This year’s is the 62nd running of the Birkett Handicap, a 6 hour team endurance race held at Silverstone. For the last two years I’ve taken part with our team, the RGB Pups, so called as we were the RGB new boys when we first did it. This year we thought we’d outgrown the ‘Pups’ moniker so called ourselves Rabid RGB.

I’d booked testing on Friday so had a session in the morning and 2 sessions in the afternoon. This time we were actually testing on the Historic Grand Prix circuit in identical format to the following day’s race. The weather forecast was good and it was indeed a lovely sunny day on Friday although it had been atrociously wet the day and night before so the track was pretty damp for the first session.

I’d cheated slightly and had fitted a set of Toyo T1R Proxes to my spare set of wheels hoping these would be better in the wet than the Yoko AO48s. I discovered it wasn’t such a cunning plan when I had a spin just exiting pit lane! Hoping it was just the release agent on the tyres I got going again and tried to get them scrubbed in a bit. It was difficult however, I’ve never driven in such low grip conditions. Once I realised after 3 laps or so that it clearly wasn’t going to get any better I decided to just get on with it and try to get used to the car sliding about a bit. I managed to avoid any more spins and did actually quite enjoy drifting the car a bit. Sadly the video camera wouldn’t work so no footage.

Back in the paddock it seems it wasn’t down to the Toyos, everyone said it was very slippery – Tim Hoverd had spun twice on the first lap! So I stuck the proper set of wheels back on in readiness for the second session. This was at 1pm and by then it was warm and sunny and the track was completely dry. Having at least familiarised myself with the circuit in the first session the second session went well and I got more confident on what is a pretty high speed circuit. It’s lovely to drive, it really flows and there’s nowhere really that unsettles the car. My only issue was my gear indicator not working properly showing 5th when I was in 6th, apart from that the car was great and my gearing worked out pretty perfectly with me just needing 6th gear at the end of the Hangar Straight. I managed a 2:27 although I was confident I could comfortably gain a few more seconds with more track time. Austen had managed 2:23 so I was quite a lot closer to him than I’d expected.

Sadly the third session ended in disaster. We were red flagged after 3 laps and after what seemed ages waiting in pit lane we went out again. I tried to work the tyres on the first lap so I could press on again but on the second lap after the restart as I came onto the brakes for Maggotts (a fast 5th gear approach) the car became very unstable. I got off the brakes, let it settle then tried again but it just spat me round in a spin into the gravel. The engine had stalled but started fine although I was going nowhere being fairly deeply buried in the gravel. One of the marshals commented that I looked like I’d been coming into the corner very fast but I was fairly confident I wasn’t going quicker than usual and was a bit puzzled. My front tow loop got a good test as they towed me out but the rear undertray had ripped off its front mountings and was bent backwards out behind the car accompanied by a rather tatty looking rear valance. The offside mirror lens had also smashed. I decided driving it back to the pits would almost certainly do more damage so asked them to recover the car on the truck.

When I got back to the paddock Austen and Ken Greenway told me they’d been watching from the grandstand and said the undertray had detached as I was approaching the braking area. This actually reassured me quite a lot, clearly the sudden shift in the aero balance of the car had destabilised it causing the spin rather than pure ham-fistedness on my part.

Apart from the mangled aluminium undertray and broken rear valance the car was full of gravel everywhere. So while I got the undertray bashed straight Austen scrounged some polyester resin and set about fixing the valance and David got going clearing up the gravel. With the valance gaffer taped together Austen got it patched with the resin and some chopped strand mat ably assisted by Dan Bromilow who has had plenty of practice at this sort of thing! I’d been hoping to get scrutineered on Friday afternoon/evening but it wasn’t to be as the resin took ages to go off and the valance houses my rear lights which are required for our formula. The cause of the problem seemed to be that the row of rivets holding the middle of the undertray to its aluminium bracket had all pulled out. The tray had then sucked down onto the tarmac and then the front of it had ripped off its retaining bolts. I reinforced these mounts with some 3mm aluminium angle and re-riveted the tray to its bracket having enlarged the holes from 3mm to 4mm to take some slightly beefier rivets. With the undertray reattached to the car it was beer o’clock and time for our barbecue.

