up towards Rocket with Phil in my mirrors and there I was behind Tony again! This time I was in a train of unfamiliar cars who were usually way down the road from me and I concentrated on hanging on as best I could. I think Doug Carter was in front of Tony. On the way out of Banking Tony ran wide onto the grass and I was through, then there were cars everywhere between Church and Rocket. Tim Cutmore was parked sideways, Duncan Marshall’s car was on the grass on the right, Rob Grant was in the tyre wall on the left and there was bodywork everywhere. I threaded my way through and we carried on only to be red flagged as we came round to the Corkscrew.

We had to wait in a queue while they sorted us out – they just seemed to put us back in our original grid positions, meaning that about 4 cars that were behind me were waved through to restart the race ahead of me again The crash on the back ‘straight’ was alongside us to the right so we sat watching and waiting while they gather up all the bits and recovered the cars. Quite a sober few minutes, we had no idea whether the drivers were OK or not but the cockpits of all the cars looked pretty intact although Duncan’s bonnet was completely split in two.

At the restart I got away well and got straight past Tony and was behind completely unfamiliar rear ends going into Turn 1 and the run to Banking – David Wale was there and I was only a couple of cars behind Tim and Doug Carter. I came into Church with Tony alongside on my right and he stopped me getting a line past Matt Green’s Fury again on the fast stretch towards Rocket. I was at the back end of a procession with Tim Hoverd followed by Henry Carr then Matt Green and Tony. Tony worked his way past Matt and I tried to hang on and over the next few laps only slid backwards very slowly, I still had them in sight. As Henry and Matt were scrapping each other I guess that slowed them down a bit. A couple of laps later as I came out of Turn 1 there was Tony on the grass on the right facing the wrong way but by the time he was visible I was on on my way past so that didn’t slow me. My mirror was clear with no sign of Phil Alcock this time. Matt got past Henry and I carried on chasing still only a couple of seconds behind. Henry got back past Matt then I had Tony back in my mirrors. He’s generally much quicker than me so I knew it was only a matter of time before he got me but we had a bit of fun for a lap or two, he nearly got me coming in to Rocket but I just took a tight line in on the left and there was no way past. The pic on the right is him chasing me on the exit form Peel. He got me exiting Church on the next lap though, it was definitely the weakest part of my lap although I did feel I got it right on some of the laps. I was slowly drifting back from him but it was gradual, not like at Cadwell where I could see the gap opening up in chunks every time I made a mistake. A couple of laps later and I passed Henry, he was on the grass facing the wrong way on the left on the back straight. I was watching for the leaders in my mirrors all the time and thought they were approaching but realised it was Adrian Moore who must have slipped off somewhere without me seeing as he wouldn’t be in the lead. He was starting to reel me in but the chequered flag intervened.

My fastest lap was 1:17.24, a second faster than last year but more importantly I was starting to get nearer to keeping up with the back of the main pack of cars. I know they’re Class C cars with less power than me but I’m slowly getting there. I also hadn’t been lapped which was another plus. I finished 15th having started 23rd, OK there were some retirements but it’s still my best result by miles. And, wait for it … the car was going back onto the trailer completely intact and needing no work before the next race! Which is a good job as I’m off to Le Mans on Wednesday for a few days to watch a little race out there then the weekend after is Brands again.

I do have some video but for some reason no sound. I’ll get some editing done and stick the clips on YouTube.