Silverstone
23/24 August
Round 10

I missed the last round at Pembrey because I had to have my wisdom teeth removed and I didn't have time to recover before the meeting. On the plus side with not being able to eat properly I have lost about 5 kilos of weight. All good stuff when at the end of race weigh-in we normally register 485 kilos (me plus the car!) on the scales. Now it would be 480 kilos, getting ever close to the 465 kilos minimum weight. So after a 2 month gap we were back in action at Silverstone. The meeting was split over 2 days due to the phenomenal number of entries - 54. Practice was Saturday afternoon and the races Sunday afternoon.

One of the rear tyres was on its last legs and had only 1 session left in it before it would be illegal. So we thought we'd save that one for the race and break in some new rears during practice. New tyres have almost offroad like tread depth and a nice shiny gloss. They need a few laps to get them gripping. Scrutineering was in the garages but we were else where in the paddock and with the timetable running ahead of schedule, practice had been brought forward. It meant getting the car to the garages, getting scrutineering and then waiting the odd 10 minutes before we went off to the assembly area. Scrutineers did a gallant job of shifting 54 cars in little over an hour.

For practice I took the first few laps easy trying to take the shine off the tyres. After 4 or 5 laps I started to push a bit and picked a good line through Copse, once taking to the grass to explore what was beyond the track. Becketts I was terrible through it, either braking too late or apexing too early. Brooklands quite happy with a good braking point found and Luffields coming in to it too tightly but found a nice early point to start accelerating. Throughout the session I was keeping up with Bill Stenning and I overtook him. I felt I was going ok but the car felt a little skittish (which I put down to the new tyres). Therefore I was a little surprised/shocked when I checked my pit board and it read 1:07.7. The brain took a split second to register this was a good time and with my dad standing close to the braking point to Copse I sailed past it and just managed to scrape around. This allowed Bill to close up and going in to Copse on the next couple of laps he overtook or tried to overtake and we messed up each others runs. On what turned out to my last lap after a reasonable run through Copse, coming out of Becketts after another terribly missed apex I could only see bodywork in my mirrors. My rear bodywork was hanging off. I chugged back around to the pits but the sessions was over. I met Ian in the scrutineering bay and he told me I was running 3rd for most of the session. I felt I hadn't done my best lap but I was happy with a 1:07.7. It put me 10th on the grid. Highest placing ever. I love Silverstone.

10th quickest put me straight into the final. I was looking for a good start and I didn't get it. The gear change balked again and I lost a few places. A few spinners and guys dodging around them gave me the opportunity to nick back some places. On the third lap going down to Becketts I saw a car shoot 4 feet into the air and land in the gravel trap (I think David Lavington). I again profited my nipping past 3 or 4 cars including John Bowles and I was half expecting a red flag which duly appeared. While coasting around to the grid under the red flag I notice the clips on the rear bodywork had again come loose. Perhaps another excursion on to the Copse green grass had dislodged them. I jumped out of the car on the gird while we waited for something to happen and clipped them back up. On the restart (official declared a new race of 6 laps), I got an OK start but I felt a bit like Barrichello at Hockenheim being sandwiched between 2 cars with Adam Wilkinson doing his Raikkenen impression by going around the outside almost on the grass. Needless to say none us bothered touching/hitting each other (I cant afford the 50k fine - I would have taken the demotion in 10 grid places). I made a few places on the first lap to bring me back where I had started. At the end of the first lap there was a huge sandstorm at Luffields and I spotted a car bouncing along in the gravel trap. 3rd lap and Paul Smith had a go into Copse and we both tried to hold a sideways one with Paul probably being distracted with Neil Chilleystone already done a pirouette. I kept it pointing the right way and focused on the next guy Steve Glasswell with Graham Kiddy behind me. I wasn't making any progress on Steve until the last lap when I picked up the right line at Copse and turned a 30-40 metre gap in to nothing by the time we reached Becketts but I was slightly too far behind to take the place and with yellows into Brooklands it was effectively race over. I finished 15th but a rather encouraging 10 seconds gap to the leaders. My last lap was my fastest and that was despite the yellows at Brooklands (which I did obey - slowing slightly). Like those old school report - shows potential but could do better...