Silverstone National 26^th March, 2006

Last year my race at Silverstone National circuit had been compromised by a decision not to test as we had raced on the longer Grand Prix circuit only six days earlier. This had proved to be a mistake as we ended up having the wrong gear ratios for the race.

This year we decided to go shorter on the gears and do the test session a couple of days before the race. Having not driven the race car since the previous October it was very good to get back behind the wheel and even better to post quick laps straight away. Unfortunately we burnt out the clutch and this brought our testing to an early close but we did manage to select a good gear ratio mix and posted the second fastest time of the day (on used tyres).

Race day came around and of course it was wet... my racing career seems to have more wet debuts than a 16 year old boy at his first school dance... By the time we had our Qualifying session the rain had stopped but the track had dried. With memories of planting the car into the pit wall at Donnington in similar conditions (and rather harder in a separate incident at Silverstone) I decided to qualify on wets. This was the right decision until the last lap when a dry line allowed the slick shod cars to go quicker. Having been 2nd for most of Qualifying I eventually ended 6th on the grid. A special mention should be given to Mark Harrison who qualified 3 seconds ahead of 2nd placed John Hanline.

I had a great start when the lights went green and managed to get up to 3rd by the first corner. I couldn't believe my luck and kept my toe in as we headed up towards Beckets. On the National straight I was able to look in the mirrors and see that there was no challenge from the cars behind so I concentrated on the battle in front. Mark and John were dicing for 1st and at one point John got passed only for Mark to take the position back the lap later. I tried to stay calm and waited for my moment, this came on lap 5 when I managed to overtake John Robberts on the inside at Beckets. From then on I did my best to catch Mark but finished the race 1.6 seconds behind him.

Mark and I had traded fastest laps throughout the race but in the end the 2005 Champion beat me with 58.638 vrs my best lap of 58.750... close enough to put a smile on all the boys faces.

A big thanks to the Nemises boys and also to Muzz Racing who helped out on the test day.