racereview

My Championship Season

1999 was a great racing year for me although tempered by an extremely sad personal loss.

It started when I was fortunate to be part of a winning team at Daytona, in one of the most gruelling races in the world where we took on the factory teams and beat them.

This result was against all odds and proves that “before you finish first, first you must finish”. I don’t know who said that but they couldn’t be truer words. It was particularly pleasing to read that Olivier Beretta’s worst moment of 1999 was losing Daytona! (he won everything else….)

A fine victory and a good way to start the British season. The plan at the beginning of the year was for me to do an all out attack on the Privilege Championship and be partnered by Claudia Hurtgen and Rob Schirle. The assault would be with our Daytona winning Porsche.

Silverstone was the first race in that championship and we experienced a number of teething problems with the brakes and the gearbox after the rebuild (from Daytona). This hampered our racing (none) and qualifying (very little!) but Claudia and I still managed a 2^nd place after a fluffed pitstop.

We were therefore on track as we travelled to my home circuit. I have won at Oulton once in my life – the other occasions have met with all sorts of minor calamities. The GT meeting in early May was not destined to be different - an engine fire climbing up Clay Hill destroyed the rear end of the car and only a valiant effort from the crew enabled us to roll out on to the grid for qualifying.

I then attempted to redesign the front end again and the pit crew went back to work again. They turned it round once more (thanks to Nigel Barratt fortuitously driving up the road in his 911 GT2).

A scary ride was the only way to describe the handling of the car for the next 50 minutes but Rob and I picked up the points for a 5^th place. Amazing effort by the team but my normal Oulton Park performance!

And then came an inspired move on our part which was much to the dismay of our competitors. Rob phoned to say we could drive the new Lister Storm GT2. This intrigued me and because the Porsche was not going to be ready for Snetterton I said yes. Now driving for Lister means dealing with the larger than life Laurence Pearce. This can, I had been told, be more daunting than driving the car….

Well he seemed okay to me. Sure he shouts a lot, screams abuse at most people around him and generally has some interesting opinions on life but he knows how to build a race car. We annihilated the opposition – I pulled two seconds a lap out on my rivals and gave Rob a huge lead. He lost this by speeding in the pits but promptly broke the lap record and sprinted off to win by 40 seconds.

Not surprisingly I did the deal with LP to drive the car for the rest of the season.

Brands Hatch was next but I was below par following a football injury. My doctor advised against driving but I needed the points. We were up against another Lister Storm which was going to make things a little trickier. A fine drive by Rob however clinched the win for us and we proceeded to the jewel-in-the-crown GP support event.

Lister was again our major opposition here and I handed the car over to Rob 14 seconds down in 2^nd place. We were much better in the pits though than all our rivals and we quickly caught Thorkild Thyrring up to take our third victory in the car. I’d never finished a GP support race before so this was particularly satisfying.

The crucial stage of the season was however always going to be the double-header at Donington. A failure in the first race could easily mean a zero pointer for the second. This was also our first experience of the car in the wet and it took a bit of getting used to .

I didn’t start very well in the first race but clawed my way back and again handed the car over in second place. The Viper was struggling with its perennial fuel problem and Rob coasted home with no opposition near him. Things were trickier in the second race though after I donated the vehicle to him in a lonely third place although we made a place back during our pit stop.

He set off in pursuit of the Lotus and we only just managed to notch up win number five.

We were carrying success ballast for these last two rounds and were extremely miffed to be handicapped further for the Summerfest round at Silverstone. We were instructed to reduce our restrictors by 2 while other competitors were granted an increase in theirs. The effect on the car’s performance was dramatic and the officials were not sympathetic with our pleas. It looked as through the opportunity to equal the record of six wins in a row was going to slip. We prepared ourselves for a 3^rd or 4^th place. I needed a win to secure the title.

I again handed the car over in 3^rd place but we were some way behind the lead car. They were to develop problems through and we managed to cross the line yards ahead of a charging Lotus. The race, Championship and Title were mine.

Rob and I had the “privilege” of collecting our trophies in front of thousands or screaming 911 fans (the group not the car …..) mmmmmm………..

Politics then reared its ugly head and it was decided we would sit out Croft. A little annoying but I accepted it and prepared myself for Spa – which was a waste of time really because we didn’t race there either. Prior commitments on both the Lister and the Porsche sidelined us again and only one race remained.

This was the remaining Silverstone round and we would be racing in the Porsche. It was odd being back in the 911 after such a long gap and we were having some brake problems which hampered our running. We were to finish a lowly seventh after numerous incidents in the race – not the way I wanted to finish the season but I would be the last to complain after the results we’ve achieved.

I have said before that I would not have been able to do it without Rob Schirle. He has driven magnificently all year and really should have shared in the rewards. I did try to arrange this but failed. I also would not have won without the cars and for that, credit must go to Roock for Daytona and Lister for the British Championship.

So what does next year bring? At present my plans are to run a Lister again in the Privilege series to try and retain the title. This will not be an easy task as there looks likely to be a very competitive field out for revenge…..

My driving partner is likely to be Rob but this is the silly season……..

We also plan to return to both Daytona and Le Mans in the Porsche and Lister respectively. If it is possible we may also run in some selected FIA races.

Watch this space.......