Brands Hatch 2009 .. review

Venue: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit
Date: June 28th 2009

The date set, venue set and round 4 of Time Attack 2009 beckoned..

After the mad panic and huge amount of work going into round 3 at Silverstone, it was refreshing and lovely not to HAVE to do anything pre this round. This didn’t stop one minor tweak though… in preparation for the forthcoming diffuser it was time to raise the exhaust up to exit the rear bumper. You will see the new exit below:

Unlike Silverstone, Brands Hatch is much more of a handling circuit and with ZEN Performance’s superb history of winning this round I was confident of a great result.  Plans were made ages ago to get practice in prior to this round as I had not driven it for 20 years and then it was in standard MG Metros and MG Maestros on a corporate day… I had a lot to learn and booked Phil glew’s services to teach me.  Having had his tuition already this year I have seen the huge difference that his tuition has made to my driving, confidence and speed.  All set for the track day and totally gutted the day before when the organisers called it off… oh ffs !!  With work already scheduled nothing else could be arranged so I would have to made do and learn as best I could from the track time available on the day.

Saturday:

Picked up a borrowed trailer from Andy Stevens (cheers mate) and Julian (CJS Norwich) and I prepared the tool kit for the sunday and were going to head down there in the morning.  Easy day doing basic last minute checks but great to have Julian as my right hand man and his superb Jeep there to do the lugging duties of the car and gear.

Car loaded and a nice relaxing meal and sleep ready for the early start.

Sunday:

A great drive down passing Olly Clarke but getting blitzed by Team Zen who flew past us beeping horns and waving – we thought that was a good omen.  Hopefully not the only time Team Zen would go past RCM…

We arrived in plenty of time and unpacked and with loads of time before our action started, there was time to clean the car from the spray on the roads on the way down from the fenland mist and make all checks (again) to the car, set up the live in car camera system (from Rapid Media again), chat to everyone and fine tune tactics for the day with Paul from Zen.  This has been a superb partnership this year and without doubt has made a huge difference to the ability to get the best from the car (and me).

It was sorted… the plan was to win.

Julian was accompanying me in the warm up, not for anything other than a huge thank you for his help – he is ever cheerful and great to have around when my mind is often cluttered with thoughts of self doubt.  The car was great, the bad-ass Zengine was purring and everything was going to be great. Relax… have a sausage roll

I learnt the hard way last year that warm up was not a place for heros – it was for test and warm up so I was not disappointed with being well down the leader-board. I was hardly on full throttle. No point of breaking it or crashing it in this session.  Traffic was horrendous in this session with so many cars out on track on such a short track.

Warm up dealt with and a minor tweak to the suspension setting from those that we ended Silverstone with to cure some mild oversteer I had going into clearways.  This was needed at Silverstone to help in the complex but wasn’t here. We knew everything else worked perfectly.

Time to watch Team Zen’s pro car blitz the field… oh bugger just as we were ready to watch, the car had stopped on track and was catching fire. Oh bugger again. The mood in the camp was down. VERY down. So much work had been done to get the Zen car there, it was ready, readier than it had ever been but a small component failure had caused their day to be over. The whole team was gutted but I was now absolutely determined to bring some smiles to the pit garage and get the top slot for the team. Sure it wouldn’t be the same as their own car be there but such is the spirit in Team ZEN that it is all for one…

Practice and Rob Barnes came around to say would we mind the top 10 cars from club playing out on track with the club pro and pro cars to give everyone more space.  Hopefully we wouldn’t hold the pro guys up but it would even the two sessions out and give everyone the best chance of track space for the hot laps.  I jumped at the opportunity and to be able to share track space with the cars in that class was an honour.

We headed out for practice with the pro guys and this confused a lot of people, I got texts, answer machine messages galore from onlookers that were there and those at home watching the live timing screens on the TA website and not seeing me there.  I am sorry if I didn’t answer them

Practice went well and I followed Jonathan Faull for most of it.  The car was understeering a bit more now (although not much) so towards the end of the session I headed into the pits to check tyre pressures, temps and tweak the suspension.  Unfortunately the session was cut short so I didn’t get back out but I knew the adjustments would be spot on.  I ended up in P1 in club challenge with a 53.8  I was very pleased as I felt there was more to be had.

In car video from this session:

Duncan Graham – Brands Hatch practice session 2009 from Duncan Graham on Vimeo.

Qualifying and we were out with the Club pro and Pro guys again. I headed out after most of these as I did not want to be interfering with their times and hogging the first slots in the pit lane.

So.. this is where it started to count.

