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Castle Combe - 17th April We arrive at Combe to be greeted by blue skies, the weather forecasts all said that today will be dry and after the previous meeting I really wanted a dry one. We get to the circuit around 7.30am and find ourselves a pitch and get setup, this takes us about an hour to get everything ready for the day. The car has been setup already but on finial inspection on Sunday night I noticed some play in the rear wheel bearings. I made a emergency dash to my uncles Sunday night and borrowed his massive socket set and a 6’ iron bar, I couldn’t do the bearings on Sunday night so we had to wait for the morning of the race meeting. The wheel bearings have to be tightened to a 200ft/lbs of torque which is a big number, however with me hanging off the iron bar we get them tight and the play removed. Just as well because the first thing the scruitneer did was check for play on the rear! The car sailed through scruiteerning again and we were clear to go. Today meeting included 3x45minute classic car racing so the paddock was full of some fantastic classic machinery. The weather kept threatening to rain but apart from getting a bit cooler it was staying dry. The call for our practice/qualifying comes over the tanoy and we make our way to the assembly area. We have to setup the newly fitted gear indicator ready for getting out on track. You need to "teach" it what rpm + speed relates to which gear. We get ushered onto the track and I wait for the indicator to show me to change gear which of course it doesn’t….don’t you just love electronics! I give it one more go but it still isn’t having any of it so I abandon it and get on with qualifying. There are 23 cars in our race this time so the track is quite busy, it seemed everytime I got a half decent lap stringed together something go in the way. I had taken a gamble on the suspension settings and set the car up a lot softer than I’ve run before. The good news is that the car is riding the bumps really well now, but the rear was a bit loose on the exits of corners. Ok it was quite fun sliding the car around but it wasn’t helping the lap times. After about 6 laps I finally get some clear track as I cross the line, up over Avon Rise to be greeted with a red light and waved red flags..bugger! Mark Funnel in his very quick Lotus Exige has suffered some form of suspension failure and was parked on the exit of the Esses. We get held on the grid until the Exige is removed and we can resume qualifying. Knowing that I have to get a time in I carve my way through the "slower" cars and finally get a clear bit of track, I put in a 1:13.8 which is 2/10th’s quicker than my personal best. The new suspension setup is helping a lot but I think I can improve it still. I get one more lap in I catch up another car coming into Camp so I don’t improve on that time. The qualifying times are released and I am positioned 12th which isn’t to bad. Fellow competitor Simon Tilling in his Clubsport is 4/10th’s of a second ahead of me in 11th. Both Justin and Barry go through the car after qualifying and make sure all the fluids are right, wheel nuts are tight, tyre pressures are correct etc. I make the rear suspension slightly stiffer by going up one click, not a massive change but I don’t want to mess up the car to much. Race time, we get called to the assembly area and wait to be directed to the grid. The green light on the pits lights up and we move onto the grid. After managing to stall it last time on the grid I am telling myself not to stall….probably not the best move as I got so nervous of stalling it I am sure I lost the feeling in my left leg! Anyway happily I didn’t stall this time and took off in a cloud of blue smoke on the green flag lap. I had missed this the first time and found it quite difficult to stay in formation as we progressed around the track. The safety car pulled off into the pits and the two lead cars kept pace to the line. The red lights go out and everyone floors it. I notice Simon on my right doesn’t get the best start, I on the other hand am away and tucked up behind the Westfield of Thomas Richardson. We go flying into Quarry for the first time and the feeling of having all those cars around you battling for position is amazing. I get on the gas early and tuck up behind Thomas again. Wow that Westie does go! I keep up the chase for about 4 laps and Thomas is just getting away from me. I am able to gain a bit around Tower and through Folly but he has the measure of me on the rest of the track. We come up behind the MR2 again and this is the end of my chase, lack of experience on my part dealing with traffic and partly to Thomas driving better than me. I loose some ground on Thomas and find myself a bit alone on track. However this gives me a chance to concentrate on my driving, I am missing the apex at Quarry every time for some reason so that is something I need to work on, the rest of the track I am pretty comfortable on. After about 6 laps I start to gain on one of the other competitors, the sight of them just made be go a bit quicker and within a lap I am up behind him. I muscle my way past on the entry to Tower corner and quickly pull away from him. I was keeping a eye on my mirrors expecting the leaders to come past but I didn’t see them until lap 11, then Tony Sinclair came past in his Jade and then some time later another Jade driven by Guy Woodward but that was it. After about 12 laps I was starting to feel worn out, the effort to drive these cars flat out is amazing. I catch up and pass another competitor on the run into Camp corner and then to my surprise I am catching Guy in his Jade, he must have some sort of problem but I am not going to miss the opportunity to overtake a Jade in my little Radical. So I nip past him, going into Tower on the last lap, he did have a problem...no brakes. I cross the line to finish 9th and also set a personal best time of 1:12.8 so very happy with that. The top 7 cars we all in 1:09s and below so they are out of reach of my Radical but I would like to of kept up with Thomas and his Westie. Next race is on 1st May so looking forward to that! Big thanks to everyone that came out to watch the race and give their support!
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