Silverstone National 29th April, 2006

We were looking forward to going back to Silverstone having had a great result here the month before. The only potential problem was that the F1 teams had booked the track the week before our race and so there was no chance for us to do any testing. Of course it would have been unlikely that we would have changed anything on the car so the lack of testing shouldn't have been a big issue.

Qualifying was a bit disappointing as I was the only car to post a slower time than our last outing, this was because my tyres were at the end of there life and everyone else was on new rubber. Still I managed to place the car 6th on the grid and hoped to make a few places up in the race.

I got another great start when the lights went off and I went passed both Dave Dudley and Neil Harrison to be in 4th place by the first corner. I managed to easily hold on to 4th whilst slowly pulling out a lead on Neil who was behind me and Jeremy Timms behind him. In front of me was Geoff Fern in his new 'Mclaren' F4 and in front of him were Mark Harrison and Jim Blockley, both fighting over the lead of the race.

On lap five Mark and Jim ran into each other resulting in a yellow flag at the entry to Brooklands and Geoff was now in first place with me in second. I was quicker than Geoff but with the yellow flags out and now back markers being lapped it was going to be difficult to overtake. Then on lap seven the waved yellow flag was replaced by a white flag. This is to show a slow moving vehicle on the track but unlike a yellow, you can overtake when this flag is shown. Either Geoff didn't see the colour of the flag or he didn't realise the rule because he slowed and I went past into the lead of the race.

As I then entered the front straight I saw red flags being waved (the ambulance was the slow moving vehicle) and came to a stop on the exit of woodcote. The red flag was for an incident involving Alan Everitt and another competitor that resulted in Alan's car having a heavy impact on the start finish straight pit wall. The race was stopped for about half an hour while Alan was extracted from his damaged car and the track could be cleared of all damaged parts. As per the rules all the cars were then grided up in the order they were running 1 lap prior to the red flag, which meant Geoff Fern was on pole with me in second ahead of Neil Harrison and Jeremy Timms.

I was looking forward to the race start as I knew my car would out accelerate Geoffs into turn one and then I expected a fairly easy drive to win while Geoff spent the rest of the race defending his second place form Neil and Jeremy. Unfortunately this didn't happen.

As the lights went off I lifted the clutch and nothing happened.....nothing... I then reengaged first gear and tried again...nothing happened. Fortunately all the cars behind me went past without hitting the back of my stationary car as I went through the gearbox trying to find anything that would work. Long after the safety car went past I finally managed to launch the car in 4th and set off down the track cursing my luck and the fact that this wasn't the first minor component from Hewland Engineering to let me down.

I considered retiring from the race but as I knew Mark Harrison was out of the event I decided to keep going for as long as I could and try and overtake him in the championship points table. Surprisingly I managed to pass not only the safety car but another six cars, including an overtaking move on the last corner of the race. I eventually finished seventh and had the fourth fastest lap, only 3/10ths slower than my qualifying lap... not bad with only 4th and 5th gear working.

Fortunately I remain second in the championship behind new leader Geoff Fern, but I am gutted about the lost chance of a win.

Best wishes to Alan for a quick recovery and also to our friend John Hanline who has been ill recently.