Out lap and then 2 flying laps, the second quicker than the first and I had a 53.3 That ’should’ be enough but I kept circulating checking the pit board for updates and cooling the tyres/car ready for another flying lap.  The tyres were hot but as I was learning lines better and getting to grips with the car the two were counteracting each other.  The car was spot on.  It was in the elusive sweet spot of total predictability. It turned when I wanted, stopped well, grip galore and I was having fun.  Another pair of mid 53 second laps and the rain was starting to come down.  I tried for one more hot lap but as soon as I went into paddock hill I knew no-one was going to be going quicker on that track at that time than my previous time so i aborted the lap and came into the pits and chill.  P1 was mine and the job was half done with the nearest challenger a way behind.

The wait for the final seems to take ages when there is nothing to do or fix on the car and we hadn’t touched it all day apart from bleeding the brakes after the warmup.  It was faultless and running gorgeously.

It was great to chat to everyone there though, chatting to my sisters and their families, play with my niece and nephews who were cheering me on whilst my wife and daughter were up in cambridge (my daughter was competing in the Cambridge Triathlon – I was as gutted to miss that as she and my wife, Rachel, were to miss Brands…)

On with some uber sexy wheels (thanks Paul and Liz) and it was final time and we were out with the club guys again.  Paul and I had sorted tactics and I got to the start of the pit lane before everyone else ready for the start of the session.  This was it. I was determined to get the top slot for the first time ever.

The final went like clockwork apart from coming down the start finish straight for that first hot lap as cars were still coming out of the pits. Paul had warned me of this but it seemed to be like a parting of the waves and I just kept driving with everyone jumping out of the way on their out laps. Thanks so much chaps and especially Marco and I think Steve Linton that I was pretty close to around Clearways … ooops Lap 1 was 58.8 as a result and not enough so I kept on it for lap 2 and improved to 53.8 .. P1 but could it stay that way?

I checked the lap board on the lap afterwards and it showed me as P1 – thanks Steve for that and the team for giving you regular updates to hold it out every lap. I kept going around slowly keeping out of the way to try and cool tyres down and then put in another hot lap – 53.3 better. Still P1 and time running out for the others but my nerves were starting to get frayed. Calm down Dunk. More slow laps and then another blitz … 53.1 yes. That felt good.

I came around again and the lap board was still showing P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1
Next lap… P1

My mind was jumping ahead of itself and I had to drive fast to get my head clear of stupidness. Another hot lap and a little bit scruffy with a 53.3 but all good.

Lap board says P1 still there cant be much time left surely !!!

Next lap.. checkered flag .. OMG !! I bashed the steering wheel with a release of emotion and thought of the pain and anguish over the last year and a half to get there… or had i done it…. the lap board was gone. Oh sheeet. Bugger.

Into the pits and Steven was doing his Michael Jackson dance – then I knew I was speechless and shaking with adrenaline. It does that to an old man like me lol. YES !!

I was overjoyed (i still am) and couldn’t thank my family, sponsors, supporters, helpers, and team enough.

Best of all, Team ZEN were smiling.

Not being known to celebrate on the podium (cough cough) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSX-aNgWsE

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.

Another 3rd Place Podium at Knockhill Round 2

Back from Round 2 at Knockhill and had a fantastic weekend although things didnt quite go to plan.

Thanks to everyone that came up and wished me luck and said hi – it is much appreciated even if sometimes I might be busy.

The week started poor with oil pressure issues starting on tuesday and despite and oil change, changing a split oil pick up pipe on saturday in the rain as soon as I went out in warm up I knew there was a serious issue with the car.  The pre event paranoia had been right…..

Paul (ZEN) and I decided to nurse the car through the day and go just for the most points we could safely get.

I was planning to ration the lapping to get set up right and did very few laps in practice at low boost, then 3 hot laps in qualifying (again at lower boost) but still 3 seconds quicker than last year… and enough to get me 30 points for qualifying in 3rd place.  I asked the car for one more lap for the final… just one.

I drove it as hard as I could on that lap (still only at 1.6 bar) but giving all I could through the twisties to claw back time I was losing on the straights from being down on power compared to the 750+ bhp cars I was battling with.  The car was immense. It flew through the corners – literally and up the straight to finish that lap and then just killed itself.  Big ends are gone big style and it is rebuild time.

Still 3rd place is great and I loved it – it puts me into 2nd in the championship.

I dropped the car off at Zen’s tonight on the way back after partying quite hard last night with the Team Zen and decided to get cracking on taking the engine out to see the damage.  It wasn’t looking pretty with lots of metallic bits kicking around in the sump and big end number 4 completely missing

Huge thanks to Team Zen for support up there and in getting the work done on saturday to give it a fighting chance of getting over the line, for Steve for sitting in the car in warm up and steady supply of coffee and laughs, Alyn at ASP for emergency oil supplies (cheers Stew) and Mark at Lateral Performance in anticipation of the new engine internals

It will be ready for Silverstone next week….