With scrutineering from 7.30am and my practice slot at 8.50 I was out in the dark just after 6.30 getting the surplus GRP trimmed off the valance and getting it’s mounting bolts etc. sorted. I could then refit it and connect up the lights. It was ready at 7.30 so I drove round to the scrutineering bay and got my ticket without any issues. Fortunately he hadn’t spotted the mirror, probably because the housing was fine, it was just that the lens was missing.

I couldn’t find a replacement lens so had to go out for the practice session without a mirror. There had been some light rain overnight and the track was damp in places but it was dry on the line through all the corners. I’d reprogrammed the gear indicator which was actually worse now showing 4th instead of 6th so obviously I’d adjusted it the wrong way! It was very busy out on track with almost 60 cars out so I had to be pretty careful, leaving a car’s width between me and the apex at every right hander. Apart from the lack of mirror the car was great though and I quite enjoyed myself.

Austen’s Dad arrived about 10.30 with a mirror lens he’d got on the way in so I taped that onto the housing – it was far from perfect as it wasn’t convex but it was a vast improvement on no mirror at all! Austen was starting the race this year and I was doing the second session so once 11:15 came round and the cars were all on the grid I had to be in the car with helmet and harnesses on etc. ready to go out. I heard all the cars head off on their green flag lap then again at the actual start but it seems a car near the front had stalled and there had been a significant multi-car pile up. Someone overheard the marshals saying they needed 5 cars lifting off the track so as it would clearly be some time before they could restart it I got out of the car again.

The restart was at about 11:40 and seemed to go better. We were planning on 30 minute stints and from the car I could see the minutes they were showing Austen on the pit board and got the engine running as they showed him the ‘In’ board. My session was actually pretty uneventful, you’re either passing or being passed by cars almost the whole time so I suspect my times were well down, I haven’t had a look yet. To maintain your lap times you need to be very confident not backing off as you overtake cars into corners or as you let a quicker car through and confidence hasn’t been a surplus commodity for me this season. The car was working well and the gear indicator was now spot on which makes a surprising difference. I was having trouble spotting the pit board and apparently missed the ‘In’ board a couple of times so actually did 35 minutes.

The only issue with the car was that the oil temp display disappeared as I pulled into the pits, the terminal had come off the end of the wire so that was easily fixed. With more fuel in she was ready to go again. The last couple of years the Birkett was wet and we were very uncompetitive, to add to this we were running short sessions (a deliberate choice due to our lack of experience) and you lose time each changeover, so we were used to running near the back. We’d also previously had issues with cars (mine mostly!) breaking down on track and even got penalised for having two cars out at once. This year in the dry we were running half hour stints, were well organised and were doing rather better. Austen started the race in 15th place and was running 18th at the end of his first stint, at that stage RGB East with Derek on track were 6th as Derek was flying. By the end of my session we were 20th and just one lap behind RGB East.

At just over an hour into the race RGB East came a bit unstuck when Doug Carter’s Radical PR6 had a problem and stopped out on track. Team Rabid breezed ahead and climbed up to 17th place after 1.5 hours and 16th after 2 hours. What was more interesting was that we were the leading Class A team – for roadgoing cars up to 1600cc or bike engines up to 1000cc. RGB East were in Class B due to Doug’s Radical. The second placed Class A team, the Six Signatures was behind us but on the same lap.

While Austen was out on his second session I was sitting in the car ready to go when the team were telling me it was starting to rain. The forecast had been dry and I couldn’t really see any rain from where I was sitting in the pit garage so I initially wasn’t too worried. They then said Austen’s times were down by about 10 seconds a lap. But as the session went on it clearly got wetter, everyone in pit lane was putting up hoods and the guys told me lap times were down by 25 seconds. And there I was sitting in a car with dry tyre pressures and damper settings There wasn’t enough time to change anything so when Austen came in I just headed out and tippy toed round. The first lap or two were the worst while I was on cold tyres and unsure of grip levels with the faster cars buzzing past me all the time, the track was definitely damp but nowhere near like the first session on Friday. As the session went on it dried out a bit and I started to go a bit quicker but I was still pretty slow. I managed to follow the pit board OK this time and knew I was coming in after 18 minutes to compensate for my longer first stint.

