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Donington Race 22nd July |
| "The best way to forget a bad result is to have a good one....!" That thought was foremost in our minds as we approached the 9th round of the British Championship. Our lead had been "shortened" following the incident at Brands Hatch so Mike and I knew we had to put in a good performance. The guys at the Lister factory had done a fantastic job putting the car back together in such a short time and in truth it looked as good as new as we prepared for the official test.
Unfortunately the weather during the test did not allow for too much in the way of sensible running but by the end of the day we were comfortable that the car would be competitive. And that she was as Mike posted the fastest time during first qualifying nearly a second quicker than the Viper. I notched up the 3rd quickest time overall which was under the existing lap record so I considered myself "recovered" after the Brands shunt! No one bettered our time in the next session as the track slowed and a similar grid formation to that of Brands was in store........Despite a gloomy forecast the rain held off for race day. I bedded some disks and pads during the morning warm-up and we practiced and our pitstops until we all nodded in approval at each other.....!!
I again was outdragged into Redgate but the Viper gave me adequate room. There was no question of being squeezed here. I decided to slot into second however as we had a pre-defined race strategy. I followed him through the Old Hairpin and up the hill. We both had "moments" approaching Coppice which allowed the TVR to close right up. I was confused as to why I was suffering more understeer than the day before but hoped it would diminish as the tyres came in. I dropped to 3rd at the Loop and knew I had to respond. The gaps ahead to the two in front stabilised and indeed started coming down as my stint progressed. All three of us were in the 1.35's and my understeer was better.......I knew that if we could action a good stop then we would be able to leapfrog the leading pair in the pits. The Viper was in first with me right behind. All went according to plan and Mike exited ahead of Tim Harvey. Indeed we also made it ahead of the TVR which stopped a few laps later. So far so good. Mike pulled out a comfortable lead before the race was cut short when a Marcos was badly damaged at Redgate. We were declared the winners but it was not a good way to win a race. News that the driver was okay did allow us to celebrate on the podium though.....
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