The cold fronts, the storms, and the winds were sweeping across the whole of the UK. All the drivers of another bumper turn-out of 26 K Sports cars spent most of the day looking at the sky and wondering what tyres to put on. I had just finished the rebuild of the car after Pembrey and was in no mood to damage it again. So my instinct was in favour of wet tyres as we got towards our qualifying time. We suddenly saw that the Ginettas were hardly throwing up spray on the pits straight and decided for slicks... too late. An ominous tannoy voice said we had two minutes to get to assembly and someone said they would close the gate and deny us access. So wets it was, for about half a dozen of us.

Ian Crombie and I circulated together for half the session, getting the feel of the drying track with the soft wet-weather tyres. Sure enough, on my sixth or seventh lap, they suddenly went off. The symptoms? Endless understeer on the fast corners and a terrible smell of my own burning rubber. Ian had pipped me by one third of a second in our own little grid battle, over 11 seconds behind Dan Eagling, in 16th and 17th place

26 cars for a circuit that can take 24 cars means 2 cars go home after qualifying. Mark Cousin, all the way from Toulouse, did not complete 3 laps, and Marc Weyer, so fast at Pembrey, had problems and was beaten to the last spot by Christopher Burnham, two hundredths faster! Howard Payne's car was a no show after the biff with me at Pembrey, but Howard was there and in apparently good form.

The Races

After a downburst which threatened to put an end to the whole race meeting - the pit straight would not drain any more because the verges were waterlogged - we saw some gaps in the rain clouds as our race slot approached. The whole grid took slicks and the race was on. My car's acceleration now seems good, and as we streamed two abreast up the hill I got by two cars (probably Ian Mitchell and Nick Bailey).

Since I wrote this report on the Cadwell Park race, Nick Bailey has been able to correct my impression that I had gone past him in lap 1. In fact he was going great guns further up the field. The lap chart showing him near the back of the field was a lap after the restart. Sorry Nick. So I have no idea who I might have gone past but it doesn't matter.

The driving was impeccable except for one driver (with whom I had a chat afterwards) who weaved left and right up Park Straight on lap 1. As he went back for the third time to the left for the right hander Park I made to take him on the right. He squeezed me back to the right under braking and onto the grass, which was still much wetter than the track. So I then ran off the left at the exit and did a Cathy Muller at Donington to get back from the grass onto the track. Several cars missed me and a couple were still behind. No damage to the car so I pressed on and started to get in the groove.

On lap 3 or so, as I started getting back on terms with, then past, Ian Crombie, there were yellow flags at Barn, then two or three cars (Woodward and Lindley) in the greenery pointing the wrong way. With a flash the red flags were out and as we stopped gingerly on the start finish line we saw a trail of white and red car body parts adorning the end of the pits straight, and the support van and ambulance on their way. Peter Clark had come off, although at the time of writing I know not how, and had clouted the tyres at full whack. He was okay, the car not. We then had a game of Chinese Checkers in which the start line marshals tried to get the fast cars (who had completed another lap) onto their new grid positions when the slower cars were up the front.

So that's how we got two races. One of 3 or 4 laps and one of 6 or 7. I had started 17th, got past 3 cars, 4 had crashed out so I lined up 10th for the second race.

Once again at the second start I was away well. The same car as before was weaving defensively, this time on the pits straight. This is where Peter Clark had just crashed, so the danger of changing line continuously was obvious. Anyway, I had a tremendous time because the slicks were working and I had the measure of the car. I was racing with Peter Burnham on the first two laps, then got past him. Then I had Dave Madgwick snapping at my tail, with Simon Kelly just ahead until he slid off at the Mountain. Nothing lonely about this afternoon on the track, racing all the way.

I thought I had finished tenth or eleventh, but I read today Tuesday in the K Sports report that it was 8th. I had missed that Jamie Champkin had dropped out with electrical problems and that James Lindley and Mike Luck had been sidelined in the various spins we saw. In fact, a look at the qualifying positions (below) and the results show that I had only overtaken three cars in open combat (Mitchell, Crombie, Bailey); the other six had fallen off in front of me. But 8th is my best result in K Sports, equal to Mallory in the wet last August. Who cares when you're having such fun?

Statistics: Qualifying
 

Circuit	Cadwell Park, full	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Cold, drying Wet tyres, wrong choice	Previous personal best	100.27 secs, Mallock 20B "Wasp", 7th May 2001
Fastest qualifying lap	103.45 secs = 75.62 mph	Qualified in position	17 out of 26

Statistics: Race
 

Finishing position	8th	Number of cars at start	24
Average speed	76.57 mph	Number of cars finished	20
Conditions	Cool, dry	Fastest race lap	99.20 = 78.86 mph
Number of laps behind	same lap

 

Championship table      Official race report
 

Paddock chat

We all got wet.

Graham Bates drove up from Surrey to watch the K Sports action. He came to the Mallory Track Day to drive my car and Tim Covillís, and is getting keen on getting to race one. ARDS test soon. He was put to work in the paddock on the wheel changes, and during the race on taking pictures with the digital camera. The three pictures in the tress at Hall Bends are by Graham... thanks!

MB 26th May 2002 22h50 revised 28th May 21h30 and 7th June