Mallory Park 23-Apr-06

Leading Tony through Lake Esses   [photo Dave Kirby]

Second race of the season and the second circuit I've never seen before. In order to capitalise on my excellent start to the year, I have taken advantage of Mallory's well known Wednesday morning test sessions in order to learn the circuit - all four corners of it! For the first time since I've started racing, this felt like work. Not what I expected, but then the circuit isn't what I'd call enjoyable - perhaps it's more rewarding in a faster car?

The weather forecast suggested a damp qualifying. Sure enough, just as the track was dry, it started raining as we were called to the assembly area. I had ensured that I arrived first for qualifying but moments before we were allowed onto the circuit I noticed that I had not removed the pin from my fire extinguisher and had to unbuckle myself to reach it. I had to let three-quarters of the field onto the track before I got myself strapped back in! Bad start.

In fact, after clearing a few cars at the beginning of the session, I had a largely clear qualifying session. Almost too clear. With different conditions to those I had tested in, it took me a while to find all of the available grip on the drying track. I was happy with the way things were going, but without much in the way of reference I had no idea of my relative performance. On the last couple of laps, I started to push harder into the braking zones and was surprised by how much I was rewarded. I hoped that my last lap was good enough for the front 2 rows.

Not quite good enough as it turned out. My best time of 59.4s put me 5th on the grid, four-tenths behind Martin Dower's pole position, who had only just pipped Nigel Innes' tourer to the front of the grid. Tony Doe and Rob Sadler occupied row 2 with Andrew Busby alongside me on the third row.

Whilst still worryingly grey and overcast, the race itself was dry. My grid slot put me on the inside, looking directly at Martin with Tony Doe staggered off to my left. A good start from here could be very useful indeed. I made a special effort for maximum tyre temperature on the installation and green flag laps. The red lights were held for a long time... but as they went out I executed a nice clean start and was able to squeeze past Tony before second gear and get right behind Martin for the first corner. Nigel Innes was able to make good use of his wide entry into Gerards to maintain second position and I slot in behind [video clip].

I struggle to stay in touch with the leading pair, especially with Tony breathing down my neck. A defensive approach is necessary on the run up to the Esses and hairpin. On lap 4 I arrive at the hairpin with a more comfortable gap and decide that a defensive line is not necessary as Tony won't be able to make a move stick from that far back. I was wrong and Tony's "look" up the inside turns into a late braking dive. Having already turned into the corner, I steer away as best I can but there's not quite enough room and Tony slides up the side of my car, overshooting the corner. We both continue without much of a holdup but I've lost third place and set about getting it back [video clip].

The next few laps are spent maximising my faster corner speeds and slipstreaming Tony down the straights hoping for a chance into the next corner. On every lap I'm able to get alongside him on the exit of the hairpin but not quite far enough to make it stick into the Devils Elbow left hander. After a few laps of this battling I manage to keep the inside line all the way down the pit straight, running side by side the whole way and get ahead into Gerards. My tighter line compromises by exit speed and Tony's all over me down the back straight. But there's a yellow flag at the Esses after an incident a few laps before and so I'm confident that I'll keep the place. Tony comes past anyway and I'm back in fourth again.

So we're back to playing cat and mouse for a couple more laps until Tony goes too fast into the hairpin but this time I'm clearly ahead by the time we get to Gerards and I make it stick. Tony also seems to have lost some speed (tyres overheating?) so I'm able to build up a comfortable gap but I can't make up any ground on Nigel Innes, a couple of seconds ahead.

So after an eventful and action-packed race I bring the car home in third place and very happy to have made up two positions from qualifying and to stay ahead of Tony. The icing on the cake is that I later discover that I also got the fastest lap of the race for a bonus point! That'll do nicely... a four point lead in the championship after two rounds maintains an excellent start to the season. A new rubbing strip for the driver's door and some T-cut is all that's needed before the next race at Thruxton.

fourwheels racing © 30-Apr-2006