Mallory Park
9th March 2003
Round 1
Fastest Practice Lap: 53:81 - 90.32 MPH
Mallory race day loomed into view. I was not confident of me and the gearchange getting on together. Anyone who has raced at Mallory will tell you it has a unique feature - to get into the paddock you have to drive on the track. So if you get there too late then you wont be able to get into the paddock and no racing. So with this in mind (and the Vees scrutineering early) I arrived early. I positioned myself next to the scrutineering bay and rather clumsly hit a trailer in the paddock when I was reversing. A few scratches to my car and a broked trailer light. Ian fitted a new fuel pump before scrutineering and the car passed scrutinieering although there was a query about the play in the steering.
The practice session confirmed what I was dreading. It was very difficult to select that damn second gear. Reverse gear I could find no problem. So I knuckled down to going pushing the car through the hairpin using third gear. Which proved fine as long as nobody was in front of me. With somebody in front they seemed to slow down a little too much and then I was bogged down coming out (well more bogged down than if I had a clear run). On the plus side the car felt fantastic throught the fast stuff. Loads of grip and it wanted to turn in. With a few minutes to go in the session I slowed right down at the hairpin and fished for second then took the hairpin wide so I could get a straight run out of it and slingshot myself down the straight. I had a clean run throught the rest of the corners and a maxed out third gear taking of the hairpin and I had a 53:81 in the bag. I thought this was ok but was very surprised when my Dad came back with the official results showing me 13th and had qualified straight for the final. A first for me.
Final: Grid Position: 13th
Final: Race Result: 22nd
Final: Fastest Lap: 54:22 - 89.63 MPH
In between practice we considered having a go at improving the gearchange by replacing the sloppy joints with proper ones purchased from Demon Tweeks. Luckily we didn't bother because when I tried to build a new linkage between the Mallory and Donnington races it took me 4 attempts to get it right. With 13th on the grid I wasn't expecting to hold 13th until the end. I knew without being able to select second gear I was going to struggle in a group of cars around the hairpin. When the lights went green I shot off the line then a good start turned into a bad one when I went to change to second. I missed it and before I knew it I was last. Undetered I thought I would be able to get back some places back. I spent the next 10 laps hurtling around Gerrards and being very swift through the Esses only to be slug slow around the hairpin. Overtaking wasn't too much of a problem but it proved harder than I thought to stay ahead of cars. One or two people also missed second gear right in front of me at the hairpin definitely hampered by progress. In the end I managed to pull clear but I could not catch up to the next group and had to happy with 22nd.