Photos to follow…

Time Attack Round 1 – Oulton Park

… 1 week to go

Having spent most of the previous weekend under the car, I was relieved to have finished the need to do list on the friday so could look at some tidying up work and double checking of the work done to make sure there would be no show stoppers on the day.  This, i felt, would be time well spent as the events come thick and fast to start with.

The week started with a great offer of a Jeep Cheroke tow vehicle from one of my sponsors CJS Norwich.  This was an absolute god send and meant that towing up to Oulton Park was going to happen and I could push harder on the day for a result along with taking the family and all the spares I could need with me.  There was even room for the odd luxury with my a proper beans to cup coffee machine making its way into the truck so that caffeine fixes could be had at any time !! LOL

… 2 days to go:

Toyo 888’s arrived in time from Toyo and a quick trip to Ely Tyre Services to fit them to the rims and chat to the guys about what I was going to do with them.  I was surprised and delighted that they had heard of Time Attack and they quickly got the job done so that I could come back and watch whilst Matt Neame of 2 clear buckets put yet another coat of wax on the car and wheels.  He said it would make me faster LOL.  The car looked gorgeous when finished and with 2 sets of absolutely glistening Hyper Zero Wheels, i felt proud to see what the vision and discussions with Paul of Zen Performance at the end of last season had materialised into on my drive.

Lower, Wider, Faster were the key words of that discussion on the Sofa in Wellingborough and now that the check list of ‘need to do’ things had all been done for this round (further developments are following soon) I was excited about the prospects of doing well.  The car was certainly lower than last year, definitely wider and I know from the testing at Snetterton that it is faster too (along with me).

… 1 day to go:

Nerves didnt have time to hit as I spent the day running around collecting the trailer and loading the truck and trailer and we headed off for our good friends Nigel & Lou Pinder to spend the night before at their house (more local than ours) and go for a curry.  A great meal and a good relaxing evening and it was early to bed for the 5am rise and trip to the circuit for signing on, and leisurely run up to the warm up.  Last year’s accident at Oulton was definitely in my mind and the mixed weather forecast looked all too familiar.

… the day itself

The trip to the track was simple and the Jeep performed its duties superbly with plenty of grunt to cope with the hills – they have hills around there – and yet return 29pmg towing the trailer !

Unloaded and set about preparing the car for the warm up, signing on (LOL) and chatting about the plans for the day.

A good short briefing this time and we were ready to start the car and head out onto the track.  Nige was going to sit with me for the warm up session to help settle my nerves.  It did in a way but he could tell my head wasnt right as my lines in the first session were quite frankly embarassing and I was not right.  The car performed great though on wastegate duty apart from a huge misfire that was solved as soon as I got back to the pits with the help of Pat.  The Solaris ecu’s immense datalogging abilities providing the exact millisecond when this happened and we were able to identify the issue and sort it there and then with Pat on the phone.  Simply download the rolling log file when I come into the pits and thousands of data points are there able to be analysed and improved upon in time for the next session.

Then, just before practice the heavens opened.  De Ja Vu and my already messed up head with going haywire.  I did not want a repeat of last year’s daftness so optimistic, well definite that the weather would improve, I was going to go out and do one lap in the wet and come back in.  No prizes for practice times and it would not be of any use to the dry track experience later.

Tom Ferrier was helping me get my head together during the lead up to going out and he definitely helped (as he did all day) with words of encouragement as well as wisdom.  I think everyone around me could sense my mood and most gave me a wide berth so that I could do what I needed to do to feel

The track was patchy – some parts were very grippy even in the wet but others most definitely weren’t.  I guess the Deisel guzzling Trucks on the track did not help and unfortunately it bit a few competitors and the session was stopped.  Thank god

The time for qualifying to happen took ages to come around, luckily the gang from Zen arrived so that was a great distraction and great to see as the experience of Paul in the pits is a nerve settler for sure.  The car was looking superb and even though not 100% finished it would still be very very quick on track.

The rain clouds had gone and it was turning out to be a fantastic day.

Qualifying was going to be the first session run at full boost.  Time to extract every bhp out of the Lateral MD321V and find the confidence to drive the track as hard as I needed to….

The pre practice checks were done by the gang, more fuel added and away I went with the instructions that Paul had given me.  We had a plan and it was time to apply it.

It seemed to go well, I was gaining in confidence and speed but I guess others were on the same journey.  Into the pits for a check up after a very sideways moment, I think it must have been on the oil that Neil Wrenn was chucking onto track as it was unexpected and nearly took me into the gravel at Druids.  I told Paul that i must have a puncture as it felt very weird..  Paul assured me all was well and instructed me to head out again and get another hot lap in.  This was the time to make it count as there were points on offer for qualifying position.

back into the pits and Steve Darley (I think) informed me that I was 4th – superb !

