Silverstone Race Report The Silverstone weekend started rather well, although it did not feel it at first.
Took a turn for the worst during the race although I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Ended quite well although not for the best of reasons!
Silverstone was the weekend at the end of my Holiday, so it was a little strange but nice feeling to get back into racing. The qualifying session went very well, I had to complete the bedding in process for the new rear brake shoes and get back into the rhythm of Silverstone. It’s a wide circuit and for that reason it can be hard to get the exact line. The car felt quite good, a little too much understeer than I am used to but it was very consistent and I could get the power down early which is key on a circuit like this with 2 decent length straights. Just nearing the end of the session, Steve Robinson in the Class A Genesis came up behind and we had a little ‘racing incident’ as he passed and I let him through. He braked a little earlier than I estimated and I slowed a little less than I had thought, we touched, he went a little wide and I had a nice tyre shaped gash in the front of the bonnet! I wasn’t trying to get Steve back but I did manage to hit him nevertheless!
I came back in from qualifying thinking that I had done ok but not sure it would be enough for pole. In fact without lap timing during the session I felt a little lost. The lap that felt the fastest was compromised by a small mistake into the final complex. Well it turned out that I had managed Pole and with a 1:05.55, which is about half a second faster than my lap time from last year (and the pole time from last year). In front were just the top 3 class A cars of Gordon, Rob and Steve. Behind was Paul with an excellent 1:05.68. Mike Atkinson being the next best class C car with a 1:05.73. So not too bad a start.
In qualifying we were deliberating over whether it would rain during the session. For the race it was never going to be anything other than rain and more rain. The green flag lap showed up the turn for the worse with a misfire, again! Between the qualify and race, we had repaired the fibre glass on the bonnet and must have knocked the air box. Tony did ask whether we should check it out but I had decided that I would rather leave it alone as it looked like it was ok and had run ok post accident in qualifying so should be ok!!! Not only that but I had a really bad start, even pulling away almost on tickover, the car just sat there with wheelspin. Gordon and Paul had the exact same problem, all I can really remember is seeing Mike Field fly past on the start. Evidently Mike Atkinson passed at the same time but I could not see him, so great was the amount of spray! At the end of the first lap I had lost out to Mike Atkinson, Mike Field and Gordon had re-passed me. The cars were moving around a huge amount and as soon as I got some purchase, the misfire hampered my progress. On the second lap, John passed me, followed by Al who’s car looked well balanced. As Al moved up to John, I started to find a little more consistency by using alterative lines and pulled in some of the gap to John. Lap 5, I saw Mike Atkinson stranded in the gravel trap which gave me the dilemma of pushing hard to get good points or taking it easy to maintain the points advantage. Just as I came up behind John, Tim Hoverd caught me and pretty much just drove past me. I had tried wider lines to gain some grip but Tim was almost twice the distance off the racing line that I had tried. To good effect it would seem, his car also looking nice and compliant like Al’s. Far superior to mine and Johns. Tim’s progress was from 17th on the first lap to 7th on lap 7! Two laps from the end I saw Gordon go off in the same place as Mike had earlier, Gordon being the other title contender so if I could keep it on the circuit, I could make some good points improvement in the Championship. I stayed close behind John but whenever I got along side, the misfire stopped me from making the move stick. On the final lap, John made a small mistake into turn one, I maintained to maintain some good corner speed, passed John and the yellow flags for Gordon’s off helped to secure the final stage of the lap. So in the end, despite the misfire, I came across the line 4th place in class, behind an excellent 3rd for Tim, 2nd for Al and a clear win for Mike Field.
It was really impressive to see Al up in 2nd place, to record his first podium finish in his racing. Even more impressive to see Tim make it to 3rd after being almost last at the start of the race, completely out driving me and showing me the way in the slippery conditions. If ever somebody deserved to do well, its Tim. His improvements in speed have been really impressive this year, with some good signs of improved positions but this is the first time that they have yielded results.
I went into the final weekend with some good points advantage over Mike in class C, as well as Rob and Gordon in class A. I also had the advantage of a double header at my home circuit of Snetterton
I was ready for a nice relaxed weekend until we headed down for scrutineering and I realised I did not have my race suit with me! So as the car sat in the queue, I sprinted home and returned just in time to see the car being pushed into the scrutineering bay.
I was really looking forward to the qualify session and it all went quite well from the start. I was running just behind Paul and the car was turning in well, I had a little more understeer through the fast Corum corner but was stopping well for Russels and I was able to get good traction out onto the back straight. I did not have any idea of the times as the Digidash was playing up and then as I was getting comfortable the car felt a little strange when I came to the entrance of the Esses where the car seemed to lack turnin all of a sudden.
Then a few seconds later, as I exiting Corum and came to brake for Russels, the car suddenly grabbed to the right, pulling the wheel from my hands and spun at well over 100mph. It slid sideways, scrubbing off most of the speed and backed onto the grass on the outside of the circuit. I waited for the traffic to clear and then drove back to the paddock. Each time I touched the brakes or tried to turn the steering grabbed again. 
In the pits it was obvious that the bottom front drivers side wishbone had failed at a weld point. Amazingly the 5 laps I completed before it broke gave me 3rd in Class for the first race later on the Saturday and 2nd in class for the final rounds of the 2007 championship season on the Sunday. Between qualify and the race, we headed back to Johns and he did an amazing job of rewelding the failed wishbone as well as welding a new anti-rollbar fixing onto the spare. We got the new part back on and the car into running order just as we were called to the assembly area. Sometimes its all about the support you get from your pit crew rather than the driver.
