These
are the guys with whom I race at Silverstone Stowe for fun. This time it
was a delight to see another Mallock in the paddock, the silver Mk20B of
new Classic Clubmans B Sport driver Mark Charteris. 60 seconds into our
first conversation it turned out that this is the same car, The Wasp, that
I had driven in my first season in 2001, here at Lydden Hill. It was yellow
then (picture). I see from my records that it was my 10th race, I finished
4th and that my fastest lap was 45.370. Here's Mark, 4 years later, in
his 4th race, and he drove a 44.231 today! Good performance.
9.30 in the morning and out on track. Dry and warming. Set up back to high down force normal but using some old Avon tyres from last year to finish them up.
Mark
tucked in behind me for a while, as he had not been to Lydden before, but
he's naturally quick and was immediately on the pace. Someone must have
sold him a pup because he tried to take Paddock Bend flat before we had
warm tires. He managed to spray gravel all over the track, a piece of which
lodged under the water pump belt and prised it off. He started overheating
a few laps later and pulled off. The single sealers which are normally
faster than me at Stowe could not match us and we finished one and two
on the grid, a Mallocks. My first ever pole position!
At the end of qualifying a cloud formation turned Lydden into a set from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The first race went out as the rain started. When the thunder started it was like a Wager opera from inside the kettle drum. When the rain started it was like news footage of a central African flood. Three inches fell in an hour. Most of the cars fell off the track, acquaplaning straight on at Pilgrims and the Devil's Elbow. Red Flag. Chris Bicknell and his friend Robby Cosset did not have waterproofs so they were treating it like a beach holiday, soaked to the skin. The water flowing onto the circuit necessitated a huge tractor and tanker to empty water from the lowest part of the circuit, Pilgrims. It was hardly surprising that the race officials came close to calling off the meeting.
We waited for two hours or so during this stupendous storm circling round us. I could not believe that my first pole position would not even be consummated by a start! But at half past two the rain eased enough for racing to get under way (2 CV endurance racing and 6 litre Ford V8s in silhouette shells, among other things). And we lined up at something like 4.30, much to our surprise.
Chris insisted that I don't come off on the first corner. There was a dry
line enough for us to have put the slicks back on but rivers across the
track in 3 places, so it was challenging. 3 or 4 of us went round Chessons
together. Dave and Ray who finished 2nd and 3rd in the end said Mark and
I were holding them up but we did all stay on the track. When we had sorted
ourselves out, Mark was right on my tail and pushing. It turned out that
he was faster than me. His race best lap was 44.231 against my 44.599 but
I defended pretty well. I had more power going up the hill, he caught me
into Paddock Bend but I managed to keep ahead along the pit straight. His
faster laps must have been when we had been negotiating the mobile chicanes
which were the ill-handling ERA single-seaters who were 5 seconds a lap
slower than us at best. Mark got past me at the North Bend hairpin once,
then twice. An ERA baulked him a third time. As the ERAs fell off (4 of
them skidded off and hit the bank to retire) a yellow flag popped up on
the home straight and I had to brake to avoid overtaking one of them. Mark
had to brake to avoid me. Then suddenly he was not there. He had run out
of petrol on lap 15 of 26!. It is certain that I would not have been able
to resist him to the end, so the best man did not win. It was his moral
victory, and best lap time of the day of any car including Rod Birley in
his turbocharged Ford.