RACE 2: After watching and looking at all of the weather forecasts that forecast torrential rain for sunday I decided to fit the full wets that I had when I was sprinting the car whilst the car was in the garage ( I took the car home on sunday) BIG mistake!! Although it pissed down for most of the journey up to Brands and for a bit while we waited for our race by the time we actually got out on track there was already a drying line starting to form
Anyway I was out there and had no choice other than not to race so I joined the grid behind the Nova of Graham Richardson and alongside the 3dr cossie of Peter Taylor who was behind the mk2 escort of Alex Ribbens.As the pack followed the safety car around Clearways I saw Rod Birleys' Escort wrc pass the safety car so thinking that the race was on I nailed it coming out of clearways passing several cars only to find that the lights were red
(unbeknown to me there were 2 safety car laps and Rod had pulled off because his car was broken) so a bit redfaced I anchored up and let the other cars back infront before the line and continued on the 2nd safety car lap,this time though the cars infront were ready for my move and didn't leave any room although I did pass the 3dr into paddock, as I came onto the cooper straight Alex Ribbens was off on the grass avoiding the Seat of John X so I managed to get past Alex and mr X and was making a move on another car when I was passed either side by mr Bahr and an escort cossie (I think)both cutting across the front of my car so sharply I had to brake ruining my overtake
(you can't go 4 abreast along the Cooper straight) and then spent the next lap defending against the recovering no 66 car eventually letting him past into paddock hill bend,on the next lap I was passed by Uncle Eric in his Fiesta I then spent the rest of the race just trying to stay on the track as I had no grip whatsoever,luckily I had enough of a buffer between me and the cars behind that they didn't catch me,I eventually finished 26th overall and 3rd in class D.At the awards ceremony I awarded the Quaife best prepared car award
..... My prize.... a Sealey torque wrench!This Season out of 16 starts in the Dunlop Saloon Car Championship I managed to gain:
1x 1st in class,
4x 2nds in class,
6x 3rds in class,
3x 4ths in class,
1x 5th in class.
And 1 non finish.
Which is enough for 9th overall in the whole championship and..................................................................2nd in class D.
I also took two class wins in the Barc Intermarques at the start of the year
Not bad for a bald,fat old git driving a totally self built car (also the lowest powered in class)in his first full seasons' circuit racing
Next and last race of the year,Brands Hatch on the 14th of Nov
The incident which DW has described must of happened just after I passed the #90 205 as DW must of been 6 or 7 seconds behind me at that stage! Anyway after 5 laps following the safety car the race continued (would of only been 4 IF a certain Nova driver had kept up with the pack like he's meant to
Let me know if you want tickets for the 14th,will be good to have some help
hopefully see you at Brands to lend a hand with the intermarque race 
so I just gave hime a very wide berth and kept my foot in and just drove around him and took up position with Terry following me through only to have an oil pipe (I think) burst at the end of the straight firing him off down the escape road! on lap 6 the xe powered nova just drove past me down hanger straight and although I caught and passed him through (you guessed) Bridge he got me back and made it stick on the last lap. I finished 2nd in class and 28th overall which meant that I had made up 18 places in 7 laps.Although I had gone side to side with most of the cars that I passed there was not 1 bit of contact
)
Leave a comment: