The View from the Back - Report 2002 N°C
First win (minor race) and wheel-to-wheel racing
Lydden Hill, Kent, 15th and 16th June 2002

The BRSCC had only three entries for the Southern Sports & Saloons round on the Saturday, so within minutes of registering we were called back to be told the race had been cancelled! A 5.30 wake-up, 2½ hours drive to Kent, and they were going to send me home. I turned on the resourcefulness button and asked the organisers to see if we could run with another category in an invitation class. BRSCC asked the Global GT Lights, but oh surprise, their co-ordinator said "No chance" and would not even consult his drivers. They then asked Carol, co-ordinator for the Lumenition / Micro Dynamics Road Saloons championship, and she said "Yes we'd love to". It was agreed that the sports cars would start from the back with a ten second delay, but we went out for qualifying times anyway to establish our own mini grid.

Thank goodness for the alternator we had fitted after the Pembrey shunt. I had taken the Mallock to Brooklands on Friday 14th June for a client event hosted by the company I work for, Oplayo. The clients drove Caterhams and a few of them tried the Mallock round the cones on the Brooklands runway (not the banking!). I forgot to turn the master switch off for the return home, so at Lydden there were only 9 volts left. I left the jump battery on till the last moment and then the internal battery was charging itself up.

My Mallock was understeering badly at the slow bends. Ian Megson said this is typical of Lydden Hill. I softened the front end, added down force with tabs on the nosecone and hardened the back end for the race, and it was a bit better. Qualifying was fun though, even if some of the saloons were mobile chicanes. I ended up with about the same time as I did with Richard Mallock's "Wasp" Mallock 20B in the Classic Clubmans last year, 45.3 seconds

Saturday Race

In the end, only Peter Thurston in his Sunbeam Stilletto was the only other runner in my class. He had a twin cam 1800cc Ford engine with massive carbs. His car was as funky as one of those Skodas with bits of bodywork dropping at various angles to the ground, but it accelerated very well. To make things more fun, and to minimise any negative effect on the championship being contested by the saloons, Peter and I agreed (with the Clerk of the Course's OK) to drive the first lap at reduced speed to let the saloons get ahead. We also knew that full championship points would be awarded to the saloons, wherever we finished, so we were encouraged to go racing. That's what we did!

At the end of our first, slow, lap, with the marshals scratching their heads wondering what we were doing, we accelerated past the start finish line and started our own race. By the time we caught the first saloons, maybe three laps in, they were well spread out and we could get past them without handicapping our own blinding pace. Peter was faster in a straight line, but I could get alongside him round the outside of Pilgrims and Chessons Drift, a delightful adverse camber right hand course reversal over the brow of a hill. Anyway, he got me in the uphill drive between Devil's Elbow and the hairpin at North Bend at about lap 6. We continued to pick off the saloons one by one until about lap 10 when I caught up with Peter each time round Chessons... wheel to wheel, that is, my front wheel alongside his rear wheel, despite his extravagant power slides to the left and to the right. His pattern became predictable enough to know where the back end would swing, and he said afterwards that the flashes of yellow on either side became more and more prolonged. This was an epic battle and by far the closest hand-to-hand-combat battle I've had. The commentator and spectators loved it apparently. Rohan, my nephew from Australia, said the marshall were watching nothing else. Some kids alongside him asked dad what those two cars were and dad said "Those are sort of Formula One cars, son".

On lap 15 I took my chance and braked late at the end of the start finish straight. I was alongside him into Chessons for the first time and I nailed the throttle in a power slide, about three inches from his right panels. We stayed that way to Devils Elbow, the left hander, and I had the inside line. Got him. I was in the lead. We had passed all the saloons!

Peter's brakes faded after that, as mine did, but I stayed ahead for the win, the first of my young career. A garland and a finish line interview. An unexpected victory. Not much of an achievement given that there was only one other car in my class, but I did beat Peter who I'm sure wanted it as much as me. But I had kept it on the road, had upped my personal best to under 45 seconds, and the car had not failed me. Nice boost for the moral after the two shunts (Castle Combe and Pembrey) at the beginning of this year.

Peter was magnanimous. We had a sweaty natter about how much fun it had been. We agreed that Sunday was going to be more difficult because the Jade and three litre boys would be out!

Statistics: Saturday Qualifying
 

Circuit	Lydden Hill	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Dry, sun, 18°	Previous personal best	45.3 secs, Mallock 20B "Wasp", 4th August 2001
Fastest qualifying lap	45.3 secs = 79.5 mph	Qualified in position	1st

Statistics: Saturday Race
 

Finishing position	1st	Number of cars at start	17
Average speed	76.57 mph	Number of cars finished	15
Conditions	Dry, sun, 20°	Fastest race lap	45.738 =  78.7 mph
Number of laps behind	not applicable

Sunday Qualifying

Normal service was resumed on Sunday. There was a sizeable entry for the BRSCC/SEMSEC South Eastern Sports & Saloons Series, including Mike Roberts' 3 litre Jade (remember him from Castle Combe?) and local ace Lol Pilfold in a 220 h.p. Caterham in bright pink! I took the car out as on Saturday but tried entering Devils Elbow in third gear (to avoid the time and concentration needed to grab secoind which is a bit sticky) and a bit faster (to try to carry the speed up the hill). It worked. I got another half a second of my personal best at 44.828 seconds, and pulled off before the end to save tyres etc. 4th fastest after Roberts, Pilfold and Robert Bridger's supercharged 2 lite Toyota Starlet.

Sunday Race

The race was less eventful than Saturday, but satisfying from learning curve point of view. The Mallock's 120 h.p. engine pulls well but not as well as the bigger engined boys, so two cars overtook me before the first corner. But with Saturday's experience fresh in the mind, I got round the outside of them both through Pilgrims and Chessons Drift, one on lap 1 and the other a lap later. Order re-established. The Toyota and the mega-Caterham were 100 yards in front, with the Jade disappearing in the distance. Roberts had been 5 seconds quicker than me in qualifying, so it only took 9 laps for him to lap me. I gave him big hand signals in case he remembered Castle Combe.

I had a couple of moments trying too hard. On the outside of Chessons the marbles go on for ever. And the vicious Paddock Bend needs extra accuracy on the apex to avoid hitting the grit on the outside... I had one tank-slapper when I put the left tyres off the tarmac, but held it. Then there was some overlapping of the back-runners, including some of the guys from the Saloon race from Saturday, all of them rather good drivers and using the mirros well. All 17 cars finished, without a bent fender between us.

I finished fourth, alone but happy. Best lap of 45.012 second, within two tenths of my qualifying time. Seems right.

Statistics: Sunday Qualifying
 

Circuit	Lydden Hill	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Dry, sun, 20°	Previous personal best	45.3 secs, Mallock 20B "Wasp", 4th August 2001
Fastest qualifying lap	44.828 secs = 80.30 mph	Qualified in position	4th

Statistics: Sunday Race
 

Finishing position	4th	Number of cars at start	17
Average speed	77.880 mph	Number of cars finished	17
Conditions	Dry, sun, 22°	Fastest race lap	45.012 = 80 mph
Number of laps behind	not applicable

Paddock chat

My son Christopher was support crew and did very well. We were adopted by a group of French teenage students who were on a course in Canterbury for a week. As they live in Bethune we have encouraged them to come to our meeting at Croix en Ternois on July 6 and 7.

Lydden Hill is a jewel of a circuit. Simple lay-out, challenging corners, short straights. The track is wide enough to be able t race two abreast everywhere, and to have the space to correct mistakes (except at Paddock). I can strongly recommend a jaunt down the M2 for anyone who wants fun and wants to progress their skills.