Testing on the 11th at Silverstone went well. The car has more mechanical grip and responded well to set-up changes. We have made significant changes to the car over the winter and increadibly all systems worked, only the new rear suspension requiring some minor updates.
Can't wait for Oulton, and to see how we compare to the other front runners.

Scrutineering 7.45am

Qualifying 8.30am

Race 1.05pm

Woke up on Saturday morning rearing to go. Unfortunately it was 2am so back to sleep until my alarm at 4.50am
Arrived at Oulton for 7am and immediately off to Scrutineering. Qualifying started at 8.30am. It appears everyone had been testing the day before and all the pits were taken, so our luxury twin gazebo corporate unit was erected for the day.

Started qualifying on new tyres so built up gradually over the first 3 laps. The first quick lap highlighted some issues, the most obvious being the right front tyre rubbing the bodywork around the 5th gear flat out (lifting slightly in qualifying) kink at Island. Amazing how much smoke and smell it was producing. Came in to check all was okay and off out again. One quick lap and in again as the steering was feeling odd. Went back out again but no more quick laps as caught traffic on both attempts.

So how was it? Had all the work been worth it? It felt quick but I was not expecting to lap 1.7 seconds under the lap record and finish on pole position! Richard Johnson (Champion for the last two years in the Van Diemen) was 0.005 behind. Disappointingly 3rd on the grid was 3.5 seconds slower suggesting a two horse race.

So the start. It’s been over two years since my last pole and it showed. Not enough heat in the rear tyres, to much wheel spin, slewed sideways and by the time I got going Richard was already off down the road. So I set off after him. Managed to peg the gap for a few laps, but from then on everything that happened I lost a tenth, be it backmarkers, yellow flags. I could push really hard and start catching but would then make a small mistake and end up dropping another 10th. All I could do was keep pushing as hard as possible, mistake included, for the 30mins and hope Richard made a mistake or his tyres went off or….. But he / they didn’t. He did not seem to make any mistakes, and it was my front tyres that went off not his. So ended up finishing 2nd 5 seconds behind.

Frustrating, but on reflection an unbelievably excellent result. All the new systems work (fuel, oil, frt roll bar, rear pull rod mounts), we have doubled our knowledge of set-up requirements for the new suspension and know the mistake that lead to understeer in the race. And I am also the lap record holder with a 1:40.5 (2.8 seconds under the previous lap record set by Richard the previous year.)

Thank you to everyone who helped and came to support during the day.

So to Brands in two weeks time. Love Brands Grand Prix circuit, but will suffer from having no knowledge of the set-up required. No major mods. but we have plenty to do based on what we learnt at Oulton.

Hope to see you there.

Brands Hatch - 2nd & 3rd May

Early start to get to Brands. Arrived at midday which gave us plenty of time to tidy up a number of items on the car and buy some new front tyres.

Qualifying started at 4pm and a few slow laps to bed in the tyres and started to push. Brands GP circuit is very hard with a number of very fast blind corners. I had only raced on this circuit once in Dave Jordan’s Vee in the wet so it was a rapid learning curve. A few minor problems and challenges the biggest being picking a breaking point at the end of the back straight whilst bouncing off the rev-limiter in top and smoke pouring off the front tyre which was rubbing the bodywork.

Still when I came in I had taken pole position from Richard by 0.5 seconds. So maybe the car wasn’t so bad! Unfortunately Richard had blown up his engine trying to catch up and informed us he was abandoning Saturdays race and going home. We know how competitive they are and knew they would be back (we would!).

Sure enough Richard was on the grid when we lined up for the start. Again he made a lightening start but this time a managed to pin the gap to 1 second. A good run off the safety car period and I was right with him. But never got by. I nearly got passed up into Druids on one lap but was blocked. Got along side down the back straight but only on the outside and not far enough passed to turn in first. Nearly managed to get past in the back markers but as one slowed to let us past the other went to overtake and blocked my path. So finished second again.

