Brands Hatch - 15th June 2008 - Rounds 4 & 5

Brands Hatch finally arrived after a long break and even though I couldn't make the test day on Thursday with all the other drivers in the series I was still quietly confident of a good result.

We arrived at the circuit early Sunday morning with the sun starting to shine already to sort the sponsors logo's on the car and for my Wife Tina and my Mother in law Sheila to prepare the Hospitality suite.
We had approximately 48 sponsors and another 15 Friends and Family coming to watch.

I went out on the circuit with new tyres fitted and slowly got some heat into them.
After about 10 laps I came in for the pressures to be checked and reset. I then went out to get some quick laps in and my times were yo-yoing with the top 6 drivers.
I came in the pits again for the understeer in the handling to be sorted and the front wing was lifted so I went out again but the car was still not handling right.

I eventually finished 4^th on the grid with a time of 45.330.
The car was rechecked and the wing settings put back to how they were at the start.

Race 1

I started the warm up lap to get some heat in the tyres and formed up on the grid.

I made a fairly good start and slotted in behind a fast starting Chris Needham in 4^th place and spent the next few laps trying to stop Neil Tofts getting past me until there was no stopping him going into Paddock Hill bend.
I maintained a gap of approx 3 seconds for a while and then found the gap reducing once we started to go through back markers.
I started to set some quick laps and the gap was coming down between myself and 2^nd and the 3^rd place drivers.

I noticed Neil had about 3 attempts to lap John Goate who seemed oblivious to any one lapping him. It was my turn to get past him and as we entered Surtees bend I was right behind him thinking he had seen me. As we went round Clearways corner Goate moved out wide which allowed me to go inside but as we were side by side he turned in on me hitting my wheels and causing him self to crash into the tyre wall.
I thought I got away with it until I tried to turn and felt the car wanting to go straight on.

Thanks to Goate my race was ruined and ended with a slow drive back to the pits.

Mike and Dan from Mark Bailey Racing did a great job of getting the car ready for the next race, they worked flat out and managed to straighten and strengthen the suspension with no new parts available.

Race 2

The second race was restarted after only two laps due to a driver spinning at Druids and was in a dangerous position.

I made a great start getting up to 2^nd on the first lap and holding off Ed Jowsey, Chris Needham and Neil Tofts with a car that understeered quite bad due to the car needing more work on the front steering and suspension.
After about 6 laps of heavy defending it was only going to be a matter of time until they came past me and Ed Jowsey doing just that and diving down the inside of me going into Druids with Chris Needham following.
I tried to stay with them but the car was getting worse and it wasn?t long until I was defending against Joe Crook for 5^th.

Joe Crook tried to out brake me going into Druids but spun and collected me with him. Another race and another incident.
We both managed to get going again and the car was now over steering coming out of the corners as well as understeering going in.
It was a case of just getting the car to the finish which I did and ending with a 7^th place.

This weekend of activities has dropped me to 7^th in the championship now thanks to the blinkered John Goate.

The next race is 5 weeks away at Anglesey near Holyhead so the car will be all prepared and ready to do battle again.