It had rained on and off during the day; most of the cars were prepared with wet tyres and soft settings. Five minutes before we were called it brightened up and there was clearly no water on the track. We all set about changing to slicks and dry settings, including in my case a notch more anti-roll bar all round. The only other difference from the test day set-up was leaving the wet nose cone on, which has adjustable aluminium tabs to increase the downforce. A great decision by Ian. Instead of the wash (incipient understeer) at the front which we had on the fastest testing laps, the best qualifying laps had just a hint of incipient oversteer, that is, in the long Gerards turn, a tendency of the rear wheels to drift slightly, especially over the mild wallows in the second quarter of the corner.

I went off quite aggressively, as I had done at Lydden successfully. I must be getting to know myself. I have to rev myself up, and be a bit more aggressive than in the past, at the start of the session in order to get the adrenaline flowing. I went past several other cars on the road. Michael Taylor and Jim Lindley came past me, but not at the usual rate of knots. I was flying. Down the back straight, lifting later and later, lifting shorter and shorter, then on the throttle again ñ full throttle through the whole of the 190° bend. By my tenth lap or so I had also found a quicker line through the Esses, which had been a bête noire for me, with very little lift going in there either. I put another couple of coherent laps together, then thought ìnext time I will not lift off the throttle going into Gerardsî. Damn. Chequered flag. End of the session. The full throttle entry will just have to wait till next time. But my lap timer was showing 49.89 seconds, under the 50-second mark for the first time.

The track was damp in places and not at its fastest for the fast boys. Dan Eaglingís pole of 47.937 seconds was slower than his April pole of  47.014. Peter Clark had a broken front wing mount arm and could only make 8th. But I had taken a further second off my test time of two weeks ago, in fact the first time that I had done a competitive lap faster than the best test lap. 49.839 seconds against 50.81.  I was 13th on the grid, my best in K Sports 1600, just behind Brian Jordan and Simon Kelly who was flying, also after a useful test session at Mallory to get bedded down. I was happy with my place, especially as I had a good feeling about my ability to overtake in the race. On those two laps when faster cars came through, I stuck to the outside of Gerards all the way round, to find out what the surface conditions were like and whether I would be able to overtake someone round the outside. Good preparation.

Race

It was a lovely afternoon, lunch served by Clare Megson and by Nigel Norman who had driven me up to Mallory. There was enough sun to warm the face. I got the dark sun visor out of the travel case in case I wanted to change from clear. We were Race 6, after lunch. During race 4 a huge black thundercloud loomed up to our South. The pundits (including me, I admit) said itís going off to our West and will miss us. Keep the slicks on. Race 5, itís closer but still no rain. At half past three we were called to the assembly area, out onto the track, formation grid, green flag lap, itís going to be okay, onto the gridÖ the red lights go onÖ and stay on. Itís raining.

There was a short delay for reflection, radio calls to the marshal posts, more rain, then a board saying "start delayed". For reasons inexplicably connected with a marshalsí communication system power failure, the cars were not ushered into the paddock for the tyre changes but we were asked to change the tyres on the grid. I had Ian to take care of me (although I carried out all four tyres in the end). But how does a solo driver get four tyres, jack, spanners, do the work, get the slicks back to the paddock etc., all on their own. Oh yes, and the battery trolley to get the car started without depleting the internal battery. So it was controlled pandemonium. The womenfolk muscled in. Then Jamie Champkinís car revealed a broken wheel bolt; he had to pull out there and then. Mike Luck and Tony Pouyanne stayed on slicks, I should think to avoid the bother and to take a chance on the track drying and them getting a splendid result.

We then got two green flag laps to get to know the new conditions (not very nice but the visibility was okay) and we lined up to start the race at five to four! Jim Lindley dropped the clutch and found he had not selected a gear. We had a tough time behind as we bunched up and tried to avoid the concertina effect behind him and the entry to Gerards was pretty slow. But half way through the lap most of us were on the pace. Peter Clark certainly was. He carved through the field from 8th on the grid and ended the second lap in the lead! I was up to 12th behind Paul Freeman at the end of lap1 and had got past him by the end of lap 2. This was reversal of psychology from Donington where I was miserable. It was Paulís turn. He had told me earlier that he had twice come off at Gerards, both times hurting the car badly and himself a little bit. So one canít blame him for not gunning it un-necessarily in the wet conditions. I had a big smile on my face and the car was handling wonderfully. We had left the dry anti-roll bar settings but had softened the shock absorbers all round, so it felt quite like a dry set up and gave plenty of warning when it was coming to the end of the grip. I certainly felt faster through Gerards than anyone around me and started setting about the cars in front.

