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Monday 1st May - Castle Combe - Special G.T’s & Race 3: |
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We had new slicks on for today,
replacing the ones we trashed at Silverstone. So, in the first qualifying
session, which was for the GT’s, I’d need to put in just 5 laps to get the
tyres up to temperature and pull into the pit lane for Terry to check them
over and then back out again to get some good times. Well, good plan but
didn’t quite work out though. On my fifth lap, I narrowly avoided a jade
which span out at Quarry, unfortunately, the mallock behind me couldn’t
and went straight into the side of the jade. Luckily, no one was hurt but
there was a fair bit of damage and our session had to be stopped. 1min
19.4 secs put me 2/3rds of the way back on the grid for the race. Next out for qualifying was the Tuscan’s and feeling pretty confident I finally managed to break through the barrier of the best time I’d set here a year ago. 1min 12.7secs, almost half a second quicker. It’d been a long time coming but I felt that last years problems were well and truly behind me now. In the GT race, I went pretty well. Overtaking a number of places that started higher up on the grid than me and I had a good battle with the Opel V8. I couldn’t find a way past unfortunately but this race has set me up perfectly for the Tuscan Challenge to follow. The Tuscans were the last race of the day. The weather had threatened to rain but thankfully it stayed dry and we were ready for the red lights to go out for the start of the race. Tim, in front of me, got off to a slow start which held me up too. I could see the cars to the left of me getting past and I lost of couple of places straight away. In order to get back up towards the front, I booted it up Avon Rise, squeezing past Marc Hockin on the outside and turned in perfectly for Quarry. Perfectly, all except that I now seemed to be going greatly quicker than Hugh Marshall who was suddenly directly in front of me. On the apex to Quarry it became apparent that I was going to hit the back of him if I didn’t brake sharply. I hit the brakes - too hard! The flipped around and I only just managed to control the spin and settled on the grass verge. Big thanks to Marc Hockin who just managed to get past me without being collected but it was a very close thing. Somewhat annoyed with myself, I was now in last position and a long way behind. I had nothing to loose now though and everything to gain. This spurred me on to drive with a controlled aggression and my lap times went straight down into the 1min 12secs area as I clawed back place after place. I got a little held up trying to get passed Dean Cook but once through, I put in my quickest time of 1min 12.3 secs. What a fantastic race and it felt great. I was relaxed yet totally focused and was really pleased despite finishing in 5th place. This should bode well for the rest of the Season now and I feel quite excited about it.
This race has also been filmed, and
is yet to be shown on Race and Rally UK (On Sky's 'Motors TV') so we will
put an update with a viewing link as soon as it is available. |
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