Practice | The Race | Results

I was feeling confident about this race, as I had been testing at Snetterton 3 weeks previously, and I managed to get a fastest lap of 1:23.2 - this would have put me 2nd on the grid at the last race I did at Snetterton, in August of last year! The car felt great around the circuit, thanks the the brilliant job Terry Nightingale had done in setting it up, and I felt I was able to push it nearer to it's limits than ever before (despite this, my best time was still over a second slower than Terry's fastest lap - a 1:21.8 according to my data-logging Stack dash system).

Practice didn't quite go according to plan, as I had just come down with a cold, and couldn't really get totally into driving the car. I was stuck in traffic for some of the laps, and couldn't string a decent lap together. This resulted in a time of 1:24.23 - over a second slower than I had managed in testing. Despite this being my best qualifying performance ever - being 7th on the grid out of 14, just behind Mike Topp, and ahead of Clive Hudson and Paul Gill (currently 2nd and 4th in the championship), I was disappointed not to be higher up the grid.

The Race | Results | Practice

Race 1

I was slightly nervous about the race, as I was in front of some quick drivers, but I didn't need to worry too much, as I made my usual disastrous start, and was pretty much in last place as we went into the first corner. I had tried experimenting with holding the gear lever in a different position to try and coax it into 2nd gear, but it still didn't want to play ball. A few words of advice after the race from Terry Nightingale and Steve Taylor gave me another method to try for the second race, but I was now stuck at the back of the field, and had some work to do! I managed to get past Richard Daw, who was suffering the effects of installing a rather low geared differential, and I joined onto the back of the Westfield of Jonathan Edwards, who was following Charles Sterling. Despite being able to go through Riches and Sear noticeably faster than Jonathan, as soon as I pulled past him on the straight, he would be able to claw his was past me. I've finally managed to track this lack of top-end grunt down to fuel starvation, but cannot see what is causing it. It is very frustrating as it is costing me positions... Almost every lap I would draw alongside Jonathan, only for him to ease ahead of me before braking for the Esses, but I didn't have the confidence to try and outbrake him for the Esses - even when he began to slow slightly as a slight drizzle of rain started to fall. I continued to hound him, in the hope that he would make a mistake and let me by, but he held on to the chequered flag, and I finished in 9th place, out of 12, which netted me 5th in class.

Race 2

The starting positions for race 2 were decided by the finishing positions of the first race, hence I was 9th on the grid. My new gear changing method seemed to work, although I managed to mess up the first bit of the start, and the car bogged down in 1st gear. I'm still not sure if the throttle pedal jammed for a second, or if the revs just dropped too low, but whatever the reason, I made another of my atrocious starts, and was 2nd from last going into Riches. I dived down the inside of John Sims going into Riches, and after several more laps got past Richard Daw, who was suffering from differential problems. By now, I was quite a way behind Jonathan Edwards and Charles Sterling, who had reversed the order of their race 1 battle. By this time, it had started raining slightly, but the track was getting very slippery - this caused Charles to spin coming out of the Bombhole, which enabled me to get past him (thanks Charles - overtaking is much easier when your opponent is travelling sideways on the grass!). After several "moments", I decided to back off slightly, and follow Jonathan home, but on the last lap I saw Steve Taylor's car heading down the escape road at the Esses. He couldn't quite make it back onto the circuit in front of me, so I gained another position - resulting in 7th place overall and 4th in class.

Results | Practice | The Race

Qualifying Times

Race 1 Results

Race 2 Results