Following the recent 750MC test at Mallory Park I knew that I was about 1.5s off the pace but I knew that there was more to come from myself and the car with some more front end grip. A new set of tyres on the front and the car was much more positive through Gerrards in qualifying. I was soon able to push and set some reasonably quick times until oil was on the track through the hairpin that soon spread around the track. I was disappointed not to have been able to complete the session as I was hoping to get in to the 51sec bracket. It was of great surprise that I had qualified 3rd and all of a sudden the time and effort put in to getting the car ready seemed worthwhile. I didn’t let myself get too carried away as the times in the B session were slightly slow due to the oil on the track. With 2nd to 6th covered by 0.5s it was going to be a tough race.
I managed to get a good start, edging out Jason Mills and going side-by-side with Dan Hands through Gerrards. Ian Buxton had made a good start too and I ended up in third place behind Ian. I managed to keep up with Ian and Dan but on the second lap I couldn’t get 2nd gear coming out of the hairpin and lost about 6 car lengths to the lead pair. John Hughes managed to get past and I had a queue of cars climbing all over my gearbox. Two laps later and the same thing happened again. Now I had Pete Belsey and Martin Farmer right with me. A few laps later and Ian, Dan and John all went off at Devil’s Elbow which briefly put me in to the lead before John and Dan came back past. I was under a lot of pressure for third place from Martin Farmer and going in to Gerrards on the 11th lap I went in too deep and got on the slippy part of the track and lost the back of the car. Unfortunately for Martin he clipped my back wheel which sent him spearing off in to the tyres. I was extremely worried for Martin as he didn’t get out of the car but I was relieved to see him later in the paddock, a little bit sore but otherwise OK.
In summary it was a day of extreme highs and lows. In one respect, I can take comfort from the fact that I was able to keep up with the front-runners but the disappointment of thinking what might have been will remain with me for a long time.
