Cadwell - Sat 4 and Sun 5 Jun 05
The weather forecast for the Cadwell weekend had been changing all week, with rain guaranteed at some point. It started as I left home, and for the next 3 hours I covered just 100 miles, finally getting to Cadwell after 4 1/2 hours - during which time it never stopped raining. It stayed that way for most of Friday night, but was dry when we awoke on Saturday morning. With sunshine and wind, the track dried quite quickly, and was actually dry for qualifying. This went very well for me, and I went around with Jamie Robinson (26) and Kev Lucas (37). My lap timer was showing around 1 min 50.45 secs for a couple of laps, but I was alarmed to see Jamie's pit-board showing 1 min 49.8 secs - I thought that he must have had a better tow down the main straight since the 3 of us were pretty much equal. As it turned out my best 2 laps were 1 min 50.44 secs and 1 min 50.49 secs - consistent as ever! Those times qualified me 7th on the grid for both days. Kev managed 3rd and 6th, whilst Jamie was 9th both days (perhaps the fast times displayed on his pit-board spurred me on!)
Despite occasional showers during the day, Saturday's race was dry although there were a couple of spots of rain during it. My super start technique worked well again, and I quickly pulled alongside Declan McDonnell (27) who was 5th on the grid directly in front of me. By the first corner I was slightly ahead of Declan, and trying to leave him room by keeping on the very left of the track. He suddenly dropped back and slightly clipped my rear right wing, causing no damage, but leaving a nice black tyre mark! Declan said afterwards that the car to his right had not left him any space and had moved over on him, nudging him into me. By this point I was up to 6th place and happy! Going down the back straight I could see Brett (41) and Jamie in my rear view mirror. I carefully stayed to the right of the track to block off the line for Park corner. Or so I thought. As we got into the braking area, I suddenly found Jamie on my inside, finding a few feet of track that I thought I had blocked off. Very frustrating - especially as he had done that to me last year, and I was expecting it! Oh well. Back down to 7th place, Declan overtook me on lap 2, leaving me in 8th place where I stayed for the rest of the race. Not as boring as it sounds though, as I was never more than 0.5 secs away from the car in front, and at the end, the top 8 cars finished within 5 seconds of each other - incredibly close and very tiring. I also notched up a new fastest lap for myself of 1 min 50.17 secs, which was 5th fastest in the race. Brendan Dudley went on to win - well done!
The rain came in on Saturday night, and stayed throughout Sunday morning. Races were delayed and there were some red flag incidents. Our race was delayed, and although there was only light rain when we started, the track was waterlogged, with standing water on the start/finish straight, and the track on the Mountain very slippery. I got an absolutely superb start despite the waterlogged track. And no, I'm not going to share my secrets on how to do it, but it does not involve going before the lights! I was up to 5th place by the first corner, and managed to only lose 1 place on the first lap - again to Jamie, although this time he out-braked me into Mansfield - a brave move which slowed us both down considerably to avoid coming together. We crossed the line to start lap 2 with the first 6 cars nose to tail. At Park corner, Jamie and Lee Baverstock (33) tangled, and I was immediately behind them - it appeared to be just "one of those things", with neither party particularly to blame. I braked hard to avoid them, and would have been successful, except I was tapped from behind, forcing me gently into the back of Jamie and spinning me sideways. I was then hit hard by someone else from behind, throwing me way off the track. I re-started in last place, not knowing the state of the car, except for the fact that the steering wheel was about 45' out from where it had been! Expecting just to return to the pits, I tried the car out, and found that it seemed to be responding well. So I kept going, albeit in a foul mood! The last car not involved in the incident was some 15 seconds ahead of me as we crossed the line to start lap 3, and I managed to reel them in quickly, overtaking 4 of them by the end of the race. Finishing 19th was not what I had hoped for that day. Brendan Dudley went on to win again - well done on a double win!
Neither of the people who had hit me came to see me after the race. In that situation the least I would expect is for the 2nd person to find me to make sure that I was physically OK, having hit me so hard. And I would expect both to apologize - I now have expensive and time consuming repairs to make. Maybe I have an over-developed sense of right and wrong, but I don't think so - this is just good manners, it is to me anyway. I found out who hit me 2nd by checking nose-cones (and I'm not about to name names). He said that he had done karting for 10 years and was used to driving an inch off the car in front. It seems to me that racing must therefore be very different as you need to be able to look 50-100 meters ahead as well as one inch, so that you can avoid incidents. He also claimed that he was hit from behind into me. However the minimal damage on the rear of his car does not appear to equate to how hard he hit me, nor the damage I sustained. As for the chap who hit me first, I have a fair idea who he is from track positions and what other people said. He also had a damaged nose-cone, although there was no colour for me to confirm my thoughts.
My final words on this incident are these: This is not a stepping stone to Formula 1. No careers are going to be made here. We do this for fun, and most of us struggle hard to pay our own bills. It is a very social championship, and we are almost all friends, and therefore show good manners towards each other, apologising when we make mistakes. Enough said.