With just an hour to go we were in 21st place with the Six Signatures, a team of Caterhams, just one lap behind us in 22nd. Austen was out of fuel so I was to be the one belted up in the car waiting in the garage during the last session. Dave Watson had had to replace a bent wishbone on his car and Ben Butler had gone out before him. As Dave went out with about 30 minutes to go the pit marshal came looking for Tim, our team manager, to go to see the Clerk of the Course. It turned out Ben had overtaken someone under waved yellow flags and we were handed a stop and go penalty. At this stage the Six Signatures, team 17, were on the same lap as us 1 minute 44 seconds behind. Tim then had to work out how to communicate to Dave that he had to come in for the stop and go and was frantically waving our red ‘In’ board at him. Dave said afterwards that he saw the marshal’s black flag with the number 15 (which was our team’s number) but knew it wasn’t him as he was number 75 … doh! He eventually twigged and came in, when he went out car 17 was 10 seconds ahead of him. With 5 minutes to go I could see our team celebrating on the pit wall as they’d just seen Dave overtake car 17 on the way into Copse. At the finish he was 6 seconds ahead and we’d won Class A.

Once we’d got our cars loaded onto trailers and tools etc. packed we all trooped round to the BRDC clubhouse for the presentation. We were delighted to find that we were each to receive a rather nice trophy presented to us by Chris Norman the 750 Motor Club Race Secretary and Ginny Birkett, daughter of Holly Birkett the club chairman from the 1940′s who had founded the 6 hour relay race. On Sunday I got the car unloaded and gave her a wash, it had been raining all the way home so she was looking a bit sorry for herself covered in road grime and leaves etc. But here she is with the trophy

And here’s a close up shot of the rather nice trophy. We certainly didn’t win the trophy because of my stellar driving, that’s for sure. But at least I completed my sessions without either mechanical incident or any spins, as did the rest of the team. OK, so Ben made it a bit exciting by getting his penalty but it’s really difficult being aware of everything when you’re racing with 59 other cars on the circuit. It’s a nice end to the season, the car needs a bit of cosmetic TLC after Friday’s gravel excursion but that isn’t too major. I can then get her prepped for IVA.

Our last RGB race meeting of the year was Cadwell Park. It’s a long trek but worth it, it’s a fantastic circuit, they don’t call it the mini Nurburgring for nothing.

I’d decided trying to get there for testing on the Friday was a non starter but I entered the Allcomers race for Saturday which would give me an extra 2 track sessions. Friday morning was spent preparing the curry I’d offered to make and loading up. The 290 miles took me just over 6 hours and I got there at 6.30pm. My brother Andy arrived not long after and we pitched camp for the weekend. Austen arrived closer to 9 o’clock busless with a hired trailer behind his wife’s Land Rover Discovery. He’d had encounters with speed cameras and a deer on the way.

The Allcomers race was the first of the weekend so we had scrutineering at 7.30 and were out on track qualifying at 9am. Scrutineering was without issue although the cold breeze was quite a change from the weather we’d been having. My main goal for the first session was to make sure everything was working properly since the engine rebuild. The track was nice and dry and I needed a few laps to find my way around. The car felt great, the water temperature didn’t rise above 67° and I felt like I was going OK although my lap times were very slow at 1:46 – my fastest in the Fury was 1:41. In fairness it was quite busy and in addition to a handful of RGB cars there were lots of the kitcars, stock hatches, and MR2s out so I think I actually only got one clear lap in.

It was nice to be able to come in and relax for a while until the RGB qualy session at 11.40, all the car needed was fuel. The weather was still fine and I was determined to go a bit faster. I’d decided my main focus was going to be trying to get into the corners a bit faster and actually turn the car in a bit harder to use the front end grip a bit more. I found that this worked well, the car felt really planted and being a bit more firm turning in meant I was hitting the apexes much better and consequently getting better exits from the corners too. I knew I was going faster and was pleased to see I’d managed a 1:43.19, an improvement of 3 1/2 seconds from the Allcomers! I knew I could go quite a bit faster, I was on a faster lap when Paul and Derek caught me and I lost time as I let them through. Looking at my logs after the first couple of laps getting the tyres up to temperature I was improving by almost a second each lap.

