Last weekend of the season at Oulton, a full days testing booked and all was good.

Testing on the friday before race day Sat, this went well, tho I started slowly in the morning, not really finding “my groove” until lunch, this was helped by words of encouragement from Warren at Topcats who was also racing with us this weekend.  During the test my times tumbled, and by the second test in the afternoon I felt very comfortable with the car, a few tweeks to the suspension setting on the dampers and all sorted for qually.

Qually was dry but a little cold, it was 08:30am and I drove a couple of laps to warm the tyres correctly, Oulton is famous for having slippery patches in the morning under the trees and I did not want this to cause a trip to the fence, which is very close at a number of places if you think about it??  Once the tyres were hot and all was good its time to get “the lap” done, but with 24 other cars out trying to do the same, all at different cycles in the tyre and brake warm up and cool down its always going to cause traffic, and thats exactly what happened, I was unable to get a clean lap, and eventually our best put me 5th on the grid for race 1…

There was hardly time to think with a very tight schedule putting us out for race 1 at 11am and race 2 at 1pm.  Race start was good and I gained a place straight away, now behind the red Sagaris no23, looking for a way past I managed to put the car next to his and perform a clean pass at the right hander called “Lodge corner”, Oulton is a rather narrow track with a few favorite passing places, on the next lap having had the door closed in 3 or 4 corners i managed the pass at the same place on car 99, putting me in second, but having lost time battling with the other cars Mark Hockin in the lead had a nice size gap of around 10 secs, lap after lap i seemed unable to catch the “aero equipped” tuscan, Mark was flying and I could not make any impression upon the gap he had built, infact it seemed to be getting bigger!!  On the final lap there was a horrible loud noise as the exhaust had cracked ne moved, causing the system to “blow” and a resulting loss in power, under hard braking this seemed to sort itself out and we finished a very strong second, with good lap times meaning we looked good for race 2. 

Havin inspected the exhaust system it seemed the split had occured at a joint and needed welding, this had happened because of the force thru the car as I run over the kerbs on the apex of a corner, I do love some kerb, it is for sure the fastest way thru a chicane, tho not the best for the car, so i made a mental note to give the bigger kerbs some room and not batter the car over them after the first couple of laps, 20 mins of smashing into them is risky, sometimes it pays off, sometimes YOU pay.

On the grid for race 2, all good, mind totally on the job, 4500 rpm, lights out, accelerate hard and on the change to second there is a loud bang from the engine, followed by a similar noise from the exhaust as before!  “Oh S***” as I turned into the right hand hairpin called “shell” I noticed smoke coming thru the dash board, then my eyes were running, very fumey.. noise now worse than ever I had no choice but to pull in and return to the truck to inspect, by the time i got there Brian the savior from Topcats Racing was ready, spanner in hand, turned out the side of the car was catching fire because the exhaust had come out of the back box, this damaged had gone un noticed after race 1, with poor access to this area we were unable to fix the problem, and had to call it a day, my heart sank as i thought i had missed out on the points needed to secure third place in class championship overall.  Turned out we had the third spot by 5 points regardless, phew. 

Looking ahead now to winter car prep, and some testing early in the new year, hopefully this will avoid any delays like we had this season causing us to miss the first 2 rounds and go to the next without any testing.  Now we are with Topcats Racing of Aylesbury things seem far more organised, fingers crossed. 

Finally, a massive thanks to all involved, sponsors, supporters and family, racing is a massive part of my life and you all make it even better.

Back at Brands Hatch in kent, one of my favorite tracks, unfortunatly there was not an opertunity for me to test at Brands before the race day, so going out in qually would be my first laps here since the last race. 

We arrived at Brands the eve before race day to set up and prepare, the forecast was not good at all for the Kent area, on our way down from Milton Keynes the sun shone, all was fine with the weather until we crossed the river at Dartford, rain….  As luck would have it Steve Glynn was racing with us supported by Tim Hood. This meant that they had the big truck and a massive awning with enough room for 4 cars, they only had 1, quick chat with Tim and after the offer of a pint in the bar my place under his awning was sorted, this helps a great deal as the EZ up shelter I have is only big enough for the car and makes doing anyhting on the car a real pain if its wet, not to mention windy. 

Qually was wet on the sunday morning, and all expected the rain to last all day, I managed to set a row of 55 sec laps and then my best of 54 to secure P2 on the ront row, next to car 99, this was a very good time in the wet and only 3 secs slower than my best in the dry, perhaps we have found our rythm with the car.

