Double header at Brands where Al qualifies 6th for his first race, 5th for his second race, gets up to 3rd place off the start-line, and brings home a 3rd in class trophy in his second race. A very busy day, action packed, read below to find out more.
With no time for a pre-race track or test day, the team rolled up at Brands at 8am on the Saturday morning in-time for a track walk, to re-assess the brake points, turn-in points, and get a general feel for the rises and falls that Brands Hatch Indy circuit offers. The morning flew by in no time, quickly arriving at our 10:30 practice slot. Due to low grid sizes, we were out on track practising with Hot Hatch, with us onto circuit first. Practice went very well, with the track walk paying huge dividends.
I could see from our lap timer, that I hadn’t broken any lap records, but that my times should be competitive.
Times were soon out, and I had secured 6th place overall on the grid for my 1st race, and 5th place for my 2nd race. In terms of our Class-C, I had qualified 4th in class and 3rd in class respectively. So, very pleased, and the team set about a few minor changes to try and improve the handling of the car.
The first of our many supporters arrived, Jason, Tina and young Joshua King. Shortly followed by Nigel Seeds, then Ben, Catherine, Ewan and Finlay Barry. Next were Suz, Ste and Sarah, bringing with them a welcome dose of food, muffins and other assorted naughties! Last but not least, Nick Clark and son James.
So, onto my first race, 6th place means 3rd row of the grid and on the outside of the track. I got a fantastic start, and literally catapulted myself into 3rd place by the time we were at Paddock – the first bend. Going into Druids (hairpin at the top of the hill) I saw in my mirror that someone was making a move up the inside, actually I could see tyre smoke and front wheels locked up! So, I kept out wide and saw Jim Goodwin fly up the inside, shortly followed by Mark Alexander Williams who had also locked up and collided with my front RHS and sent us both into the gravel. I kept the car moving, and with a bit of creative driving was able to get back out of the gravel, in the end had to reverse out, slightly unconventional!!
With that I was last in the race, and by quite some margin. The car felt ok, so I started pushing on, in an attempt to re-capture the pack. Just as I came past the pit entry, I saw red flags and so immediately eased off and parked up on the grid. Knowing that the other cars had to complete a full lap of the circuit, I jumped out of the car to check the damage from the impact. The brand new steering rack was bent and we were not going to be joining the re-start. With that, we took the car back to the pits. The next two hours were spent franticly repairing the rack, a hug team effort enabling us to repair the car in time* - Nigel and Steve rebuilt the bodywork, me, Des and Mike repairing the rack, Big thanks for Glen Boyer (aka the Carrot Cruncher) and the Cherrington’s for all of their help with spares, and a vice!
*in –time – We actually got to the forming area with a whole 30 seconds to spare. I literally had to throw the tools, umbrella and water from the car before heading out onto the track.
So, the second race was on with me in P5, still on the 3rd row of the grid, but this time on the inside. Again, got a great start and got up to 3rd place again! This time kept the door firmly shut on the way into Druids. Next few laps were pretty busy, seeing me lose two places down to 5th, then regain one and into 4th, managing to get past the V8 Dax on the way into Surtees. I seemed to be gaining on P3 car in some places, and losing out in others. Clearways was particularly difficult and quite frustrating - I just could not get the power down, the rear inside was just spinning up and for up to 100m on some bends! Anyway, on about Lap 10, I missed my turn-in for the Surtees and as a result went in completely off line. Resulting in a rather spectacular spin. I rejoined the circuit, and held my position. After my visit to the grass, I knew that there was no chance to catch P3 car, and so settled in to a more gentle rhythym and fiunished the race 4th overall and 3rd in class.
So, overall a pretty damn fine result, only marred by the fact that I was not able to complete Race 1. Practice and Race 2 had gone extremely well, and so overall a great days racing.
I’d like to thank all my supporters for the day (as mentioned above) for their help and support through the day and in getting the car repaired. We were also top tip for a couple of racing fans who had travelled from Colchester and who had been rallying for us all day – Big thanks!!
Check all the photos from the day here:-
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ajullie2/BrandsBonaza
Next event is Donington on Sunday 20th July, where Uncle Mike takes the wheel one more time.
Cheers, Al
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