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Brands Hatch October 2009

I know its a bit late but I thought I had better put something up here before the new season starts!

Qualifying
Useless would be a good word to describe my qualifying place! It was very wet and raining all through the session and I was well off the pace, eventually qualifyed 24th out of 26.

Race 1
Had a very good start and made 6 places off the line but then got nudged wide on the second corner and lost them again! Still very wet so my tactic was to just keep the car on the track; I was overtaken several times only for that driver to then spin off and rejoin behind me. I did have one off myself when I broke slightly too late got onto the wet part of the track and headed off onto the grass. Rejoined just behind the leaders (one lap down) and only lost one place eventually finishing 17th.

Race 2
Again another good start to make up a couple of places but then the race turned into a defensive one as I had one car right behind me the whole race. He managed to get past me once on the entrance to the start/finish straight but I held in there and out-braved him into paddock hill bend around the outside to ge the palce back. Shortly afterwards he made a mistake and I was able to pull away and catch the guys in front. Started to make a move up the inside of them both going onto the start/finish straight but had to back off quickly as one of them closed me out; probably would have sent him sidewides into the pit wall at about 60mph if I hadn't of backed off. Had another oportunity on the penultimate lap to get past but due to Ross Stoners spin the yellow flags were out and so I couldn't make my move.
Finished in 13th due to others falling off the circuit, definately need to work on my wet weather driving but not too bad for my first time at Brands.
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Mallory Park September 2009

Qualifying: This is the first time I would be out in the car after getting its third engine of the year so I was just praying it would last out. Spent the first few laps under 3,ooorpm to warm the engine up and then tried to get some fast laps in. With such a short circuit and with so many cars out it was hard to get any kind of fast lap in. Qualified in 21st which was about what I expected, still it leaves me with more cars to overtake!

Race 1: made a poor start and lost several places but managed to get a couple back quite quickly. I was realing in 3 cars just ahead of me until I noticed a plume of steam coming from the front of the car, I started to loose power and then got passed by everyone behind me so decided to pull into the pits. Turned out that a stone had punctured the radiator so that was the end of the race for me. Managed to find a spare radiator in the paddock (thanks Coggy) and got it fitted before the second race.

Race 2: got off to a great start (so I thought), I managed to get past Nina in front of me on the inside very quickly then switched to the outside to get past another car. When I look back at the video footage seems I then went and lost most of the places I made by the start of the second lap. As the race played out I had a good tussle with the light blue car, then Chris Shackle spun off from the front of the pack and rejoined just behind me. He got past me quickly then past the light blue car a couple of laps later. I shortly followed up with my move on the light blue car; I took a slow entry into the hairpin to get a quick exit and managed to get up the inside, we then went down the start finish straight side by side but I was endging ahead and had the outside line going into Gerrards, we had a slight overlap coming out of Gerrards and I was sent slightly sideways but held onto it and came out ahead. I then started to pull away and was surprised to find I was catching Chris. I followed him around for a couple of laps right behind him and noticed he was braking very early into the hairpin so next lap around I had a faster exit from the esses and dived up the inside into the hairpin braking very late. I manged to keep in front of him (but only just) coming out of the hairpin and then started to pull away. At the end of the race I was catching Seb Fisher up ahead and would have been right behind him after another lap but the chequered flag came out.
Not a great day out finishing in 15th but on a positive note I did make several overtaking manouvres which is something I had failed to do previously.
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Snetterton, no show

After a succesful swap out of engines and a good start to my trackday at Snetterton (despite the heavy rain first thing) things ended badly. It seems I ran the engine for too long and too hard and ended up damaging the big end. I was able to replace the big end bearings and everything was looking good for the next race at Snetterton.

Race Day
After a bit of a frantic start to the day trying to get new tyres fitted, I was feeling confident going into the qualifying session. However, second lap in the horrible noise from the engine started again and I realised that just replacing the big end bearings had not solved the problem. That was it, my race day over and another new engine required. :( I wasn't the only one to fall at the first hurdle, several other cars didn't make it past qualifying. Out of a total of 29 cars that turned up only 18 actually finished the second race.
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Cadwell Park June 2009

This was always going to be my best days racing due to my knowledge of the track but after finding out I was down on power it lowered my expectations. Had some really good hot weather with a nice dry track. Qualifying: got some clean air after a couple of laps and got some good times down, positioned 12th on the grid (best so far) which gave me an outside chance of a top ten.

Race 1: Made a good start around the outside gaining a couple of places. Couple of laps in passed car #60 as he missed a gear going up the mountain. Started to get some really fast laps in and was catching the guy in front and pulling away from the guys behind. Then narrowly missed #33 spinning out only for him to catch up to me and pass me on the penultimate lap but I wasn't letting him get away with that! He went well wide leaving the track going into the back straight so I went up the inside only for him to dart right across the track and push me half onto the grass. I kept going and we went side by side into Park, we both braked too late with him going off onto the grass and then retiring to the paddock and me spinning on the inside and stalling. Car #13 got past me but I managed to get it started again and didn't loose any further places.

Finished 7th!! Best result yet, very happy with that and also won the team prize!


Race 2: Positioned in 7th which meant I had the inside line, started ok and kept position. I was definately quicker than 13 in front of me but just couldn't find away around anywhere, just didn't have the power to be able to make a move. This meant everyone else caught me up and I started to loose places. Eventually finished 9th due to people spinnig off ahead of me, can't really complain about 2 top ten finishes with a slightly dodgy engine but I was 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than the guy in front so 7th was possible if I had been able to get past.

Thanks to all those who helped me out and supported me on the day.
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Silverstone June 2009

Here's a brief summary of the race weekend:
Spent a cold wet Saturday Marshaling, at one point we had 4 Formula Palmer Audi's in the one gravel trap and it was rumoured that the meeting was close to being called off.
Woke up the next day to some deafening rain on the tent, you actually had to shout to talk to anybody inside. I thought the meeting was going to be called off but instead the qualifying was put back until 1040 by which time it had stopped raining and started to brighten up.

Qualifying - despite it stopping raining it was still a wet track but I actually had fun out there. Didn't really get a clear lap in to get a good time but still managed to qualify 22nd out of 30. Had one slightly hairy moment when I did a 720 spin and stalled right in the middle of copse corner. Apparently there is some on-board footage from the car directly behind me so that should be good!

Race 1 - the track is now completely dry now which disadvantaged me a bit as some of the cars that were slower in the wet got past me quickly. Was by myself again, ahead of the back of the pack but not quick enough for the middle of the pack. Race was red flagged on lap nine as 2nd, 3rd and 4th all came together with a fair bit of damage done to everyone. Finished 20th.

Race 2 - this race was going to be a bit more interesting as the fast boys that didn't finish the last race were now starting behind me. First half of the first lap was manic, cars absolutely everywhere, I decided to try not to battle too much as I didn't want to risk doing any serious damage to the car and these guys were going to pass me at some point anyway. Copse was definitely my weak point but I was getting quicker around it every lap and started to catch back up with the middle of the pack. Got right onto the back of one car and just needed an extra lap to get past him. Finished 24th but did manage to get ahead of one car that was in front of me in the first race.

Other cars where still pulling away from me down the straights as they had at Snetterton, some of it will be down to the driver but I'm now pretty certain the car is down on power so it will be going in to a racing garage this weekend to get it compression tested and dyno'd. I may have to part with a bit of cash to get it fighting fit for Cadwell.
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