Highs and Lows at Lydden Hill

The weather was always threatening to make its presence felt from early last week in the lead up to the Lydden Hill race weekend, with heavy rain forecast on Saturday and heavy snow to follow on Sunday. As you can see from the photos the forecast was 50% correct (not bad for the met office).

So it was a welcome sight on Saturday morning; waking up to sunshine and dry roads. After packing up the Galaxy and trailer, and trundling down to the Kent circuit for a very leisurely 11.00 scrutineering, my nerves starting increasing. Thoughts that were troubling me included having never made a race start in this car before and returning it in one piece for the rest of the team to have their first race in our new car. After scrutineering, I soon had to push these thoughts behind me as it was very quickly time for practice. As I rolled out onto the circuit for the first time, the car immediately felt great. I started off fairly gently to get my three laps in and soon started picking up the pace. After finding some clear track with which to set some hot lap times, I ended up qualifying 9th fastest overall for both races (5th fastest in class C) with a fastest lap of 47.70 seconds.

The race wasn't scheduled until 5.30 so there was plenty of time to make a couple of changes to the car before forming up for the main event. My grid slot had me positioned on the dirty side of the track which added to my concerns on the start line. I guessed at how best to launch and when the red lights went out, I was off (slowly as I had bogged down too much). Still, I got a second chance as there was a red flag before the end of even the first lap. My second start wasn't much better at all and I had lost a couple of places by the first corner.

As the race progressed, I started going quicker and quicker, but the majority of the cars in front carried on pulling away little by little! I spent most of the 20 minute race circulating on my own, a few seconds behind the cars in front but did get back past a couple of cars. There were a couple of heart-in-mouth moments, not least when a car spun in front of me on Paddock Bend, but I managed to keep my nose clean and came across the finish line in one piece. My fastest lap was 46.92 seconds - a good deal quicker than in qualifying.

It was only when the race was over that I realised I had actually finished in 7th place overall. But better than that, I had finished 2nd in class! At last, I had finally won a trophy (I've still a long-way to go to catch up with the trophy count of Des and Al though) on my first race outing in our new car. I was absolutely ecstatic. Des, Al and JB had prepped the car in their normal expert manner and everything had clicked seamlessly into place.

So it was off to my mum and dad's house (Mick and Carol) for all of the team for the night where a feast had been laid on in my mum's usual banquet-like style. Many thanks for the great hospitality from all of us.

Sunday morrning arrived with a very different outlook, with snow falling heavily. Des, Al and JB left for the circuit before lunch and reported back that our car-tent had collapsed under the weight of snow that had accumulated on it over-night. It wasn't looking good for racing. News came through however that the snow was melting, the circuit itself was free of settled snow and that the racing was to go ahead as normal. Myself, Suzanne, mum and dad arrived at about 3pm in time to watch the locost final, at which point the snow started falling heavier still. My race wasn't due to start until 5.05. The racing still carried on but the snow had started settling again. At 4pm racing was halted to see if the snow would ease and clear. Unfortunately it didn't and the rest of the meeting had to be abandoned. Not quite what we had hoped for in only having one race but I couldn't have expected to have finished 2nd in class on our first outing. A great result. Incidentally that places myself and MAD-racing 2nd in class in the championship!

Many thanks to all who supported us over the weekend. Apologies for the appalling weather....

The next MAD-racing outing will see Al in action at Cadwell Park on Sunday May 11th.