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Season Review 2000 |
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If truth be told I didn’t really believe at the start of the season that we would be in contention this year. News that my new car would not be available until the middle part of the season, confirmation that we would still be subject to restrictor penalties and the influx of some very good ‘pedallers’ stifled my ambitions somewhat… My ambitions were not to be lifted at Daytona either despite running with the same team as last year and indeed running competitively, we were not destined to run for very long. My only solace was I had improved my own personal best around the Florida track! The first round of the British season was at Thruxton. A terrifying circuit at the best of times, we were also going to be subjected to some seriously bad weather. Although I surprised myself in qualifying, I thought we would be “up against it” in the race due to our power disadvantage. As it happened we benefited by others making mistakes and we held on to win the race by a whisker from the Parr Viper.
Rob remained as my driving partner when we travelled north to Croft. Not a race I would want to remember really as I lost control on probably the slowest corner in British motorsport! I’m still not really sure what occurred but it showed up a major design fault with the car’s reverse gear. No points here and as we progressed to Oulton I was hoping that my luck at my home circuit would change. This was not going to be however. Despite being on the front row which surprised us both we were destined only to last two corners. An input shaft failure left me stranded and another ‘nil points’ was racked up by the Oulton jury. Donington Park on the other hand has been kind to us in the past and if our luck was going to change anyway, this was where it was going to happen (we hoped!) I was not convinced however that this was going to be the case following an uncharacteristic error by Rob when he tried to redesign the car’s splitter. Some hasty modifications by the boys enabled us to race but the handling was less than perfect. Again we were to benefit from other people’s problems and scored our second win of the season.
A dispute then ensued between Rob and the team and I was offered Jamie Campbell-Walker as my co-driver. J C-W immediately set the ‘cat amongst the pigeons’ by picking up pole at the next Silverstone round allowing me once again to taste the delights of the front row. It was a messy race but one which had us in the lead with 3 laps to go. Another gearbox failure however meant a dnf and things were not looking so rosy again… And so the circus moved to Brands Hatch – another of my favourite tracks. I was again with J C-W and the Championship prospects were poor to say the least. We needed to win here if we were going to salvage anything of the season. It was a great race which again we won by a whisker but it was maximum points scored … The next Donington race was nearly called off due to atrocious weather conditions. We would have been better off with boats! I was partnered by Tiff Needell as JC-W was on FIA duty. Tiff has a huge amount of Lister experience and took to it like a “duck to water”. A great pit stop and stint by the TV man netted us another win and then suddenly we were back in with a shout. Another Croft race and another partner. This time it was Richard Dean who joined me and TV interviews were becoming more and more confusing. We have never really sorted the handling out here but we chose the best compromise over the bumps. I also had a desire to improve on my last performance here which shouldn’t have been a problem. Indeed it wasn’t as we notched up another victory with Richard ably holding off a charging Tim Harvey to the flag.
This remarkably put me into the Championship lead as we headed to Silverstone for the following round. Pole position again and everything this time went like clockwork. This is also where we clocked the fastest driver change seen in the Championship and we won by our largest margin as well.
This increased my lead and I felt fairly confident (although I knew we were not ‘home’ by any stretch of the imagination) as we visited Snetterton for the first time of the year. Richard would partner me for the race and we both posted very respectable times in preparation for the event. A front row start allowed me into the first corner in the lead and that is where I stayed for the first lap. As we came round again though an unbelievably foolish move by another driver destroyed the back of my car and my lead was cut in an instant.
An invitation to run in Japan in the Suzuka 1000 kms was a welcome break from this disappointment and I was to experience my new car for the first time. It was my first experience of Suzuka as well and it is every bit as good as they say. We qualified on class pole and ran in the lead for the first hour but we were not destined to last much longer as brake problems put an end to our Japanese quest.
I put that disappointment behind me as Powertour village moved to Spa. As my report reads we had every reason still to be optimistic at this stage and this was strengthened when we took pole and led the early stages of the race. It was not to be however – a rogue engine bolt put paid to my ambitions and we headed to the last race now trailing the leader. The final round was at Silverstone and Julian would replace JC-W who was honeymooning in Mauritius !?! We needed to win the race and our main rival needed to be lower than sixth for us to triumph. After posting the fastest and second fastest times in practice I knew we could do the first bit – the second bit was out of our hands. In the race we scored the maximum points but it was not enough. It would be second this year and not Champion.
Frustrating really – six wins (seven maximum points) and five "did not finish's". Three of these dnf's were whilst leading the races in question.......... Some may say that you do not deserve to win with this level of consistency. Two gearbox failures, one engine failure, one lunatic driver and one innocent spin …… and seven wins ………..mmmmmm. Now had I stuck with the old car!!!! On a positive note my driving has come on and on. I’ve rattled some cages this year and I’m looking forward to doing more of the same next year. My thanks to my various partners (there won’t be as many next year!!!) and to the Lister team and Michelin (Jim in particular) for their help and support …. and of course well done to J & J in the FIA. Next stop Daytona in the Porsche – the same one with which we triumphed in 1999 and with some of the same drivers!!
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