The car had been faultless again, oil temperature and pressure fine, water temp 67° again. I was starting to get more confident with the handling and was enjoying driving it. We only had a 40 minute gap before the Allcomers race, so I got the car refuelled again. Despite driving Miss Daisy in qualifying I was 11th on the grid of 28 cars so nowhere to hide really! Taking my time and trying to saunter through Coppice at the back of the grid wasn’t going to be an option! The cloud had lowered rather ominously and as we went to the grid there were a few spots of drizzle on my visor.After the green flag lap we formed up on the grid, I had an MR2 alongside me, Colin in his Fury and another MR2 in front with a Renault Megane in front of them. Both Colin and the Megane had done 1:42′s but the MR2 was in the 1:45s so I was now likely to be quicker than him. I had a good start and got past the MR2s and the Megane and tried to hang onto the RGB boys. A Mallock was being very cautious on the slightly damp track on his slicks and by the time I’d got past him there was a good gap in front of me. It turns out I was then in 6th place. I wasn’t feeling very confident in the grip levels either, I’d had a lurid slide around the rather greasy Hall Bends and had the Megane and an MR2 breathing down my neck. I was much quicker down the straights but was being cautious in the corners where they were all over me. They both got past and got away from me a bit but I gradually gained confidence and got down to 1:46s and reeled in and passed the MR2. Once past him I got away from him quite quickly, Nigel Brown in his Vx engined Phoenix had dropped out so I was back up to 6th place. I was really enjoying myself and got down to 1:45 but the weather was deteriorating and there was a lot of rain on my visor, it was particularly worrying barrelling along the Park Straight coming towards the 90 degree right hander flat in 5th wondering if it was OK to brake at the same place as last time round! On lap 9 I was catching a very slow Locost coming into Hall Bends and discovered he was going even slower than I thought and had to jab on my brakes a bit harder than planned. The car stepped sideways, I almost caught it but not quite and I slid off to the left taking out one of the plastic marker bollards on my way. I was only going slowly so it was pretty undramatic but I ended up on the grass facing the armco a few feet away from it. There was no way I could rejoin without reversing back onto the track and I decided that wouldn’t be very sensible so switched off and climbed out.

On the one hand I was disappointed to have lost it and not finished the race but I’d really enjoyed the race until then and had felt I was going fairly well. There was no damage done and once the race finished (there was only one full lap left) I got back in, reversed onto the track and made my way back to the paddock.

By the time of the RGB race late afternoon it was properly wet. Austen and I had been down to look at the track as there had been a drier spell but the cars on track were sliding all over the place round the Mountain section and it started raining again while we were down there. One of our guys decided not to go out at all, I decided I still wanted to go out but had absolutely no plans to try exploring the car’s limits. Cadwell is extremely unforgiving, the track’s very narrow and there are very few places where an off isn’t likely to result in the car meeting something very hard. So I went out, I maintained my start position and brought the car home in one piece. Very uninspiring but mission accomplished. Visibility was awful, we had a green flag lap then on the first lap poor old Tim Pell spun just after where I’d spun at the Hall Bends and was deemed to be in a dangerous place so we were red flagged. During the wait for the restart my visor started to mist up so my visibility just got progressively worse as the race went on. Even if I had video, and I haven’t cos the camera battery went flat, I’d be too ashamed to post it

We then had a very pleasant evening in the paddock, Andy and I joined the Greenway/Q20 clan and Ben Butler and his Dad and had a few beers and the curry I’d made on Friday. It all seemed to go down well and no-one seemed to develop any untoward symptoms overnight although Austen’s Dad reckoned their tent wasn’t a very nice place to be in overnight

I really had little to do to prep the car for Sunday’s race. I added fuel and gave the chain a minor adjustment and some lube and that was it.

Our race on Sunday was at 12.15 and the forecast was vaguely hopeful although it had been very wet overnight and early morning. It did indeed stop raining quite a while before our race but when we went down to watch the MR2s in the race but one before ours it was obviously still very slippery coming into and around the Mountain, so I left the car on wet settings with slightly softer dampers and more air in the tyres. We had a green flag lap and although lots of the track was damp a dry line was appearing in places and there was considerably less spray.

