NEW VIDEO Did you enjoy the video of Croix-en-Ternois? I have processed another one, available on office intranet or high speed modem only (>150 kbps) at a bigger frame size. It's lap 6 and 7, Marcus trying to get past Dave Madgwick (unsuccessfully). Comments by email please (marcus@bicknell.com).
 

Qualifying

It was tipping it down on Sunday morning as we went out to qualify. I had a great time because, unlike last time here, the car was controllable both understeering and oversteering. Ian Megson and I had got the set-up and balance pretty well right. As usual, my fastest lap was early on, my third! 1'34.633 in the wet, good enough for 17th place on the grid. As soon as I start trying I get ragged and go slower.

So much so that nearing the end of the session (marked by Ian's pit signals, practising for the 40 minute enduro race at Brands in 2 weeks) I thought I would brake a bit later for Riches corner, the end of the pit straight. I hit some standing water and was still going straight on when I left the circuit. Luckily the grass run off was not too bumpy and I got back on to the circuit after some high speed lawn-mowing which left a neat pile of grass on the splitter (the flat straight part of the nose cone at ground level). Several clubmen wags asked how much I would charge for doing their lawn.

At the end of the qualifying session as we left parc fermé for the paddock there was one of the regular checks for eligibility of the car. Mine failed the requirements for the maximum height of the rear wing off the ground. I was about a centimetre over the 1 metre 10, despite my having measured it during the winter.. The reason was that we had adjusted the wing for wet conditions, i.e. increasing the angle of the wing. This tends to lift the back of the wing and that's where it was now too high. Luckily my time stood, but Ian and I had to dismantle the wing, chop 15mm off the vertical, drill new holes for the wing bracket, re-assemble and re-visit the scrutineer.

Race

So after all that hassle it was almost disappointing to see the sun blink through and a dry line appear on the track. Back to the slicks, shocks up a notch, wing angle down a notch, high down force tabs on the nose cone off, and brake bias back to the front.

I got a good start up the pit wall and continued to hug the inside into the first right hander. Pandemonium off to the left as Covill or Madge plus another couple of cars made a high-speed inspection of my grass cutting. I had therefore made up about five places and was really into the groove in the middle pack when red flags were shown in the pit straight. Three cars had come off behind me at The Esses, Glen Centello, Des Andrews and Andy Howarth I assume as they did not start the re-run. As the red flag was within the first two laps, the new grid positions were the same as qualifying, so the guys I had overtaken slinked past me to take up their original positions. Damn.

The second start was amusing too, so busy ahead and even busier in the mirrors. Busiest of all for me was Nick Bailey who gave me a firm push as I turned in to the Esses. I have no idea how the following pack missed me as I spun anti-clockwise watching them coming at me. They all missed me. Thanks guys. I had stalled but as I completed the 180° there was enough forward motion to select 2nd, drop the clutch, fire up and drive on... 5 places worse off. I thought that, as Cadwell, I would have enough damage to put me out of the race, but as I came up to speed I found the car was pretty similar to before and I pushed on. The memory of the race is of a white-knuckle ride mixed with one of those dreams where you see things from a detached point of view. From time to time there would be a cloud of smoke ahead, or some cars jousting on the grass verge, a car sideways at the exit of Sear, the sound of Ian Crombie's brakes in the back of my helmet approaching the chicane at Russell. The Race Incidents on the results sheet look like this ...

17.01 Race start
17.02 Esses reported No's 11 and 30 made contact, both continued (hey, that's me No.11  !!!)
17.04 Russell reported No's 12 and 3 made contact, No.3 continued
17.04 Riches reported No.24 spun and continued
17.07 Esses reported No.14 retired on his 5th lap
17.09 Riches reported No's 57 and 17 both spin, both continued (that was Dave Madgwick and Adrian Lester)

Sure enough, I ended 12th from my starting position of 17th, and happy to be still running despite the scars of my first lap knock including a stripped rim on my rear left tyre which must have come so close to puncturing the tyre. Survival! My best race lap was 1'19.785, only one twentieth of a second faster than 3 weeks ago here. The 3.9 diff felt much better in acceleration thasn the 3.7, but clearly the difference was marginal.

Statistics: Qualifying
 

Circuit	Snetterton	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Wet 14°	Previous personal best	1'19.829 in this car 3 weeks ago
Fastest qualifying lap	1'34.663 (74.25 mph)	Qualified in position	17 out of 26

Statistics: Race
 

Finishing position	12	Number of cars at start	26
Average speed	84.96 mph	Number of cars finished	20
Conditions	Dry 17°	Fastest race lap	1'19.785
Number of laps behind	same lap		Knocked off on lap 1, then dice with Ian Crombie, Chris Karn

Paddock chat

Did you see the Luffield landscape pictures from the last meeting? Here's a sample. More in report 9.
Lap 1 at Silverstone 2 weeks ago, the second half of the field. 32 cars on the grid don't forget. Tim Covill (21) has got ahead of Arf Dickens (purple) alongside Adrian Brown, followed closely by Howard Payne, Paul Freeman, Brian Jordan, Richard Mallock (yellow EBX), Jamie Champkin, and Nick Bailey (orange EBX) hiding Marcus. And then some.