6th October

Well it’s the final round of the Castle Combe Special GT Championship. So far we’ve had a good season with some fantastic results off set with the odd average one. That said I am currently running 2^nd place in the class, Shane Marshal has 1^st tied up already as the points gap is to large to make up in one race. However my rival of 2007, Simon Tilling, is hot on my heels and only 2 points behind me. This means I have to finish behind him to maintain my position in the championship, all good fun.

The day starts gray and a bit miserable looking but the forecast says its going to stay dry, this is good news for me (not so for Simon who is very quick in the wet). I’ve been working on the car over the last couple of weeks sorting out a few of the issues we had from the last meeting. The main one was to make the car a bit more compliant to drive. Easiest thing to do was to reset the dampers back to a known setting. The second was from a recommendation of a fellow Radical owner , Jon-Paul Ivey, which was to fit a slightly larger steering wheel to combat the nervousness of the car. With no testing again this was going to be a bit of a gamble but I can always throw the old wheel back on before the race if it doesn’t work in qualifying.

Again at this meeting the GT’s have been split into 2 races, one for the sports cars and one for the modified/production cars. However for the first time we are also qualifying separately which is great news. Our qualifying gets underway at 9.15am, the first couple of laps was spent bedding in the new front tyres, which I had to purchase after flat spotting the old ones at the last meeting fighting with Simon. After than I set about getting a decent time in, usually with the combined qualifying you get caught out at least once on a quick lap. I was hoping this wouldn’t be the case today but I was wrong. One of the drivers though he was racing me and wouldn’t let me past, this wasted a couple of laps, in the end I held right back until they were out of sight. Even then I caught them back up again within ¾ of a lap. Frustrating, however I still put in a low 1:07 so I was reasonably happy with that, although I wanted to get into the 6’s before the end of the season. The good news was the car was much better over the bumps although the rear was slightly soft which was causing it to spin up out of Quarry. The new steering wheel also worked well, thank J-P. After all that I had put the car on 6^th place on the grid with Simon one of ahead of me in 5^th.

Back to the pits and a quick adjustment on the rear dampers along with the usual pre-race preparation and we are ready for our 1:20pm start.

Race time soon comes around and we are on the grid waiting for the lights to go off. When they do I get another good start but Louis infront just holds me up slightly and I loose a few feet on the leading cars. Soon we are hammering up to Avon Rise, Simon is just behind me but has the inside line for Quarry. I find myself on the dirty side of the track at Quarry and loose a bit of ground. Simon gets a few cars lengths on me but my attention is drawn to a bright orange Juno SSO which is breathing down my neck. This is a very quick car with a lot of horse power. The next couple of laps has me working doubly hard to keep the Juno behind, another sideways exit out of Quarry and I think the driver of the Juno decides that I obviously want the position more and backs off slightly. With him dealt with I can concentrate on Simon…….I get my head down and very slowly start to make some ground on him. More so when we start to get into the back markers but I wasn’t making the progress I wanted.

For the championship I only had to stay where I was but we wouldn’t be racing if I didn’t want to win so my sights were firmly on Simon. Then my luck changes, one of the Jade drivers single-handily moved the tyre wall at Bobbies onto the track. This meant the safety car was deployed which enabled me to catch up with Simon. Unfortunately the driver in front of Simon, who was about to be lapped for a second time, didn’t realise that he was supposed to catch up with the train of cars. This meant there was a fair gap between myself and Simon and the next car, Louis Davidson. The marshals did a great job and quickly sorted out the tyre wall. The safety car pulled in and we started racing. The lapped driver caused me to loose some ground on Simon on the restart but I was determine to make a race of this. However my car had other ideas, exiting Bobbies the engine suddenly felt completely flat. Although it was still pulling it was like it had lost 50bhp. My heart sank, I needed to finish behind Simon or he would take second spot from me. I nursed the car which was sounding really rough now, gear changes were a very hit and miss affair, the bottom end was flat and it wouldn’t rev beyond 9000rpm…argh!! I only had 3 laps to do now but I wasn’t sure if the car was going to make it, my lap times had dropped by 3 seconds now. Keeping a eye on my mirrors I could see John Ally gaining on me, he was in my class and could also help Simon to 2^nd place. On the last lap John was within a few seconds, I did everything I could to nurse the car home while keeping John behind me. There was a big sense of relief when I crossed the line for the final time and took the chequered flag. The car had got me home, and for that I was very grateful. I had also secured 2^nd place which I was very happy about, although I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t a better race.

Its be an entertaining season, for that I have to thank Simon who has kept me under pressure all the way, between you and me I was a tad nervous today. The team has achieved a great result from a very limited budget and through the commitment of a few people to constantly improve the car. Thanks to everyone that has been involved this year, this result is for you!

So what’s next? Well first things first find out where that power went? I was planning to refresh the engine this winter anyway. Second is to develop the car over the winter as next year the plan is to win the championship outright. If this year is anything to go by its going to be the biggest challenge we’ve tackled yet but I have the confidence we can do it.

March 2008 – here we come!