16th September

Well here we are at Castle Combe again, with the oil pressure problems I am not feeling to confidant about today’s race. However we set about getting the car prep’d for the days racing and hope that the engine will last the day. Qualifying was late today at 11am so we had plenty of time to double check everything on the car. The plan for the qualifying was to do 4 gentle laps to get the car up to temp and then return to the pits for a check. Last thing I want to do is have a oil leak and cover the track in Sikolene! Qualifying starts and I take it very easy for 4 laps keeping one eye on the oil pressure and the other on the track. The pressure is still hitting 100+psi when I go above 4000rpm, this is making me very nervous. This wasn’t helped by the fact I wasn’t getting any decent oil temp. On the 4^th lap I head for the pits where Justin, Dave and Barry are waiting for me. They whip the back off and do a check for leaks etc. Barry in the mean time taped up half of the oil radiator in an attempt to get some heat in the oil. Thanks to Neil for this tip. The guys put the cover back on and I am heading out on track. I do about half a lap and the pressure is still high, but the oil temp is now starting to come up. I decide to take the risk and floor the car, the oil pressure goes up to 100psi again then starts falling as the revs pass 8000rpm. Within a couple of corners the oil pressure was back to normal at 75-80psi, I was so relived to see this. Now that was cured I needed to get a lap time in, I put my head down and put a time of 1:11.6 straight away which filled me with confidence. I just start my second flying lap and red flags came out and the session was stopped. A bit annoying but then I had got a respectable time, this time put me 15^th on the grid of 30 cars so not all bad.

The race was at 4.30pm and after the trials and tribulations of the morning I was starting to look forward to it. There was still a question mark over the engine but I wasn’t going to let this dampen my spirit. For the first time we had a full grid of cars so this was going to be an interesting start. The rolling start was good this time and I got a flyer, I stuck to the inside of the track and made up 3 places into Avon Rise. Because of my positioning I was a bit slower into Quarry and I lost the 3 places I just made up. I almost lost my noise to the V8Star car, which from the drivers seat in the Radical looks like an arctic truck! I am sure he could run over me and not notice! Anyway back to the race, I am still very much in touch with the cars in front. I am feeling very comfortable with the car and I am chasing down Mark Funnel in his Lotus Exige, a Prosport LM5000 and the V8Star. The lap times are soon in the 1:12/1:11’s, the LM and V8Star pull away a little from me and Mark and this triggers the best battle I’ve had on track so far. For 7 laps we were nose to tail around the Wiltshire track, the power of the supercharged Honda engine would pull away on the straights but I’d make it back on the brakes and cornering. We got very close on a couple of occasions but Mark always gave me racing room. On lap 8 there is a small shunt in the Esses and the safety car comes out and bunches every one up. Lap 10 the safety car goes over the rise next at Westway and out of sight. As I come out Westway a short time later I notice that the safety car had pulled in. To see a empty track with just Mark and me on it was a little annoying to say the least. Next time I hope the safety car will give us a bit more warning. Back to the race and all systems normal with me chasing the back of Mark’s Lotus Exige. After a number of attempts I finally get the better of Mark going into Tower on lap 13. I get my head down in an attempt to get away from the awesome Exige. The next lap the track was empty so I just kept my foot down, soon Mark was a good few second behind and I was gaining on a lapped car. Little did I know that this lap(14) was going to be my quickest ever lap around Castle Combe in a car. I broke the timing beam in a amazing 1:09.7 which is some 1.3 seconds quicker than I’ve done in the past. It also moved me in to the Elite sub 1:10s lap group and considering the Clubsport is the smallest capacity car out there I was very very happy with it. The final lap I got past the lapped can and crossed the line to finish 11^th overall and 4^th in class. Considering how badly the day had started it finished on a massive high, I was still smiling the day after the meeting. Thanks to everyone that helped to get the car to the start line, particularly Joe for his hard work on the engine and Justin helping me remove/refit the engine. Also to Barry and Dave for there help on the day. Finally thanks to my sister and her crew for the moral support and to everyone that popped by the pit to say hi!

Here’s looking forward to the last meeting of the year on the 7^th October.