It seems like only a couple of weeks ago, that we were picking up our snot green kit car from its previous owner, and yet here we are today packing all the gear into the galaxy for the final race of the season at Snetterton.
The staff of the matter racing technical centre had been very busy over the past couple weeks, so we had to key changes to test on our car. Firstly Big Al had fitted some smaller master cylinders in an attempt to increase my confidence in the brake pedal, and secondly JB had made it a diffuser for the rear of the car especially for Snetterton as it is the highest speed circuit which we go to during the year.
For the Friday test, it was just the original racing team of me and Big Al in attendance. Big Al had a very busy week, and I was suffering from an acute bout of man flu, so we were hoping for a very easy day out. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite like that. Instead of us testing the car, the car spend the entire day testing us!
First off, as we try to put the car on the trailer at the technical centre and Big Al noticed that the exhaust pipe snapped, and so instead of setting off plenty of time. We had to strip down the left-hand side of the car, weld up the exhaust pipe, create a new bracket and fit it all back on. All in all, it took us about two hours, and despite some swift towing, we arrived at the circuit just as our first test session was going out.
After all the pre-driving checks, signing on, noise testing etc had all been completed. There was still about 20 minutes of the session remaining, so with a gulp of lemsip, and a hearty shove from Big Al, I sped out onto the circuit. After less than a lap, I had to come back into the practice as the new diffuser was rubbing on the rear tyres - a quick fine adjustment with a hammer by Big Al, and I was back out onto the circuit, only to be met by a red flag. The first session was a complete write-off. I think we only completed three laps all of which were on cold tyres.
At least we now had a couple of hours to get the car ready for the final session of the afternoon. The final session was much better. The new master cylinders had improved the brake pedal enormously. I'd even go as far as to say it is the single biggest improvement we have made to the car this season. I could now nail my breakpoints with plenty of confidence and hold the car on the point of locking its wheels without too much problem. Hopefully this would now be like attack into the bends, whereas at Oulton Park I was finding that difficult.
Another small problem, or to send after 20 minutes, but a quick fix was always by Big Al and I was out for another 10 minutes at the end of the session. Not the best testing session is ever had, but at least all the problems happened in testing so hopefully the car would be hundred percent reliable for racing.
We parked my car next to the Cherrington team home, and set off back to the Cogg.
A quick snooze later, and JB and Big Al knocked on my door at 5:45. We were off racing!
Because he had a doubleheader, we were first into scrutiny in, and first practice session. As I have been testing the day before, I was keen to get out early in the practice session and have a clear track. The boys did a fabulous job and I was in the assembly area first. Ready for art session. But mostly we had a long wait as the morning mist had failed to lift from Snetterton, and we had to wait for 90 minutes until the track cleared sufficiently to allow racing to commence.
I shut out of the pit and started my first lap practice, taking each of the corners gently breaking nice and early to get some heat into the tyres. The second lap, I started putting a little harder just to get the tyres up to full racing temperature, everything was feeling good as I rounded Coram and braked nice and early for Russell, however, halfway through my braking zone. The front wheel suddenly locked, followed by the rear is before I had time to react, and I was spinning off onto the grass. Someone must have dropped some oil in the braking zone as two more cars followed me off in a synchronised spin. I was really annoyed at myself at first, as I was out at the front of practice and had an entirely clear circuit, which is exactly what you want to set a fast time, although in retrospect, it would be difficult for me to predict that someone had dropped oil. That wasn’t there the previous lap! Anyway, I was now at the back of the chain of cars, and hence would find it difficult to get a clear lap. I pull out the remainder of the lap as slowly as possible in order to find as much track space as I could before getting my foot down and try to set a time.
I think it's fair to say that it wasn't my finest hour. I didn't make any howling mistakes, but my brain felt a bit fuzzy, and not once did I get that lovely feeling when you know you have absolutely nailed corner. The entire lap timer confirmed my feelings, by the end of the session. I was a full second slower than it had been in practice the previous day.