Ahead was Brian Jordan No.14, my teammate, and partner in fright from Rockingham. Ahead of him was Simon Kelly No.29, partner in crime from Silverstone in similar conditions. Luckily Brian got past Simon first so I was able to occupy myself with Simon before tackling Brian. But Simon was pretty combative, finding the middle of the road pretty well everywhere, meaning that the passing space either side was particularly small. I saw him up the inside at Gerards, then the outside, outside at the hairpin, then the inside. But he made himself very big and a bit wavy as well as dead center! At last I got my perfect line through Gerards and a nice catapult out onto the back straightÖ on his outside. I came alongside him for what seemed like an eternity and leaned on him slightly so that his entry line into the skatey esses was particularly difficult. He knew I was serious and I got the corner. At the end of lap 5 or 6  I was 10th behind Brian, and closing. As we started lap 8 I was about 50 feet behind Brian when he started a graceful pirouette one quarter of the way through Gerards. As he passed through 180 degrees he was still in the racing line, of course looking directly at me, praying I would not hit him. As he stopped spinning and as I looked for the decreasing gap between him and the Paul Freeman Memorial playing field size Grass Verge (fenced by that ominous-looking tyre wall 50 yards away), my nose cone struck Brianís car. The right vertical of my rear wing hit and knocked off the right vertical of his wing. My left wheels were on the grass but I kept it coming round the corner and back on to the track by a miracle of dynamic physics. Simon Kelly must have majored in the Arts; that gap was even smaller when he arrived half a second after, in my spray, and all four wheels got on the wet grass. Off. Goodbye. Hello tyre wallÖ ker-runch.

I saw him there forlornly next time round.  The results read ì15.55 race start. 16.02 marshal at post four reported car no 29 (Simon Kelly) retired on his 8th lap, car no 16 spun and continuedî. That must have been an error for No 14 (Brian Jordan) unless of course Chris Burnham (No.16) also spun at the same corner at the same time. No doubt he will tell me.

And of course I had a nice buffer of a gap behind me, Alan Avery having also got past Paul Freeman who was ahead of Tony Pouyanne. Now, I wonder whoís ahead to have a crack at? I put my right foot to the floor.

Then the heavens opened. The ugly sister of the one which had hit us on the starting grid just came along for the party. Within a lap there were rivers running across the track at the Esses and the Elbow before the pit straights. Those rivers became lakes. The trails of spray behind each car became walls of water. Several drivers were signaling to the finish line marshal to stop the race. But they let it run to its full 15.

In these atrocious conditions I had water down my front and into my underpants, but I still had fire in my belly. I thought I would try Brianís trick from Donington and lifted my visor to see if I could see better. The effect on my face was like a machine gun. I put the visor down again and followed the wall of spray that was Dave Madgewick in the Covill EBX No.23. I overtook some back markers, which was good for morale. Peter Clark and Dan Eagling lapped me. Mercifully they were able to see me even if I had not seen them and had no chance of seeing the flag marshals. Suddenly I found myself careering round two cars on Gerards as if they had given up. They had. The chequered flag was out and I had not even seen that. What about those big useful red lights on the gantry, Mr Clerk of the Course, I wonder?

In the deluge Peter Clark had stayed ahead and won by nearly half a minute from Dan. Wow! Howard Payne kept it together just behind Dan. Jim Lindley and newcomer Michael Taylor both spun and continued to finish 4th and 5th. Pete Richings had problems (was it engine?) and dropped out on lap 9. Mike Luck had done fine on his slicks until the rain when he had to go into the pits to regroup so I never saw him. Clive Woodward and Dave Madgewick were 6th and 7th, and there I was, 8th, my best ever finish in K Sports. So I should not really have been so glum and defeatist at Donington and I apologise.

Statistics
 

Circuit	Mallory Park	Fastest test lap	50.81 secs (8th Aug., dry)
Fastest qualifying lap	49.839 (97.51 mph)	Qualified in position	13
Conditions	Rain	Number of cars qualified	20
Fastest race lap	53.305	Number of cars at start	19
Finishing position	8th	Number of cars finished	15
Number of laps behind	1	Average speed	79.43 mph

Paddock chat

Nothing much, just a big smile and a cup of tea from Clare. Thanks Ian. Reliable car. Good settings. Methodical support. I've surely got to have a breakdown or a shunt sometime?

We have 59 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.