Sooooo close to a first win at Silverstone

Well, what can I say…. a hugely stressful and tiring 2 weeks between Knockhill and Silverstone but it was worth it.

With only 2 weeks to play with the guys (and Liz) at Zen Performance with my help (and often hindrance) were putting in hours that really shouldnt exist in the day unless partying to get it ready along with getting their own race car ready for this round. Their commitment and determination is contagious as there were times when I would have given up and said sod it – it just aint worth it. It is though and they pulled me through. Red Bull and Coffee helped hugely too

The new Zen build engine using Lateral Internals was never going to get much running in before being used in anger for the first time but we had hoped for more than 50 miles ! It was not to be though but this wasnt a huge issue as it felt good and VERY strong and had much better oil pressure than the old engine ever had ! These guys really know how to build engines and with Laterals internals being proven at the highest level I was feeling confident it would cope with an early baptism of fire

The day before and it was finished with the ‘running in’ oil and time to swap to proper fully synthetic Millers 10/60 CFS (thanks Alyn at AS Performance) and time to sort a few other outstanding issues… namely brakes. New Performance friction PF07 compound had been fitted but they had opened up a small crack in the K Sport discs due to the heat that they generate from their awesome stopping power so it was necessary to swap discs to the compbrake discs that Zen had been using and re-bed the pads in on these. This cured the judder and would give me proper brakes for Silverstone – yay

Car, safely tucked away in the Zen garage overnight and it was time to party ! As it is the local event to Zen, Paul and Liz threw a barbeque for Team Zen and friends of Team Zen at their house. A simply superb evening with great friends full of nerves and anticipation for the day to come.

An early start, cup of coffee and away to the circuit in convoy with John Stevenson, Steve Darley, Julian (CJS Norwich) and time to set up the car and gear in the garage.

At the track we were met by Graham from Rapid Media who was going to be providing live in car video from my car and the Zen Performance pro car onto a huge 50 inch plasma screen in the pit garage. We had seen this system a few weeks earlier testing at Silverstone and both Paul and I loved it and how it could assist in seeing what was happening on track to help with pit turnaround time as well as improvements, spotting gaps in traffic and telemetry comparisons. Graham and his helper swiftly set up the cameras in our cars and the aerial on the roof of the building then out with the plasma screen. It was a great sight in the pit garage and looked the dogs danglies with a crowd of people around it all day. We also got the full days video afterwards – i will upload some shortly.

Session 1 – Warm Up
Julian jumped in with me in the warm up session and we headed out, laptop at the ready to check all was well with the car. It seemed fine but soon developed a misfire under boost, suspecting a popped hose I headed back into the pits to find the vacuum hose had come off the fuel pressure reg so it was running lean. Luckily running E85 Bioethanol the car coped fine with this and the only symptom was the misfire – no det or damage. Hose re-routed and secured but it was the end of the session. Apart from that all was great.

Zen in their own car headed out and it was great to see Matt Allison giving the car a great chance on track and topping the leaderboard. The testing and time on the car had been worth it and Team Zen were in a great mood.

Session 2 – Practice
This was the time to test the car in anger for the first time. I headed out and used some track space to make the first hot lap count to see the potential of the car and to heat the tyres up and have a hot lap back into the pits so that we could set pressures. The lap felt nice, planted but still within itself. I rolled into the pits and Paul said P1 … with a 1.04.5 WTF – I couldnt believe it. Pressures sorted and sent out again to try out on another hot lap.

This time I rolled back in with a 1.03.7 and Team Zen were as amazed as me. Car set up was working spot on, the car felt solid, the lines right and engine the strongest it had ever been. There was still more to come though I felt but there was a slight oil breathing issue that needed solving so the session was cut slightly short for me.

I finished this session in position 1 – I had never done this before – it felt good but it didnt count at this stage. Qualifying and the final count so more of the same for quali….

Session 3 Qualifying
Breathing issue solved by Richard, Tim and Julian and we were ready for it. Being at the top end of the pitlane was a distinct disadvantage and meant even though I had left the pit garage early there were already cars queuing to go out ahead of me – getting free track space was going to be hard. We had swapped to the better rubber for this session but the temperatures were hot and track temps were playing a big factor in how quickly the tyres were going beyond their best. First lap out had to be the one.

I made lots of space on the out lap behind Russ Paton – a good 4 seconds gap coming into the complex and nailed it. Far too hot into copse meant I was 6 foot off the apex but still foot to the floor, I hoped that didnt cost any time so kept on it. Braked later in the complex and was flat from halfway round luffield through 3rd, 4th, 5th and over the line. This time I spotted my braking point better, ran tighter into the apex and wider on the exit but caught Russ into Luffield (who was also on a 2nd consecutive hot lap) and nearly collected him coming out of luffield as it seemed like I could get the power down much earlier – unfortunately I had to back out of the power. We crossed the line nose to tail with inches between us. Time to cool down and head to the pits to see the score.

Team Zen were jumping with delight – P1 again with 1.03.6 on the first of the laps. That should be enough to do it. A quick check over and off out again for a couple more laps to cool it all down and keep an eye on the pit board to see if the positions changed. They didnt so I didnt attempt another hot lap – into the pits and session over. I had done it, WE had done it, it felt great and 50 points in the bag from this session. Shane WAS beatable. He had improved on last years times and was full on it and we had beat him in this session fair and square. More of the same for the final and hope that Shane could not find the gap to beat me.

Time now to cheer on the Team Zen car in their quali session – to get the real feel of the to and fro and tension you REALLY need to be looking at the time boards. First Olly and then Matt would put faster and faster laps in… the tension was building….. it went well with P1 at the end and a huge cheers came from the garage when the clock ticked over for end of session. WOW !

The time to the final seemed to drag and drag with endless (it seemed) public track time and thankfully nothing to do on either car apart from checks and minor fettling. Time for sun bathing in the glorious Silverstone weather, chatting with friends and groupies

Session 4 – The Final
The one that counted and again I was stuck halfway back in the pack and thinking about how to make enough space for 2 hot laps on the bounce.. Shane was behind me so i knew it had to count as he was going to be giving everything he had to beat me. Space made on the out lap and GO for it. Lap 1 was a flyer, rock solid and felt smooth too. Lap 2 and it wasnt to be, I had caught Marco in the complex and as tempting as it was to undertake him on the complex (in the space he gave me) I decided to back out of it for fear of reprisals from TA and Silverstone circuit management. Into the pits and they tell me 1.03.4 (quicker still) but Shane had done 1.02.99 bah grr.

Regroup in the garage for a mo and watch the board develop. No-one else was getting near our times so it was between Shane and I for the win… Out for one last push feeling confident there was the 0.4 seconds in the car (and me) for the win. The first hot lap out was a 1.03.8 close but not good enough but the second lap had to be called off due to red flags and session stopped early … nooooo. I will never know whether it could have been but I guess that is motorsport.

Over the moon with 2nd place and it is just reward for the hours of effort, late nights and fantastic support from sponsors, friends and family alike.

I am in a clear 2nd place in the championship now with 2 rounds left – this could go down to the wire.

Zen were out next and nip and tuck again with Olly until Olly turned up the NOS to storm a mind blowing lap in and push Zen into P2. The superior handling of the Zen car just couldn’t live with the extra power that RCMS had given it in the final unfortunately and we had a pair of 2nd places to celebrate.