23rd June

Its seems like only yesterday we were standing in the same paddock getting ready to venture out on track. One thing today’s meeting and the last one share in common is the fantastic British weather, global warming my arse! That said by some freak of nature the day started dry-ish and depending on which forecast you saw there was a chance it might stay that way. The paddock seems to be completely over run with Minis and Caterhams and the FF aren’t that rare either. Thus everything was a bit cramped to say the least, I think Combe are becoming a victim of their own success and really need to look at improving the paddock. Simon Tilling from Tilling Motorsport allowed us to share his awning again this meeting which is great. We did make the comment the between we did look half-professional with both cars sat ready to go. So thanks again to Simon for letting us share the awning

So what have we changed from the last meeting….well until the 11^th hour nothing had changed. The car was running fine at the last meeting so the standard spanner check was all that was needed. The only thing the car suffered from was some oversteer exiting the slower corners, Quarry and Tower. I made the decision to soften up the rear slightly to try and give the tyres more chance to bite into the tarmac.

As usual the start of the meeting meant my normal trip to Merlin to "stock up" for the day ahead. In this case I was only after some brake fluid and tear-offs. Steve was a little perplexed to why the Arai tear-offs were so cheap so I was quick to pay for them and do a runner before he worked out how to charge me more! J

Qualifying was at 11am today and the track was still dry, there was rain in the air but it wasn’t anything to worry about. As been the norm this year we had a full GT grid which made qualifying very busy. A couple of times I had to abort fast laps because of slower cars. It’s the same for everyone, you just need to string another lap together until you get a clear one. Everything seemed ok and I put the car 7^th on the grid with a 1.07.4. Not to bad a time and better than my previous attempts this year.

There was quite a long delay before we were out on track so I took the opportunity to watch the Castle Combe Saloons doing their stuff. It was a entertaining race until the heavens started to open and a number of cars took to the grass on the exit of Camp, sure there was a number of overalls that needed cleaning after those moments. The race was cut short and as the cars the coming to the podium the heaven opened properly so probably a good call by the organisers. The poor guys in the Caterhams had the worse conditions and they also had a 30 minute race to look forward to. Fair play to the guys though, most kept it on the black stuff and showed some real commitment going through Folly. I didn’t see the end as I had to get back to the paddock to do the final checks on the car ready for our race.

By the time our race was due to start the rain had stopped and the track was dry again…there was even blue sky above the circuit. We got the warm up lap underway and made our way back to the grid ready for the start. I was a bit blocked in this time with a Jade to my right and a 650bhp Lola on my left, Simon was also directly infront of me. The red lights went out and I get a reasonable start and sit myself on the outside of Simon. He has a bit of a lock up going into Quarry so I give him some room which put me onto the marbles on the outside of the Quarry which made things a tad interesting. I regain "control" and fire off after Simon. The next couple of laps I keep within a second of Simon and Shane Marshal and start to settle into the race. By about lap 5 the car is starting to move around a bit more than usual on the rear. Add to that the Lola coming past and slowing me up through the Esses I start to loose contact with the Simon/Shane battle. Then disaster for Simon, Shane/Simon are lapping one of the back markers cuts across Simon causing him to spin at the Esses loosing him a whole heap of time. Lap 8 and things are getting loose, the car is sideways out of all the slower corners, Quarry, Bobbies and Tower. I try to drive around the problem but nothing is working….well going slower worked but that really isn’t an option. By lap 12 I am really starting to struggle with the car, although if I am being honest I was quite enjoying my drift car. Looking in the mirrors I seem Simon bearing down on my….fair play to him (and the red mist) but he must have driven like a man possessed to catch up. The lapped traffic is getting heavier and Simon is soon tucked under my exhaust pipe. I get the entry to tower wrong and everything goes sideways again and Simon cruses past. I do what I can to hang to his coat tails but he is driving far to well! I finally cross the line 5^th overall and 4^th in class. I was a little disappointed with the result, but it just shows how things have improved this year as if you’d have offered me a 5^th last year I would have grabbed it with both hands.

So what’s the plan to get the car back to how it used to be. Well I have a number of ideas to try, some of which are quite radical, no pun intended. I can hear the guys at Merlin rubbing their hands already.

The next meeting is Combe premier one and we are racing on the main day this year which is great. I will be hoping to do better than I did at this meeting and hopefully pick up another pot.

As usual thanks to my mate Justin and Barry for their help in the paddock. And to my family for the support on the day