Mark from Lateral Performance was as excited as I was, as was Julian, Nige and all of Team Zen.  Rachel and Annabelle headed back from viewing and they were ecstatic too.

The car felt great with the first full session on full boost, the braking was immense from the KSports and Performance Friction Pads, the handling sublime and far greater than I could use at that stage.  It was confidence inspiring – just what I needed.  A few checks on the car, download the data logs, check the oil, water and all was good.  Nothing to do for the final except change tyres and put a splash of fuel in.  I knew I could go lots faster.  As Tom said to me – “time to be brave”.

The final and I lined up behind Shane.  We chatted and he explained to me what his intentions were so that we could work with each other to make sure we had space on track to make our times count.  This was great and shows the comradery of the competitors and the TA spirit.  Time to go and when the safety car pulled in Shane had dropped back from the car in front so as to give himself space to make his first lap count.  I did the same and on fresh rubber for the final tried to warm them up on the first full hot lap ready for a banzai number 2 lap.  This didnt quite work to plan and I came to the pits for a chat with Paul and he sent me back out with a plan, one fast then one balls out lap after he made an adjustment.  The first part worked and into the last flying lap of the final – about a minute to go and I was on it, faster than I had been, deeper into braking, quicker onto the power, harder through the chicane and flat out for the tree before druids and I catch the silver civic on a cool down lap overtaking two other cars on a cool down lap … grrrrrrrrrr.  I had to come right out of the power through the apex of druids and this cost me right down the straight to lodge, around there to a proper brave line this time and nailed it to the finish.  It was a fast one – must have been my quickest – it had to be.

Into the pits and Steve Darley held up 3 fingers ! – fantastic and I punched the air with delight, even though the lap had been compromised it had been enough to get my first ever podium.  Steve asked whether I had seen the pit board he had been holding out showing that I was 5th at that time and basically saying get a wiggle on – unfortunately I had just been focusing on picking the right braking point for that final banzai lap so had forgotten to look.  Thanks for trying to help Steven – I will remember next time LOL.

Out of the car and immediately on the phone to Rachel to ask whether she liked champagne – I was going to celebrate this one.  My target pre event was top 5 and I had done it.

Looking at the sector times afterwards showed where I was quick and where I wasnt, understandably my slow sector was the final corner of the lap where I had the accident last year.  i was getting the confidence but a few more laps would have been great.

Everyone was so happy around me and lots of other drivers came up to the pit garage to say well done, even Steve Linton that I had pipped to the 3rd place spot – I have a feeling it will be a close battle all year with him.

Party time !

To everyone else that was competing and writing their own stories, it was great to see you all. Getting there through all of our work, sweat, tears and money was a huge achievement.

So many thank yous, so little space…

Mark at Lateral Performance.  So much help over the last few months on getting the performance and the reliability in order.  That MD321V turbo is mentally ballistic – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT ! but when’s that 600bhp bolt on turbo ready ?

Pat & Charlie – Solaris ECU – What a piece of kit that is. SUPERB!  The improvements to the driving characteristics of the car are huge, it is so much easier and smoother to drive on the limit now and the ALS adds a bit of sparkle to the final cool down lap to celebrate.

Paul and Team Zen from Zen Performance – as usual the calming influence of infinite set up knowledge is so easy to work with.  The extra time gained through making the car handle predictably and smoothly pays dividends in inspiring confidence to put the boundaries.  I can’t wait to see the improvements on the other tracks too.

Julian at CJS – your help and loan of the tow truck made the weekend possible.

Nige/Lou – for trillions of photos, videos, help setting up, getting there, entertaining, feeding, distracting me, entertaining me and generally being a great mate.

Daren at ABW – for making the prettiest car on the grid.  Wide is the way forward

Gary at Keith Michaels – for sorting out insurance for me at the last minute.

Matt at 2ClearBuckets – it was the wax that did it I am sure !!

Alyn at ASP – I will just say thanks for everything, hopefully you can make it up to Scotland for round 2.

GW Autoserve Ipswich – thanks for sorting the tyres / geometry out for me last week.  It really helps when all the wheels point in the direction that you want them to.

and most importantly to Rachel and Annabelle for losing me to the car for a few weeks and putting up with my general grumpiness over the past week.  It is great to have highs and lows – it makes you feel alive.

I would also like to say thank you for all the words of encouragement and support from friends and aquaintances whether actual or cyber.  They mean a lot to me.

and now, time to prepare for Round 2 – Knockhill 17th May

Podium Finish at Oulton Park in Time Attack Round 1

Pictures and report to follow as soon as I have gathered the pics together

This is my first podium and 3rd place was a great reward for the hard work put in over the last couple of months and for the support of my friends and sponsors.

A fantastic day ! and a big hangover this morning