Brands Hatch 22^nd and 23^rd July, 2006

I was obviously full of confidence going to the Brands Hatch weekend having won at Spa only two weeks earlier. What I wasn’t to know was what a very strange weekend was to lie ahead.

On Friday morning we had a throttle jam in the first session so we had to work on that. It was Brands where I destroyed my first race car with a jammed throttle so there wasn't much point in tempting fate. I managed a flying lap at the end of the test session and did a 49.4 second lap (faster than I had been round Brands before) on a single lap so I was happy. In the second test session I did a 47.9 on the third lap and felt this was almost too easy (47.4 is our class lap record) and I was pushing the Club F3 boys through paddock. I was taking Surtees flat and thinking that it felt allot easier after having bagged the win at Spa. On the next lap I had a big moment on the braking point for Clearways when the back stepped out. Which I just caught. The session was then red flagged, and when I came into the pits we took 8lbs out of one of the fronts and 3lbs out of the other tyres. On the restart I did a couple of low 48's and we were pretty happy with the results, given we were on old tyres. In the afternoon session the car stopped on track with fuel starvation problems. Later we found out this was due to the high temperature. This ruined our testing for the rest of the day but given the morning times, we were pretty confident of a front row qualifying and good race results. 

On Saturday morning we had a hot and dry qualifying and I just couldn't get any front grip. I qualified 5th with a poor 48.9 sec lap. This was with the rubber we used for 1 race at Spa so it should have been better than our practise set (although all in front and 2 cars behind were on brand new sets). I had a decent start to the race which was run in overcast/spitting conditions and I was soon up to 3rd, behind Mark Harrison who was leading from Jeremy Timms. Neil Harrison then got past me when I was held up by a back marker (a nasty trend of late) and I spent the next few laps fighting with Neil for 3rd/4th. We then came across Mike Kremzer on the pit straight and under Blue flags Neil dived to the right of Mike as I went high and to the left. Unfortunately, rather than hold his position, Mike then moved left to give Neil room, in doing so banged wheels with me and put me onto the grass on the fast 135mph approach to Paddock Hill bend. Luckily I managed to control the car and get back on the track, but I never managed to regain the lost ground to Neil. I finished the race in 4th.

On Sunday we decided to put the practise front tyres on as the set we raced on the day before were completely ruined. This didn't help much and again we had a poor qualifying result, finishing P5 with a replica of the Saturday grid. For the race we decided to take a radical approach to solving the under steer problem and went for a large reduction in rear wing angle, at the same time coming up a few notches on the front wing. This changed the aerodynamic balance of the car by taking away grip from the rear wheels in an attempt to cure the under steer. The race was run under the full heat of the day and it felt like running a marathon in a Sauna. I had a good start again but didn't manage to make up any places so settled into a 30 minute duel with Geoff Fern, which was very close but fair racing. We were never more than a few millimetres apart even, when we had to overtake back markers. I finished the race in 5th with the third fastest lap behind Mark Harrison (who won again) from his brother Neil, then Jeremy Timms and Geoff Fern. The top six cars lapped the entire grid, and the top 5 finishers were separated by only 8 seconds after 30 minutes of hard and hot racing.

We have never been to an event where the fastest the car goes all weekend is the 3^rd lap of the first practise session. I think the extreme hot weather disguised the problem we had with our set up. This being the UK I doubt we will have a recurrence of this situation. Obviously I am disappointed to come away with a 4^th and a 5^th result but if 5^th is the worst result we have this year then we have no reason to complain. I know a guy in Maidenhead that races regularly in the Classic Clubmans series and he has never finished a race without being last, now that’s perseverance. 

I’m still second in the championship but the gap has grown between Mark in the lead and me. Roll on Anglesey in four weeks time, one of my better result circuits.