Mallory - Sun 20 Mar 05

Despite promises of good weather, there was a heavy mist when we woke up, which was borderline drizzle.  As a result, the track was definitely damp for the first of two Locost qualifying sessions.  Needless to say I was in the first session.  The track was drying though, and all drivers recorded their quickest time at the end of the session - Brian Mitcham was quickest with 1 min 00.14 secs, and I was 9th with 1 in 02.32 secs.  Not very happy, but then I'm never good in the wet at Mallory.  The "B" session went out on a dry track - their best time was Danny Cassar with 58.65 secs.  Since there was such a difference, the 750 Motor Club reorganised us, alternating an "A" then a "B". So instead of 26th, I was 18th - which still put me in 5th place on the grid for the Heat.

The track for the Heat was dry, and I was alongside Brendan Dudley on the 3rd row.  He got a better start than me, so I tucked in behind him and followed him through - to about 4th place by the first corner, which is Gerards, a very long, very fast right hander.  And then I surprised myself by over-taking Brendan on the outside!  In his defence, it soon became clear that he was down on power for the whole weekend.  By the end of Lap 1 I had overtaken a couple more and was in 2nd place as we crossed the line.  I got a good run around Gerards and pulled out from behind Stuart James's slip stream to take him into the Esses.  I was leading, and held it until entering the hairpin on the 3rd lap.  Comfortably ahead, and without undue pressure, I outbraked myself, missed 2nd gear, locked up and spun.  I was then facing the traffic, and had to watch 5 cars go past, before there was a gap and I could rejoin.  Frustrating, but the car was OK! 2 laps later I had caught the battle for 4th and 5th place between Mark Glover and Rob Palin.  As Mark led us into Gerards on lap 6, he went very sideways, forcing Rob who was directly behind him to brake.  I was slightly on the inside, and sailed through into 4th position!  On lap 7 I caught Stuart James and Brendan Dudley battling for 2nd and 3rd place, and again got a good run out of Gerards and overtook them both on the entry to the Esses.  So, at the start of lap 8, I was back up to 2nd place which was unexpected., but I was still almost 4.5 secs behind Nick Lear.  At the beginning of lap 10, I had reduced the gap to 2.12 secs, and was catching him fast.  However the race was red-flagged on lap 10 as Matt Cherington had hit the crash barrier in his attempt to miss a spinning Spencer Kemsley.  The result was thus declared at the start of lap 10, with Nick winning.  The final had 15 laps, so I could have had 5 more laps to chase down Nick.....

Having come 2nd in the heat, I was then 15th for the final, which was again dry.  I made a superb start, and the field opened up for me on the run to Gerards.  Expecting the inside to get clogged up with traffic, I risked the outside line.  This worked well, until 2/3 of the way around Gerards when Kevin Lucas got it very sideways and I had to brake to avoid him, then managed to get to the inside of the track.  The hairpin was a nightmare as normal for the 1st lap, but despite the tyre smoke, everyone seemed to get through intact.  By the end of lap 1, I had made it up to 11th place, and was again behind Brendan!  If memory serves me right, I overtook him coming out of Gerards on the run down to the Esses.  Lap 3 saw me overtake Dave Black - at the hairpin I think, or perhaps on the exit.  And there I stayed until lap 7, when I passed James Kmiecak who I think expired with a broken clutch.  I was now firmly on the group of cars from 3rd to 8th, split by just 1.5 secs.  I then got embroiled in a battle with Jamie Robinson for the remainder of the race - I forget how many times we overtook each other, or went around Gerards and the Esses together.  Absolutely no contact whatsoever, just proper clean Locost racing.  Nick Lear caught us up on the last lap, and the three Westfield Sports Car Club drivers crossed the line in 6th, 7th and 8th places - Jamie, Me, Nick, split by exactly a second.  Great fun was had by all.  I was especially pleased to have recorded the 3rd fastest lap of the day at 57.37 secs - my best ever at Mallory (an average of 85 mph).