And just like when he drove round the high speed bend with 1 finger from the passenger seat, it worked. My god he can pedal a car! His line worked though and gained me so much that i nearly ran into the back of people on the track day.The morning of the race finally arrived and i woke up like a kid on christmas morning. Then it was off to the circuit which was more like the 1st day of a new school. Everyone was checking out eveyone else and their cars. Trying to work out who would be fast and who would be... not so fast. You can never really tell though. Again, there were loads of very nice and well prepared cars in club class. I had given my 5 shades of red a bit of a polish to try and make the car a bit more presentable. I just have a no bling rule though. If it does not make you any faster then it does not go on the car. I think track cars should always look a bit rough anyway.
1st session was the 10 minute warm up. I had put some brand new R888s on the car and the plan was to just go and scrub them in. I was going to throw the car about a bit at low speed to get all the crap off them and then i was going to do a couple of quick laps to get a bit of temperature into them. Last year i managed a 1.37 and my target for this year was going to be 1.36. Although, in warm up a 1.37 would be just fine. After a couple of laps the tyres were starting to feel quite grippy and there was plenty of space in front so i decided to go for a flyer. The car felt brilliant. The new tyres were gripping really well, the car was handling great. No boring understeer, it just felt really well ballanced.The car was pulling well. Even in low boost. I crossed the start finish line and had a look at the lap timer. Bear in mind that the day before had been on the full circuit rather than the island so i had no idea of my pace. I knew both myself and the car were quicker than last year. Time was 1.35.7
I pushed on for another lap. Probably grinning away to myself like an idiot. Mission was accomplished so i just pulled into the pits and whent to check out my time.The second lap was just as quick. Nearly 2.5 seconds quicker than the person behind and over 4 seconds quicker than the following 4 people. I was under no ilusions though as the people who know the tracks well do not bother pushing hard until qualifying. The time would have been quick enough to get a podium in the final the year before. Back into the garage to make use of the new member of the pit crew. George Foreman Tasty bacon rolls for everyone.The next session was practice. The aim here was to get all the braking point etc nailed and take some more time off as i knew i could find some more time. There was a bit more traffic so i was just trying to work on sections of the track when i could get a good run. Fee from track scotland was behind me. She had put in a 1.40 in warm up but i knew she would be quick. The whole set of flying laps i could not shake her. I put in a 1.35.2 and it turned out she has beaten me with a 1.35.1 and i had just given up all my lines and breaking points. She followed my lines so closely that we both had all 4 wheels right off the track on the 1st corner. After my second set of cooling down laps, to let the 888's cool off as they heat up after 2 or 3 flying laps, i noticed the brake pedal was a bit spongy. I backed off for a bit and then saw i had a clear run up the hill to work on my entry to druids. I kept it to the floor all the way from the bottom of the hill to the last possible moment. Jumped onto the brake pedal and nothing. Tried to pump the pedal to see if i could get some brakes and still nothing. I was doing just short of 120 at the time. I quickly decided that there was no way i was getting round the corner and the gravel trap was to be my new best friend. Its not the biggest of gravel traps so i tried to use as much of it as possible. I skipped into it like a bloody great big red stone driven by an idiot who should have known when to back off. After a while the car was still not slowing as much as i had hoped so i spun the car round so i would at least crash backwards and it would hopefully do less damage to itself and me. After what felt like an eternity we came to a stop. About 3 feet from the tyre wall. I could not belive my luck so i tried to start the car and be on my merry way. It would not start and the marshals were sprinting from everywhere. I jumped out of the car to show them i was ok and had to wait out the rest of the session behind the barrier.
It turned out that one of the pads had disintigrated itself and dissapeared. The pads should have been fine for the rest of the day and probably another track day. There was a huge ammount of gravel to remove from the car run a spanner over it and give it a bit of a wipe down. I just had a bit of a laugh about what could have been a very big crash if it had have happened on the next corner with next to no gravel trap. I have always been a believer in ' just getting back on the horse' after something like that happens. There is no point worrying about crashing when i start worrying, its going to be time to quit. The guys fitted some new pads and bled the brakes so i took the car a quick run to the entrance of the circuit to get at least a wee bit of heat into them. I was out the main gate and straigh back in again. Jobsworth on the gate asks me for a ticket! I told him that i was just warming the brakes and had just come out. He looked at me like i had 2 heads. Then i told him i was racing. He looked at the car, covered in time attack stickers, he looked at me in a race suit and fireproof top. He looked at the car again, then me again. Spent a bit of time thinking. Looked at me again so i pointed to my helmet.. crash helmet! and he finally let me in. Fee and i were sharing a garage and she thanked me for the speed she found following me. I thought i had better hide for qualifying. Not that she needed it as she put the same lap time in again in qualifying.