I was hanging onto the back of the pack on the first lap when Dan Bromilow started to run a bit wide around Chris Curve and put 2 wheels on the grass. This rapidly resulted in the other 2 wheels going onto the grass. As I passed I thought he would be able to rejoin later but he was parked up by the barrier next time round and it turned out he’d actually gone into the barrier. I gradually dropped back from Ben Butler – it was very slippery round the second part of the Mountain, round Hall Bends, the Hairpin and Park but there was a drying line elsewhere. I was very unheroic though and just did enough to keep Jim Fowley a safe distance behind.

It’s a pity we had wet RGB races as I really felt I could have improved some more in the dry but it wasn’t to be and I’m confident it was the right decision not to push it in the wet at Cadwell. I was really pleased with the car, it really was faultless all weekend.

Looking back over the season and the problems I’ve had this year they’ve hinged round a few key components:

• Damaged engine due to my own ineptitude (spin at Llandow)
• Oil cooler failure at Mallory
• Crappy fuel pressure regulator early season
• Problems with gearchange pretty much resolved by increasing mechanical advantage
• Electrical gremlins caused by faulty switch
• Damaged engine due to coolant loss

Hopefully I can now get on with learning to drive the car properly! Next outing is the Birkett Relay on 29th October.

I was away in Manchester from Sunday evening till Monday night. On Tuesday I got some PU sealant to bond the mesh in the sidepod ducts along with some cellulose thinners to clean off the roll cage (more on that later!). I also ordered the new speedo sensor from ETB and booked testing for Friday at Pembrey.

The new battery arrived from Rally Design on Tuesday so I stuck it on charge at lunchtime and when I got home from work I set about making a bracket to hold it down as it’s bigger than the old one. This took rather longer than I’d hoped but after a couple of hours I had the new battery in, connected up and the reverse motor refitted. Everything was working fine but it was chattering again when I attempted to reverse the car. So I think it’s down to the master relay itself. It’s not a show stopper but there’s time to get another one before the weekend.

Early Wednesday morning I refitted the camera then refitted the nearside sidepod. I then cut some mesh to size/shape and bonded that into the ducts in the sidepods, the offside one isn’t terribly critical apart from making it look better but the one in the nearside stops rocks etc. from interacting with the oil cooler.

Wednesday evening saw the new speedo sensor fitted and tested, I also updated the dash for the new gear ratio. And that was pretty much it, the car was ready to go again. All that remained was to get everything packed and loaded into the motorhome.

After having little more than a shakedown at Oulton Park I was hoping for a more productive time at Pembrey. I’d booked the full day testing on Friday and the forecast for Friday at least was looking OK. I had the luxury of leaving the house just before 8am and pitched up just after 8.30 for signing on etc.

I was feeling my way around the first session when the engine cut as I was coming towards Hatchett’s hairpin. This wasn’t the same as at Oulton, the dash stayed on but the engine died. I pulled onto the grass and tried the starter but there was nothing. I had to wait till the end of the session and get towed off (by my old friend the circuit manager!).

The cause turned out to be a blown fuse. I could see no obvious cause for this so A replaced it and stuck a spare in my pocket and headed out for the second session. I had a very minor coming together with Lee as he came up my left to overtake me on the way towards the right hander at the Esses and I was watching Gary in my right mirror. Then halfway through the session the fuse blew again. I pulled off, changed it and headed back to the paddock.

Paul, Tony and Gary were all having a look trying to work out what was shorting in the engine bay. Eventually Gary moved the crank sensor wire and the engine cut. The external sleeving had melted and although I couldn’t see any damage to the insulation on the 2 wires themselves it seemed that was the problem. So I taped it all up and cable tied it safely.

The third session went OK but I got a coolant temperature alarm towards the end. Once it had cooled down I could see that the coolant level was low and topped it up. I was hoping it was an airlock rather than a leak again. Over lunchtime I changed the master relay which actually made no difference – the reverse was still chattery although once it got the car up to speed and the load dropped off it became smooth so I think the reverse motor is just pulling so much current that it’s dropping the volts across the switching solenoid within the master relay. In other words not really a problem.

The afternoon sessions went fairly well. I was still pretty slow but started to enjoy myself a bit more. My lap times were still over 2 seconds slower than my fastest lap from the previous visit but I was starting to get the feel of the car a bit better.

Poor old Austen had pitched up late morning, done one session then had broken down in the second session when his nearside half-shaft sheared off! After a few phone calls he headed off to Peter Lloyd Rally supplies to get a replacement while his Dad got the old one out.

