The weekend started early for me - leaving home at 7am on Friday morning to get to Cadwell for Friday afternoon testing.  3 x 30 minute sessions were put to good use as I clocked up a best time of 1 min 17.23 secs (my best last year was 1:18:66 so that was good!)  The car suffered just one gremlin - as I started it up for the 2nd session, a rattling noise was heard from the front of the engine.  After a bit of head-scratching, I noticed that the nut that held the alternator pulley on had come loose.  Why?  It has been fine for the last 1 1/2 years...  Anyway, duly tightened, the car was fine all weekend.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny, and unlike last year, the conditions for both qualifying sessions were pretty much identical.  I managed to get out 2nd in session, and duly overtook Danny Cassar (24 - with new colour wings) at the end of Park Straight on lap 1.  Brian Mitcham (64) soon sailed past as I realised that I was down on power on the main straight in 4th gear - everywhere else I was fine.  I could catch people in their slipstream, but when I pulled out to overtake them, I couldn't make it stick.  Frustrating, but I qualified 5th which was excellent.  Our 2nd fastest qualifying time was used for the grid for Sunday's race - another 5th place, so as ever, good consistency.  Des (18) gained his 1st ever well deserved pole with a 1 min 15.54 sec lap - his testing on Friday afternoon had gone even better than mine!

We had time on Saturday afternoon to watch the heat race, prior to our final.  A couple of accidents on the exit of the Gooseneck saw Jon Glover and Fred Wheeler tangle in the crash barrier.  Both drivers were OK, however their cars weren't.  Both seemed to be mainly cosmetic, although badly so on both rear ends.  Brendan Dudley (38) won the heat with excellent drives from Jamie Robinson, Paul Bryant and Rob Fitter.

Saturday's final was quickly upon us.  In 5th place, I had  Nick Lear (70) directly in front, with pole sitter Des Fairbairn (18) in front of him.  My plan was to follow them as best as possible, and not to let Simon Read (7) or Brian Mitcham (64) in (they were off to my right in 2nd and 4th places).  As ever, no plan survives contact with the red lights.  I followed Des and Nick well, but before the first corner, Brendan Dudley (38) had overtaken me from 10th place.  In the next few laps, I think Kev Lucas (37) and Danny Cassar (24) overtook me using the tow on the straight, but then we both re-took Danny.  Only then for Brett Townsend (41) to overtake me on the straight - I had been too busy trying to overtake Kev to notice Brett coming.  I then spent about 5 frustrating laps following Brett.  I was a lot faster than him everywhere except the straight, which is really the only place to overtake!  I finally got him on lap 10 when he went wide into the hairpin.  As we went down the main straight he pulled alongside on my outside - oh yes, I was protecting that inside line!.  As we reached Park corner, we saw a waved yellow flag, and both backed off, with Brett conceding the corner to me (rightly - I had suffered a similar fate with Brian at Donington).  On reaching Chris Curve I found 4 stationary cars in front of me, facing in various directions, and with differing degrees of damage.  Threading my way through them, I accelerated past the next marshall's green flag - and found myself in 2nd place.  As I went past the timekeeper's hut at the end of that lap, they held out the Last Lap board.  I looked in my rear view mirror, and saw a healthy gap back to Des.  I was sure I could make it around 1 lap without him catching me.  Sadly, half way around the lap, the red flags came out due to the situation at Chris Curve.  My dream was shattered!  The Clerk of the Course interviewed the 4 drivers involved, and we had a long wait to find out which lap would be taken as the result.  I lost out twice.  It was not the lap I finished 2nd on, but the previous one - yes the one where I overtook Brett on the exit of the hairpin, so the result shows him beating me.  Not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Still, another 5th place for me.  Huge congratulations to Des Fairbairn for a fine win - it couldn't happen to a better or nicer team (Des, Mike and Al racing - the most helpful people in the paddock)  With my hopes of a trophy dashed again, I found some lager to console myself.  A quickest lap of 1 min 16.96 secs did help a bit.

Sunday was a relaxed start, in fact the final wasn't until 1pm in the end.  To fill in the time, we had a Locost photo - 30 cars looked good:

Thanks to Des and Al for the photo!

The Locost heat was another brilliant race, with the lead changing repeatedly.  Brendan made safe and steady progress from last place on the grid to win it, but he had to work for it.  Jamie Robinson in particular was well on the pace, and proved difficult for even Brendan to overtake!  Jamie finished 2nd in the end.

Sunday's final saw the top 5 on the grid in the same order as Saturday, with the same plan for me!  A slightly better start saw me lose out up the hill to Kev and then down the straight to Danny.  Jamie had made an excellent start, and took me on the way into Park with a superb late braking move.  The track was incredibly slippery - perhaps the heat was affecting us all.  Nick Lear (70) unluckily spun off at the exit of Charlies 2 on lap 2, and had a hard impact with the tyre wall.  He was fine, but his chassis was badly damaged.  I think it was the next lap that Danny went wide at Park allowing me through, and Jamie and I then had a great battle for about 5th place, with good clean battling as we swapped places a few times.  A the end of Park straight he was alongside me, on the inside line, but not quite far enough to make it stick.  I saw him back off in my mirror - good clean driving remember - and then I turned into the corner - bit nothing happened.  I just understeered straight off the track and bounced along the grass for a bit, before spinning completely across the track and ending up unscathed on the grass on the inside of the track.  Re-starting the engine, I had to wait for, I think, 7 cars to go past in total before I was able to get going.  Well I had something to prove at that point.  I re-took 3 places to finish 9th in the end.  Particular thanks to Rob Fitter (34) who I overtook on the penultimate lap, who made life difficult for me whilst again keeping it clean and safe.  So 9th place was a good result, serves me right for a silly spin.  Yet more congratulations to Des, who took his 2nd win - this time with no red flags to dampen his spirit.  A pucker, genuine, fair and square win - even though it does put him up to 5th in the championship ahead of me!  Despite that, I have still moved up in the championship overall - to 6th place.

More photos to follow in the gallery when I have time!  See you all at Brands Hatch on Sun 27 Jun.....