Pembrey 19-20 Aug 06

Under pressure from George Haynes and Rob Sadler   [photo Dave Kirby]

Pre-93 Touring Cars
I struggled in the dry qualifying session, especially against those who were testing the day before, finding myself 4th in class and 8th on the grid. By the time the race came it was quite wet and I climbed up to 3rd overall by lap 4. I spent the remainder of the race pushing Martin Dower, who in turn was hassling the E36 M3 of Tony Gorman who was holding us both up. The M3 finished in the lead with Martin less than a second behind! I made a mistake lapping traffic on the last lap and took a small excursion across the grass on the exit of Paddock corner. However, I did manage to set the fastest lap of the race :-)

Production BMW race 1
Qualifying for the first Production BMW race was very wet. In fact it ended up raining so hard that you couldn't tell track from grass and the session was stopped! I was a little disappointed to not get pole, but Tony Doe pulled a half second over me, with a lap 3 seconds quicker than any of his others. But on a drying track, the pole sitter has the wet side of the track which gave me sufficient advantage to take the lead from the start. Unfortunately the lead only lasted until the last corner of the first lap, where my caution into Honda gave Martin Dower the opportunity to sneak up my inside and make it stick.

I chased Martin as hard as I could for the rest of the race. Managing to get alongside on the exit of the Hatchets hairpin on the penultimate lap but not far enough to make it stick. I then took another trip across the grass at Paddock, this time causing me some concern as the back end stepped out, requiring release of the steering wheel as I rejoined the track to recover. Having set fastest laps throughout the race, my mistake on the last lap allowed George to take the fastest race lap on the drying track, reducing what would have been a 3 point extension in my championship lead to just 1 point. However, Martin and I still finished 9 seconds ahead of Rob Sadler in 3rd.

Production BMW race 2
Sunday's PBMW race was much drier and the previous day's track time helped me to qualify in 3rd place but only a fraction ahead of Rob Sadler who has been threatening all weekend but suffering with a misfire or fuel starvation. I knew I would have serious attention from Rob and George in the race. I got past George off the start who also fell behind Rob. And for the next 11 laps had to drive a defensive race to keep him behind. Taking the inside line every time into the Hatchets hairpin at the end of the start/finish straight. My intention was to hold Rob up enough to come under the attention George but after outbraking myself a little into Hatchets on lap 12, I actually held him up enough to allow George past and onto my tail. I managed to keep George behind my until the last lap but he sneaked around the outside of me exiting Hatchets which gave him the inside line for Dibeni/Paddock and ultimately earned him second place. But he then went too fast into Brooklands and ran the kerbs heavily on the exit resulting in an almighty tankslapper which speared him from left to right just as I was heading for the right of the circuit myself in an attempt to pass. As a result I had to lift and swerve left to avoid him. All this allowed Rob to drive around the left of me, putting me between them both. But then George moved left to better position himself for the Woodlands kink, not realising that I had nowhere to go. I had no option but to hit the brakes but scuffed past the pair of them on my "way out". This resulted in another shake up of the positions, Rob taking 2nd with me 3rd and George 4th.

I was most disappointed to have defended my position from quicker cars right up until the last lap and then to lose it. Not to mention the contact and subsequent damage caused to three cars. It really upset me and although 3rd was enough for me to have secured the championship I felt more strongly about losing 2nd.

fourwheels racing © 22-Aug-2006