Lydden Hill 04-Sep-2004

Heading towards the exit of Devils Elbow   [photo David Kirkby]

It's been far too long since the last race. I had to find myself things to do on the car just to keep myself occupied! The car is even strapped down on the trailer and ready to go the week before the race. Far too long...

Race day doesn't start too well when the towcar breaks down on the way to the circuit. Determined to get to the circuit above all else I manage to limp along until the next big hill at which point the car gives up and leaves me stranded in the closed-off lane in roadworks on the A2! The roadworks recovery service takes me to the next services and from there Phil Mullender comes to my rescue to take the BMW and I to the circuit. I'll return to get the towcar recovered later.

I arrive at the signing-on office just as they were about to cross my name off the entry list. I even manage to make scrutineering before the drivers briefing. It's a good job I made it on time as I'm entered in two races today. The SELOC race of course and also class F of the South East Sports and Saloon series.

I sneak down to the assembly area just before we're called for qualifying which means I'm the first car out and should be able to get a good number of clear laps in. The session goes quite well and the lap timer shows me a few sub 54 second laps. Considering the heat of the day and my tyres tendency to go off I was happy enough to find myself 3rd on the grid with a time of 53.7s, one-tenth behind Guy Lloyd and another 5 hundredths behind Jez Braker on pole. During qualifying for the second race I struggle with my overheating tyres and qualify fourth, half a second slower.

When it comes to the race and I strap myslef into the car in the assembly area I'm feeling really nervous. I haven't felt like this before a race for a long time. Positioned on the grid watching the countdown boards it's even worse but as soon as we set off on the green flag lap the nerves disappear. For a change, I decide not to attempt to warm the tyres on the green flag lap, in an attempt to save them for the race. As the red lights go out I get a reasonable start. A little low on revs but a clean start nonetheless. Everyone else seems to pretty much do the same and as we enter Chessons Drift and I find myself still behind Guy and Jez. Graig Jamieson has a go around the outside of Chessons but that'll never work and so I let him run into the dust! He ends up losing out to Paul Golding and I'm a little surprised to find him giving me a hard time for the first couple of laps. I've always had trouble with Pilgrims and with Paul clearly faster at that part to of the circuit I knew I had to change something. But I continued to keep it safe into Pilgrims and after a couple of laps I opened up a decent gap.

And that's how it stayed for the rest of the race. Jez pulled slowly away from Guy, Guy pulled slowly away from me and I pulled slowly away from Paul (later passed by Craig). Not one of my most exciting races but quite satisfying nonetheless. And of course another trophy for 3rd place! I could see from the lap timer that I was putting in good consistent laps, certainly the most consistent I've been so far. This was probably my weakest area at the beginning of the year and it's very pleasing to have got on top of it. It put me in a good frame of mind for race 2 and eager for some action.

No nerves for the second race. When the red lights went out I reacted well and made a very good start, gaining on all the cars in front. Guy seemed to fluff his change from 1st to 2nd and I was ahead before the first corner, still gaining on Jez. All the way round Chessons I was slowly catching Jez up until the point where I thought we might touch. But as we approached the exit his longer legs got the better of me and he started to pull away. My only chance was him making a mistake into Devils Elbow but that didn't happen so I had to settle for watching him slowly pull away.

Again, I was struggling with the entry to Pilgrims, having to be very careful to avoid locking the rear brakes. I decided I must be doing something wrong and so I just chucked the car at the corner and it seemed quite effective. Unfortunately the lap timer wasn't working to confirm what I felt but it was definately quicker as Jez's lead stopped growing quite so fast. Over the last couple of laps I started to enjoy myself a little too much and attempted to put the car properly sideways at every corner. North Bend being my favourite corner for such antics! And I was also please to take second place!!!

Back in the paddock, the race results confirmed my suspicions as I went a tenth faster than race one. The lap-by-lap analysys also showed another consistent set of laptimes and all of them faster than race one. Perhaps if I'd sorted Pilgrims out a bit earlier I could have put pressure on Guy in the first race? Let's hope I can do better in the next race...

fourwheels racing © 08-Sep-2004