Race 1..  DRY!!  Still plenty of clouds but the tarmac was mainly dry with the odd damp patch.  Slicks tyres are the go, 2 green flag laps were allowed to give us a chance of warming the tyres, car 99 managed to throw it off into the barrier at the first corner, paddock hill, he managed to rejoin but had to start from the back of the grid!  Cold day, cold tyres and a little too agressive, he will not do that again in a hurry.  This left the slot next to me open, “GREAT” that takes a lot of pressure off, not having to fight for the inside with that car, just the other 20 or so cars behind me now??  Lights out, great start and off into the lead, how happy, the car felt amazing, I felt really strong, totally commited to every corner and for sure completely in control of the car, we led for a round 7 laps with the length of the back straight between me and car 20 (deano) until a slip of the hand on a change thru the gearbox cause me to “tap” the dashboard very slightly, I did not give the dash a second glance untill turning into the left hander at surtees the car began to loose power completly, I had only gone and flicked the fuel pump off, IDIOT, with that Deano was past and fuel pressure built up again, back at it, but now in second place, after chasing Deano who is very local to brands and very good here also, the flag was waved and second was ours, not as good as it should have been. But with a personal best lap time of 49 seconds things were not all bad, on to race 2.

Race 2.. Again in second on the grid, with the finishing positions of race 1 giving the grid for race 2.  A great start and off out infront, I really fancied my chances here, Deano right on my tail with a car that seemed to be faster on the straights, however we were a little quicker thru the corners, all I needed to do was stop him getting next to me, easier said than done, on lap 5 Deano managed to put his car next to ours and block our turn in to the corner, giving him the lead, the race from here was pretty simple, thru the corners I could reduce the gap and even had a couple of “looks” but on the straights Deano’s car had the power to keep us at bay.  This resulted in another 2nd place… 

Having just returned from a test drive in Tims very smart T350t i thought I would share some of the photo’s.

Tim is a supporter of our racing and can be found at most of the race meetings, his company TJF Transport Ltd are a sponsor of ours, helping in the transportation of the engine etc.

Many thanks to Tim and all at TJF Transport for the support this season.

We arrived at snett, managed to get a 50 min test session booked for that afternoon prior to race day, and got out on track, the engine felt very strong, however tha car was not turning in to corners well, with a fair bit of understeer!!  During that test I managed to “cook” the brakes, a pad was binding in the left front caliper and caused it to overheat, thus boiling the fluid.  Then an air lock in the radiator caused a cooling hose to blow, depositing the coolant on the paddock floor, what else can go wrong??

Having fixed these little problems, it was day 2 and out for qually, we managed 3rd on the grid and were very happy indeed.

Race day.  After 6 laps having some fantastic racing and holding on to third, with the very fast Mark Hockin just behind me, and Howard Bryan well behind him, i suffered brake fail whilst trying to brake for Russell Esses, travelling at about 125mph and finding that your brakes have become somewhat spongey is not a feeling I recomend. (video to follow)  After “kissing” the armco and watching the remaining laps from behind the armco, we found that the steering rack had been completely bent, enter Richard Wright of TEAM WRIGHT RACING, who lent us a new rack, Clive and I fitted, used a few cable ties to hold the bonnet down, and we were looking ready for race 2.

Starting at the back of the grid because of a DNF race 1 expectations were not high, however, we had a trouble free race and managed to secure a podium with a 3rd place.  Happy Days.

Having collected “THE  NEW CAR” from Holden Racing, and been out at a very cold Brands and silverstone for a few sessions behind the wheel, I began to look forward to the season ahead with regards to car prep.  So, the car went to Moore Racing just before christmas to have the engine and gear box removed, this done, i collected an “empty” car, the box went to Drenth to be measured so the sequential could be fitted correctly, and the engine went to Grantura Engineering in Blackpool to be refreshed!!!

 This is where it started to go wrong, Drenth, based in holland are a fantastic company, however, like all succesfull motorsport companys there is a bit of a delay around Jan/feb as everyone wants work done, I am told 75%of motorsport income for engineering companys is generated in the first three months of the year!!! Things were starting to get a little tight for time, the engine was back from Grantura, bright red paint job and looking great, we were still waiting for the sequential from Drenth, who also had our H pattern box.  Eventually, the box returned from holland, the car was returned to moore and all looked good for testing prior to Cadwell.  Just when we seemed to getting somewhere moore racing wrote off the Dodge Viper they run in testing at silverstone, this meant they unable to do any other work on our car. 

 The car went to Owen Developments of Oxford, to be run in on the rolling road and the ECU mapped, this took a little longer than expected.  When finally finished “on the rollers” it was ready for setup and testing, however, moore were having issues with “the viper” and our car could not be seen……………  This resulted in missing Cadwell Park (rounds 1&2) but fingers crossed for snetterton (rounds 3& 4).  Viper issues continued with moore and I began to wonder what was going on.  To cut a long story a little short, I collected our unfinished car, and with a lot of help from some very kind people, left the next day for Snetterton with a car that was un tested and not totally ready.  The theory being, use snett as a test, take it easy………