I came in and shared the bad news with the guys. The team is always brilliant at times like this, they always have encouraging words to say and spend an hour with the car, pretending to find things, which would explain your crap performance, but at the end of the day, you know that all the boys have spent hours getting the car ready, and you feel bad for not doing your bit as driver by getting the maximum out of the car.
The results sheet came out, and I was a rather disappointing 12th and 8th in class some three seconds off the pace.
I had a quick snooze in the tent, and before I knew it was wheel spinning my way to the line ready for race one.
30 seconds, five seconds, red lights, go! I got an awesome start, collecting a couple of places off the line, only to throw it all away by missing second gear, and breaking way too early into turn one. It took the usual first lap to settle down, but after that. I quickly got into a nice rhythm and was really enjoying myself. A quick check of my lap timer confirmed that not only was having fun, but I was flying round the circuit two seconds quicker than I had in practice – excellent! Snetterton is not my favourite circuit, but it does give exciting racing due to the length of the Straights and hence the importance of getting a slipstream from the car in front. Through a combination of nifty overtakes, and a couple of retirements. I found myself in a similar place to Oulton Park, in the midst of an epic battle between Rob Johnson and Jim Goodwin. The places were changing, each lap, but as the race went on. It appeared that robs car was going off, allowing myself and Rob to nip through and pull out a bit of a gap. We stopped places at a number of times by slipstream each other down the back straight, but, from my Locost days . I knew the way to beat him was to make sure I was behind him as he started the final lap, and hence could get the slipstream down the back straight, block him at the bomb whole and be in the lead at the finish line, and that is exactly how it happened! In fact, as I crossed the line. I was only a few tenths behind Guy in his red Silva striker, so I knew for race two, he was the target!
I'm so busy in my little race. I did not actually know where I finished overall, so wasn't until the results sheet came out. I discovered I had come out forth in class - not bad, given my ropey qualifying!
Another snooze, and some more tempering with the cars by the boys trying to get rid of some turn in oversteer, which was causing me a little bit of grief, and I was on the grid for race two.
I got another demon start, and this time didn't miss any gears, and before long, was again battling with Guy and Jim for third and fourth and fifth. It was a great battle, with Guy having a little more performance out of the bends, but with our car catching as the speed got higher, however, I couldn't make the overtake stick on the back straight . As our car hit the rev limiter in top gear about 300 m before the end of the straight just when I needed an extra couple of miles an hour to nip past under the bridge.
After a few laps of trying, I finally got in under the breaks into turn one, I missed my apex, but Guy managed the situation perfectly, and although we were both rather wide, we shot through the corner, the exiting with me in the lead. My glory was short lived, however, as Guy outbreaked me into Sear and took back the position – bugger!
I got alongside Guy on the main straight couple more times but each time was scuppered by hitting the rev limit - I was sure I was very slightly quicker than Guy over a whole lap, but just couldn't make the pass. On the last but one lap, I turned in to aggressively into Sear and lost the back end, the resulting slide, meaning I was slow on to the back straight, allowing Jim to get alongside and passed.
The last lap board was out, and I got an excellent exit from Sear this time write-up on to the bumper of Jim and Guy, but again, my red limiter meant I could not get past, but I noticed both of them had gone into the corner at the end of the straights to quickly and hence made a big mess of the following right-hander - I had a quick look into the bomb hole, but it wasn't on. - only one chance left - the exit from Russell. I braked a little earlier, in order to leave a tiny bit of space on the hope that one of them would make a small mistake, and true to my dreams, Jim got a big slide on allowing me to out drag him to the finish line - it was a photo finish, but the results sheet showed me ahead by 100th of a second, to take another fourth-place!
It was a great race, and especially given my qualifying position, I was made up with a fourth-place. I'm sure that third place was on the cards in both races , with a couple of tweaks to the car, but even so, fourth-place having started dating class is still a result!
As always, special thanks must go to the rest of the team and of course, the extended mad racing support network: Uncle Mike, Suzie Sue, JB, Big Al, Jo, and of course The Little “O”
See you all next year.