But this time we were challenging which is brilliant. After only 2 races with a 50% new chassis, new front suspension, new bodywork we have had the fastest lap in every session of the year. I am 2 seconds faster than the other Gunn's and the new Lola, Juno’s etc. are not even close. Congratulations though to Ricahard. I have not seen him make a single mistake big enough to let me by, yet!

Can't wait to try the new rear suspension at Cadwell..

First win for 996 days

4am start on Friday to get up to Cadwell for testing. We had done a lot of work on the car over the previous 6 weeks. Exhaust valves bent at Outlon last year were replaced. The gearbox rebuilt and a pinion tooth from the failure last year removed from behind the oil pump. Data logger was fixed, camera mounted, rear bodywork located laterally, front suspension travel limited, etc. In fact the only thing we did not finish was the one planned item, new rear suspension. Luckily we where able to get most of the gain from modification to the current set up.

Testing all went okay. I was quickly down to high 1:26’s which was 3 seconds under the lap record. Still we knew that Rick would be much quicker this year than last. I was also able to get a run in the wet on slicks, which would come in useful later in the weekend.

The major discovery came on Saturday morning when a crack in a very important location on the chassis was noticed. Rust in the crack suggested it had been there for a while. Many thanks to Chris Snowdon of CSR racing for a super welding job.

Free practice on Saturday was nearly not the bonus it was meant to be. Car felt okay and I was just meant to scrub in new tyres. Unfortunately closing up on Rick distracted me and pushing to little to hard I lost the rear in the second part of the mountain corrected and drove straight onto the grass. Went all the way up the hill like this rejoining with a green visor at the top. The barrier had been very close. Still came into the pits, confirmed all was okay and managed a few, slightly more speculative laps before the session ended.

And then the next problem revealed itself. Whilst checking the new exhaust mounts we spotted a bent rose joint. This failure was very similar to Cadwell suspension failure last year, but our stronger mount meant the problem had moved to the next weakest part. Still thanks to Loaded Gunn racing for the replacement rose joint and we were able to stiffen up the problem area. Thanks also to Clive at MCR racing for sorting a set of spark plugs to solve our misfire.

1st on track for qualifying which is a first for me. A few laps to warm up and quickly got down to a 1:26.0. Into the pits and told I was in pole. Slight mods to tyre pressure out again and quickly down to a 1:25.6, which I then repeated. Back into the pits and asked dad to make a quick rear anti-roll bar change to try and reduce oversteer in the high speed corners. Normally I can do this from the car but our No1 anti-roll bar had broken on Friday. I was also informed that Rick was now on pole. That I was not expecting having just gone 4 seconds under the lap record. So out again. Got a big tow over the start finish line and turned into Charlies 2 much faster than before and the rear just gripped. A neat end of the lap and back into the paddock. Had I done it? A number of people congratulated me but it took a while to sink in. 1:24.8 – 5 seconds under the lap record and pole by 0.7 seconds from Rick.

And then 1 hour before the race the heavens opened. Much confusion. I had never driven the car in the wet, except for my first ever 5 laps (previous year at Cadwell). Our wet tyres were 4 years old, and whilst the track was wet with 20 minutes to go it was drying.

But wets it was, and thankfully for me everyone else including Rick agreed. Two green flag laps and lined up at the start. We were held for ages but then off. Again made a leisurely start. Rick shot ahead and Robert Oldershaw pulled alongside. Luckily with the inside line I was able to maintain 2nd although 2.5 seconds behind crossing the line for the first time. I was trying to get used to the wet, but having to push hard to keep Rick in sight. Started to catch him quickly on lap 3 (fastest lap of the race by 1 second) and a mistake from Rick (the first I have seen him make) allowed me to catch right up through the first corner and then get alongside down the back straight. Braked as late as I dared for Park corner on the inside wetter line. I just made it round, looked in my mirrors to see Rick bouncing along the grass. So head down and pushed hard for the next two laps then the pit board started showing the gap at +14 seconds to second place. So into cruise mode for the next 7 laps.

