Anglesey 1&2 2009

Testing

Again testing was a must to see if the problem had been fixed.

It started off slowly because I decided to follow Andrew around whilst he bedded new tyres in and that was really all that happened in the first session, I knew I had a lot more speed than him down the straight and looked forward to start testing properly in the next session.

This time I went out on my own and began to push the car harder and all was going well, it felt powerful and best of all it felt quick. Unfortunatly though on one of the laps the rear wheels locked up going into the braking zone at Rocket and the car span going up the hill. I just about caught it but crashed the front of the car into the tyre wall and caused a red flag. As I recovered to the paddock I wondered what happened. Did I out brake myself? Was there something on track? Was it the car? If I had outbraked myself why did it lock the rears and not the fronts?

When I finally got back to assess the damage to the front I found that the front bumper was a jigsaw puzzle and I had some metalwork to straighten first. It took me most of the day to fix all the damage and I finally got back out on track for the last session of the day to check it all out. Almost instantly the misfire was there, looks like I hadn't found it back at home. You can imagine the words coming out of my mouth.

When I told the team that the misfire was back everyone looked disheartened and fed up like me. How do you find an electric problem that only shows up on track under full load? The problem has never shown itself in the paddock and it doesn't matter what you change if you can't test it to see if its fixed until qual. The only thing we could do was to change everything we had spares for.

The only real question now is, was the crash my fault or was it the misfire that locked the rear wheels like it did at Snetterton? I love to blame the car, but there again it still could have easily been me.

Qual

Qualifying went with the normal procedure, out as a team trying to push each other along. I did three reasonable laps and now that I have technically qualified I can push for a better time taking a few extra risks to gain speed and time. The plan works in theory, not in practice when on lap four the misfire returns and qualifying is now technically over. I returned to the pits and after consultation with Dermott's wise head I let it cool a bit and returned to track to see if it was a temperature related problem.

On the outlap the rear wheels locked at turn three, causing a spin and a close miss with Webster who was at race pace heading directly at my sticken car. I knew that if I stayed out something bad would happened so I retired the car. Looks like were going to have another Snetterton.

I qualified eighth and third in class.

This was the first merged race between the saloons and XJS's and before the race we had a drivers briefing telling us all to behave ourselves and that we were all going to be watched at turn one for anyone over driving or being too agressive.

Race 1

The race started and I had a great start, stormed into turn one with a little bit of oversteer and launched the car towards turn two which was really busy so I deceided to be brave and attempt to pass around the outside. The briefing had only mentioned behaving at turn 1!

On the exit of the hairpin I was sixth, and on the exit of three I had a drag race with the leading saloon, Lewis, down the straight which was very unfair on him as it wasn't a challenge. Arriving at the end of the straight in fifth I suddenly caught Andrew just as he was taking evasive action for the front three, who had all collided. Andrew took the inside line past them, and I was forced to go the long way around due to the speed I was carrying.

On rejoining the track this put me in third because Lewis had been able to take the short route behind Andrew and take second. This was actually looking good for me as the two in front of me don't have the power or straight line speed that I had.

Spoke too soon, first misfire before the end of lap one and everything started to go downhill from here. I was now starting to lose the front two and backing the rest of the field up, but towards the end of lap two the misfire was getting really bad and those behind started to pass with ease as I could do nothing to defend. One lap later, I was last and retired before the leader could lap me, it's sickening to watch your own race from the sidelines.

Races two, finishes 0

Between race one and two other parts were swapped, rotor arm, coil, king lead, ignition amplifier, ignition switch, everything we had with us, and even the front subframe was welded because a crack had been detected whilst an adjustment was being made.

Race 2

As I was the first to fall from race 1 I had to start dead last with Stewert and Russell directly in front. Three of the top cars in the field starting at the back, sure to be great fun swatting back markers with those two in front as long as the car holds up.

The race started and the game of swatting was quite fun, just lining them up and using the power, in fact I passed ten cars in five laps and caught up with a race including Woods, Hill, Webster and Drage. I was eager to have a go at that trio, but just as I was about to pounce the misfire came back, and I immediately began to lose ground on them. Once again I knew I was in trouble and it wasn't long before those that I'd just passed were passing me back, and then the inevitable retirement.

Races 3, finishes 0.

Not the best start to a season, all chances of challenging for a championship already over, all I can now do is support Stewert and Andrew in their chances.