I lined up for qualifying only to find out that the truck racing demo guys had crashed into each other and there was going to be a delay. It was pretty warm so i hung about by the car and had some water to drink. And then some more water and then a bit more just for good measure. After about half an hour we were told that it was going to be at least another 10minutes. The mixture of water and adrenaline had got the better of me so i thought it would be safe to leave the car lined up and take a trip to the loo. Just as i was leaving the loo i heard what sounded like a car melting it down the start finish straight. Then another, and another. Got back to the pit lane to find my car stranded in the middle of the pit lane all on its own. So i ran to the car in old school le Mans style and jumped in. As i had missed the 1st couple of minutes i was just starting to get onto flying laps as everyone else was begging to cool down. So traffic was a bit of a problem. Still i was finding that i had dropped nearly a second a lap. Brakes felt ok and the off had not crossed my mind. I pushed again for another flying lap only to get the same results. 1.36.2 I went into the pits for a bit of head scratching. Wondering if it was the car or maybe just me. I got the lads to have a quick look over and everything seemed fine. I was 9th over all and 6th in class and not a happy bunny.
I got out the laptop and had a look at the data from the data logger and found out the best possible thing. But not really what i was hoping to see. Driver error! Druids and the corner after i must have been subconciously breaking slightly earlier and thats where my missing time was to be found. I kicked myself in the ass metaphorically and sat down for a hero bar and a bottle of brave aid so i could man the hell up for the final.
I knew with a clear lap that a high 1.34 could be on the cards. I knew that it was going to be tough with Fee being very fast and John Beech being on the podium the year before . He was quick all of last year and Oulton was his local track.Warren Kelly was also looking fast.
The final was a very tough 15 minutes. All the other sessions were combined into A and B groups depending on expected lap times. The final we were combined with the 1st 10 in 4WD F/I (the biggest class) and the top 5 from all the other classes to make the 25 cars. There was a lot greater speed diffenetail beween the cars in the final. In A group everyone usually leaves the pits together does 1 lap to make space and warm up then does a couple of flying laps. Everone is going hard so there is less of a problem with traffic. This never seems to happen on the final. I thought i had 1 clear lap early on. I was flying through the 1st half of the circuit. Put power down a touch too early at knickerbrook and went pretty sideways. Just kept it lit as i still had not put in a great time, got to the top of the hill and caught one of the skylines i had no option but to lift. I entered druids a bit late as i was having to drive round him. Not his fault as he did everything to try and get out the way. I then caught someone else in the braking zone on the way to lodge. I crossed the line with a 1.35.1 i knew i could go quicker though. I never managed to get a clear lap so i had to hope that my quickest lap would be good enough.
As i drove back into the pits i was getting a lot of thumbs up from people so it looks like i had done well. Soneone even held up one finger.. not the middle one luckily, and gave me a big smile. Back into the pits and Adam from Trackscotland said, ' you won' I was not really sure wheather he meant that i won between myself and Fee or i had won overall. I took a quick wander up to the Whifbitz garage to say sorry to one of the supras as i got in his way on a flying lap and then took a wander to race control to get the time sheets to see how i had actually got on. On the way i met Warren Kelly the owner of the gorgeous Escort Cosworth who said, ' i dont know wheather to shake your hand or kill you. You beat me and you won' I just about exploded with excitement ran back the the garage hugged everyone in sight and generally jumped about like an idiot. I had won my class with a 1.35.188, 2nd was Fiona Kindness with 1.35.773 and 3rd was Warren Kelly with 1.36.022
Standing on the top step of the podium spraying the champagne was a moment ill never forget. It was like a dream come true. My aim for the year was to get on the podium with a win being a huge bonus. It was a great reward to everyone for all their hard work.
Im under no ilusions about the rest of the season though. Everyone is so close that the win could have gone either way. There is a few very fast cars that were not ready for the 1st round so they could prove tough competition. Oulton is also a confidence circuit which i seem to quite well on. I must be pretty short on imagination! So there is plenty of work to do to me and the car to try and get some more decent results.
Here are a couple of pics
Big thanks to
Colin Telfer for building the car
Ian Brown for fixing the engine and gearbox when i break them
Alister Colins for fixing the car at every event. And always being entertaining
Andy Forest Performance for an awesome job mapping the car
Andrew Walsh of Carlimits for making me go fast
http://www.usedcarparts.co.uk for continued sponsorship
excellent write up 