The car was handling nicely so I just concentrate on preserving the wet tyres as the track dried out. And at last the chequered flag came out.

Absolutely delighted. My first win for 996 days the last one being a double victory at Cadwell in the Vee.

Rick and I are now well ahead in the championship although I remain 1 point behind. I have been fastest in every single session this year, despite very little setting up of the car. And in qualifying for Cadwell we stopped, at last, wreaking front tyres.

I absolutely cannot wait for Anglesey in 5 weeks time!

Em and I travelled, slowly, in the transit to Anglesey on Saturday afternoon. This gave us pently of time to set up the gazebo’s and walk the track.

The track looked interesting. The first half lap was fast, although the second half looked slow with every corner being 2nd gear.

The cancelled free practice had been a pain. We do not have the budget to test and it had cost about 5 hours the previous week taking all the risky development parts off the car to ensure we didn’t risk being behind the front row. To make matter worse Richard had been testing on Friday so would be quick from the first moment of qualifying.

I am pleased that my 4th ever lap would have put me 2nd on the grid but all the same it was disappointing to qualify 2nd behind Richard. This is the first official session this year in which I have not been fastest.

We made some changes to the car during the 2.5 hours before the race, and strange they were to. The handling had changed completely since cadwell for no apparent reason.

For once an excellent start and straight into the lead. I held the lead for 7 laps until arriving at the end of the straight on lap 6 I braked hard and caught the accelerator also. The unexpected push was just enough to take me wide over the grass and Richard got through. From here on I was unable to keep up and ended up in 2nd 11 seconds behind and 50 seconds ahead of 3rd place.

Strange to be disappointed with 2nd, but the championship is a 2 horse race so my only focus must be beating Richard. If I don’t win then he will!

So Snetterton next. I have not driven the car here so again we have no data or set-up. All our efforts are focused on working out the handling problem and fixing the overheating issues that were apparent from the Anglesey data.

NOT fast enough!

Only routine and necessary maintenance on the car since Anglesey. The oversteer we put down to an odd track a decision we would regret!

Qualifying was fully wet. We bolted on our old pattern 5 year old tyres and despite sliding all over the place qualified comfortably in pole by 1.8 seconds from Robert Oldershaw. Rick had suffered a fuel pump failure so did not qualify.

The race was going to be dry, so on with the slicks. Tried to avoid the general confusion about whether or not Rick would be let in, but very disappointed to see him doing 2 laps on his own, whilst we waited on cold tyres in parc ferma. My assumption he would be started from the pit lane was wrong and I saw him pass Robert down the back straight on the second lap and into second such was the advantage of 2 sighting laps on his own and warm tyres.

I held him off for 6 laps but eventually he out braked me into Russell chicane. I was able to hold on but unfortunately not make a challenge. The next 14 laps were at mine and the cars maximum but the still apparent oversteer and 110 degC water temperatures meant I was never really going to be able to challenge, and came in 2nd, although still 54 seconds ahead of 3rd.

Again the pace had been extremely fast, my fastest lap was 1 second under the lap record – just needed to go faster!

Special thanks goes to Carol and Robin (Em's parents) for their expert assistance over the weekend.

So Silverstone next – ready to do battle again.

MCR

Clive Hayes offered me a drive in his MCR for the endurance race, partnering James Rigby. We were very pleased with the set-up changes we made for qualifying but unfortunately before we got to demonstrate the full potential of the car the engine let go.

Hopefully there will be further opportunity to work with Clive and Cindy at MCR and get them to the front of the grid.

We are again supporting the wonderful Britcar 24hr race (just needed another £6000 to compete). Again we are guessing on Set-ups, but very excited and trying to avoid engine and gearbox blow-ups.

Qual: Friday 19th September 14.50

Race: Saturday 20th September 14.15