Marcus competed in his first ever motor race on Saturday 3^rd March 2001 at Silverstone. The car was the Mallock Mk18 BW with a 1600cc Rover engine which Ian Megson used to race and which he now owns and prepares for Marcus.

What a day to start the season. -5° C over night but Ian's new motor home was plugged into the Silverstone mains and the heater kept Gareth and him snug overnight. By the time I arrived at 8.30 there was still black ice on the tarmac in the paddock and lumps of ice all over the car. But the sun was out an hour later and the ice melted off during the first practise session for the stock hatches.

Practice

K Sports practice was still pretty slippery, especially off the racing line. I found the tyres extremely cold and I spun at Brooklands on my first lap. The entry was okay but a tadge too much throttle for the dab into Luffield was enough to send it round anti-clockwise. I kept it off the grass and the engine running. But a lap later I had to go in, as planned with Ian, to check the tyre pressures.

By the time I was out half the session must have been over and I was still as cold as my tyres. Then the pace men started swallowing me up. The Mallock's mirrors are fine so equating the blue flags to some blue or white and orange blob in the mirrors was within even my feeble grasp. But stepping out to the outside of Becketts or Luffield to let them through turns a 1'08 into a 1'10. Then when I got going I came across some slower traffic (what?) and then Mike's Luck ran out with the most enormous cloud of smoke at Brooklands and round Luffield. I had to phone the marshals on the mobile to ask them where the track was. Then when that was over what did I see but the chequered flag. Great car. Cold tyres. Nervy first time driver. Last on the grid. 1'10"48 against 1'03"002 by Dan Eagling.

Race

Never mind. I had the best view in the assembly area and on the grid because everyone was in front of me. I was nodding cheerily at a marshal who had been talking to me before the race when the lights went red, then green. I got first gear and chased after the pack, keeping out of problems at the first corner.

At Brooklands first time round James Lindley, second on the grid, spun and John Kelly hit him amidships. Well that's what I heard when we got back to parc fermé at the end of the race. All I saw at the time was some mangled wreckage on the inside of the entry to Luffield (John's car pictured) and two angry drivers. John the more angry because he had just finished rebuilding the front sub chassis. A few laps later, with the yellow flags and tow trucks still out, Mike Luck's engine expired in another huge pall of smoke. Was it just a repetition of his practice incident which had been the loss of the oil scavenge pump drive belt? So on my lap 6, half way through the race, we three at the back had hardly started racing yet. Times varying between 1'10 and 1'14.

But unlike practise, I had got my tyres hot, and I was in the groove. The green flag after the Brooklands crash showed one third of the way round Luffield. I love that corner because a nice fast wide entry and progressive throttle into a late apex gives good speed on the exit towards Woodcote. Yes, the picture shows me closing up from behind. In this way I was able to overtake Christopher Burnham and a lap later exactly the same on Paul Dawson. I promise, the family has even got a video of it all happening. Lapping under 1'09.

Copse is terrifying. Full belt down the pit straight, then there's a full speed corner which is totally concealed by the pits Armco barrier. I have no idea how some cars can take it without even lifting off. I don't have the bottle yet. Half a second of brakes, turn in; throttle partly on before the apex. On the exit I can always tell I could have done it fasterÖ but that's for next time.

Becketts is wonderful. That snaky entry round Maggots, plenty of brake and whack it into the tight Becketts right-hander, slightly late at the apex to get the throttle on to carry the speed into the Club Straight.

After getting past those two cars it was a bit lonely for a few laps. All of a sudden the rear view mirrors jumped to life. Then the blue flags did. Dan Eagling took my invitation at Becketts on the inside. A regal wave of thanks. Beauty before Age, clearly. Half a lap later a triple gaggle of Peter Richings, Peter Clark and Michael Mallock came through on the inside of Luffield. But I felt happy that in my first race I did not get in anyone's way.

Seeing their Mallocky arses disappearing ahead of me was the stimulus I needed. How do they do that? I could not tuck in but I certainly went into Copse faster and I got the times down to under 1'08, better than those 1'10 somethings in practise. 1'07"661 was my best according to Mr Timekeeper, compared to 1'05"56 a few weeks before in testing (but after 97 laps across 3 sessions).

Statistics
 

Circuit	Silverstone National	Fastest test lap	1'05"56
Fastest qualifying lap	1'10"48 = 83.71 mph	Qualified in position	19 and last
Conditions	Cold and dry	Number of cars qualified	19
Fastest race lap	1'07"661	Number of cars at start	19
Finishing position	14	Number of cars finished	16
Number of laps behind	1	Average speed	82.99 mph

Paddock chat

The Mallock seems to be a very good car for a beginning.

• Firstly it's predictable. There's no snapping at the back. It just says quietly "I'm going to start letting go here, please back off the throttle a smidge".
• Secondly, the driving position and feel is direct; those little exposed front wheels are right there in your face so you know where they're going.
• Thirdly it's balanced. This might be a feature of Ian's car that we set up painstakingly wheel by wheel, but the Mallocks have the reputation of being flat and firm on the ground. This means there's no weaving under heavy braking like the Radicals (so there's less fear factor). There's no rolling and twitching under heavy cornering.
• So fourthly, it corners on rails. If the speed is too high and the rails are going to lead off the available road, the driver has the time to readjust the corner in time to put the rails back on the road.
• Fifthly, it not expensive. Sealed engine, control tyres. Simple space frame chassis and fibre body. Stock components. Lots of fun.

Post script 17th March 2001:
It appears that two runners who finished ahead of me were not qualified to be in the championship. So everyone lower than they shuffles up. So I get points for having come 12th even though I was 14th on the track. That makes 9 points not 7!

We have 9 points on the way to raising a year's target of £5000 for Macmillan Cancer Relief. Details on http://www.ndirect.co.uk/mbicknell/racing/3relief.htm . Email me on marcus@bicknell.com to make a commitment.

MB 4^th March 2001