12 April 2006

Brands Hatch race report

Well the long off season is finally behind us and it was good to meet up with everyone again as we kick of the 2006 racing season. The last one for the Clio's in their current guise with the all new Clio debuting next year. As one of the "old hands" now I should know how to get the best out of the car and in pre season testing we were really on the pace.

Come Friday we were looking very good and the confidence was growing, by Saturday night despair had taken over! Unfortunately a number of technical issues had intervened commencing with some broken wheel studs that curtailed the Friday testing, then in qualifying I was really struggling with the car through the right hand bends, especially Paddock Hill and that ruined our qualifying chances. This was latterly traced to a faulty front damper. This was replaced for the first race on Saturday afternoon and despite a 10th place start and a wild ride through the first corner courtesy of the erstwhile behaviour of my racing colleagues, we were going well until the driveshaft snapped during the fifth lap of the race. Oh dear, not the best way to commence a season but one has to look at these things phlegmatically, I guess and get these sorts of things out of the way early.

Race two on Sunday was held in cold conditions which always manages to create more than a little drama as drivers struggle to control the over steering nature of the Renault Clio, particularly on cold tyres. There was, as predicted spinners on the first lap and it was rather like a video game where one dodges around the obstacles, in this case wrecked cars, and this time, for once no one collected me and I was up to third by the fourth corner of the first lap from seventh on the grid. Thereafter it was one long game of cat and mouse as Paul Rivett struggled to keep Tom Onslow Cole and myself at bay. For lap after lap he was defending - and very well as it happens, from two faster cars and despite every effort the nut was not to be cracked, so to speak. With only 0.5 of a second covering the top three at the flag it was mighty close and a very good race, I also had the benefit of taking the fastest lap of the race so the weekend ended on the podium and the mood was thereafter, a lot sweeter.