Mallory Majesty – Well Yes, really!

One practice, two races, a 3rd place, a 4th place, whatever next?

A fine sprinkling of rain greeted us at Mallory on Sunday 3rd August for Al’s final two races of the season. The car had undergone a bunch of fairly major changes prior to Mallory, and although the calculations showed the car should be infinitely better, the lack of a test day meant that the car was unproven with the new set-up……..eek.

Practice came and went, and was uneventful, but somehow busy, meaning that I didn’t get a clear lap. Every time I thought “this is the one”, something would happen to scupper it – yellow flag, backmarker, spinner, damn! The car handled brilliantly throughout, and is now a real weapon, so that was great news.

Practice results were out, I had qualified 11th out of ~20 cars. Not my best, not my worst!

So onto the 1st race, I got a great initial start, but failed to engage 2nd gear straightaway and so lost two places. There a few words that describe the frustration of missing a gear, but none that are publishable here! I slotted into the pack going into Gerard’s and held my position. Had a good battle with Steve Bell (Sylva Striker) & another Striker style, white car and jostling for places for a few laps, then managed to pull a gap and found some free space. Not too much happened for the rest of the race, and brought the car home 3rd in class and 6th overall. A very nice result!

2nd race came around soon enough. Going round to form-up I felt the tyres were really “cold” and were low in grip levels, so some enthusiastic weaving and practice starts to try and get some warmth into the tyres. Lined up on the start, and away we went! Hooked up a great start (got 2nd gear this time!!), both Rob Johnston and I got past the two cars in front of us (Jim Goodwin and Mark Alexander Williams), and slotted in for Gerard’s (probably up to 3rd place here?) Jim was able to sneak through on the way around Gerard’s and I held Mark off until John Cooper Esses where he slipped past on the outside - a very good move, but I shouldn’t have let him through! Flying up into the hairpin, hard on the brakes, something peculiar happened (!!) that saw me steering left to avoid the cars in front and taking to the grass. A couple of seconds off-roading (my argument was that I was trying out the new dampers!) and I was back onto the circuit. What a muppet, that oversight cost me valuable seconds and places. I can only conclude that the tyres were not fully heated and that I had outbraked myself…Damn, damn, damn. I started my charge to try and catch back up with the front runners, but it was going to be tough – very tough. Caught and jostled with Nigel Brown for a couple of laps, then got past on the way into Gerards, in the distance I could see Rob Johnstone, and was catching, but slowly – we were clearly both lapping at about the same pace. So this was the order in which we were to finish, I finished up 4th in Class for race 2, however I am sure that barring any disasters and had I not gone on the grass on the 1st lap, this could have been a 3rd place, and perhaps even a challenge for 2nd place. Nevermind, it was a great days racing, the car is a huge improvement from before, a 3rd and a 4th place is excellent and I had a great final meeting of the season. So all in all a huge success and very enjoyable.

Massive thanks go to JB and Des for their spannering all day at Mallory – all I had to do was drive, which takes a huge amount of pressure off me. Of course, the whole team need a mention for their support of me throughout the 2008 season, so a big round of applause to Des, JB, Jo, Oliver, Bob2, Mel, Liz, Mike and Suz for all their support, help, food, drink & encouragement throughout!

Next event is Silverstone on 23rd August...

Al