By the time it was dark Austen and his Dad had more or less got his car back together with only a bit of work needed Saturday morning. My wife Jen joined myself and the Greenways (with a returning Afghan Dan!) along with Ben and his Dad for a barbecue and a few beverages.

Saturday was a dull morning and the drizzle set is while I was in the scrutineering queue. It didn’t really stop for the rest of the day. The short version of the day reads as follows:
In qualy I drove round slowly in the wet and qualified last. In the race I drove round slowly in the wet and finished last

I had absolutely no plans to do anything heroic in qualy – the rebuild of the car had taken a lot out of me and I really couldn’t face having to do it again! The conditions were horrendous and visibility was very poor. I let Dave Watson and Paul Rickers through so I didn’t hold them up and they slowly opened a gap. I slowly gained a little confidence and actually closed the gap. Then my visor started misting up on the inside and I fell further and further back as my visibility got more and more scary. In the end I couldn’t see the corners, let alone the faster guys in my mirrors so I went back in a lap or two early – there was clearly no way I was going to go faster.

I did have one episode of the whole electrics going off again. A single off and on of the master switch and it came back to life. I decided that must mean it was the dash switch itself – any other fault and as soon as the circuit was restored the power should have come back on again. So I decided to rewire the master electrical circuit – I commandeered the fog lamp toggle switch (the rain light is on a separate switch) and used that for my master switch and wired the fog lamp to just come on with the side lights.

It was still really wet by the time of the race in the afternoon. I got a decent enough start but had absolutely no intention of attempting to make up any places on the run down to Hatchett’s Hairpin. As it was I passed Ben who had wandered across onto the grass on the right and passed Dave Watson I think just because I took the outside line. I ended up behind David Lawrence in his Riot and was passed on lap 2 by first Ben then Dave Watson. It was very wet, visibility was awful and it was pretty slippery. My bravery levels were well towards the lower end of the range and it wasn’t long before I was watching out for the guys catching me up to lap me. I was glad to get the car back in one piece.

We had another very pleasant evening in the paddock nad the weather when I woke up on Sunday was much better with the cloud having lifted and the sun eventually coming out during the morning. I did a bit of tinkering – the coolant level had dropped again so I topped that up and checked there were no airlocks. I also started to clean some of the paint off the roll cage. When I repainted the new chassis tubes I also redid the roll cage. the trouble is, plonker that I am, I mixed the 2 pack paint up with thinners instead of the 2 pack hardener – just picked up the wrong tin. So I got a great finish on it, the only problem is it still isn’t dry! It feels tacky and indeed comes off on clothing. an experimental wipe with some cellulose thinners revealed that that also took off the layer underneath so I quickly abandoned that. I stuck a few more bits of graphics on the car and gave it a clean.

Despite a rather uninspiring forecast (rain supposed to be moving in some time late afternoon) it was dry and sunny all afternoon. The sun went behind cloud for our race but it was very dry. I was of course again at the back of the grid. I think I made up about 4 places off the line then it was all a bit chaotic around the hairpin as there seemed to be an orange Radical parked in the middle of the track facing the wrong way and Paul Rickers and David Lawrence got past me. Gary goodyear had stalled on the line and came past me as we went round Spitfires then on the first left hander at Dibeni tony Gaunt did a nice little pirhouette onto the grass. Ben went past me when I backed off. Dave Watson got past me next lap but I eventually started to reel in David Lawrence. I got past him on the brakes into Hatchett’s. I opened up a gap for a while then my coolant temperature alarm went off.

It was then very difficult to concentrate on driving as I was trying to keep an eye on what the oil and coolant temperatures were. Initially the oil was only in the 90′s but that started to creep up. David caught me back up and went past me when I missed a gear. I tried to keep in touch and when he spun at Hatchett’s I went past him to regain the place and next time round we had the chequered flag. We got held in parc ferme for a while and when they released us I couldn’t start the car – the ignition was coming on fine but nothing happened when I hit the starter button. So I pushed the car back to the paddock.

Overall it was a pretty disappointing weekend, my pace had been really poor and I simply hadn’t regained the confidence I need to go faster. I also have a car that won’t start and which is losing coolant – I have a horrible suspicion it’s the head gasket.