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Silverstone 21st May |
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It did not help that the weekend started shrouded in mystery. A temporary disagreement of a commercial nature between Lister and Cirtek had sidelined Rob and I was now to partnered by Jamie C-W. I had no problems with driving with Jamie but I found it unsettling in what I am trying to achieve this year. I was also told that by putting another driver in that I was jeopardising the chance of receiving some assistance on our restrictor penalty. I found that irritating to say the least particularly as all the unrest had absolutely nothing to do with me......
Anyway back to racing!! The boys at Lister had worked really hard to fix the damage from Donington and Jamie took it through its paces on the Friday test day. Work commitments kept me away but he reported that the car felt good although the engine misfire that has plagued us on and off this season was still there. The boys went back to work in an attempt to rectify this for Saturday qualifying.
The afternoon session allowed me out to play though and although the track was littered with GTO remnants, I found myself only 0.8 from the best time. I packed my bags and headed up north to home. Maybe the weekend would be okay after all..... Blue skies rapidly turned to gray and spots of rain turned to torrents as we approached Silverstone. I would be starting from pole but did not want to be used as a braking stop for other cars at Copse. Fortunately the weather improved as we waited patiently for our race...... I again would be joined by the majority of the no.1 drivers for the start of the race. My job would be to keep the number of cars Jamie had to chase down to a minimum. Tommy Erdos lined up next to me and the "Touring car boys " behind. Contact looked pretty inevitable. I had a reasonable start but the Marcos has the legs in a straight line. I followed Tommy through and held the inside down to Becketts.
There then seemed to be pandemonium in my mirrors and when I looked again there was nothing......not a car in sight. I followed the Marcos round the lap and as we approached Becketts again he lost it too and spun onto the grass. I was now in the lead and on my way........for half a lap anyway until the Safety Car was called out. I caught it up and held station. It was the TVR behind me and the Cleland Viper was close behind. It would be an interesting restart. Sure enough I was outdragged by both of them up to Copse and discretion became the better part of valour. I needed to keep in touch with them to give Jamie a chance and I did this pretty well to start with.
I then began to struggle in the slow corners with the engine. It was taking ages to get up and go and I began to get a little worried particularly when the Lotus arrived in my mirrors with a battling Marcos. They flew through the slow corners and I was left floundering. I remembered what Jamie had said - "hustle it through the slow stuff." I never have had to before and I had no intention of inducing a mistake now. I had to settle for fifth as I was called into the pits. The pitstop did not go according to plan as the engine died when Jamie climbed in. It fired straight away though and the young Scot was off on a mission. After the pitstops had worked themselves out we were in 3rd with the Lotus and TVR in front. Jamie caught the former quite quickly and then set about the big blue beast. He passed him with 10 minutes to go and stretched out a wee lead. He confirmed the engine misfire but knew how to cope with the hustling......I 'd better learn that trick.
And then, at 3 minutes to go with the Channel 4 camera crew in our faces, disaster struck. LP turned to me and said "Sorry mate - the gearbox has gone." And believe me he meant it. We would be classified eighth and pick up a few points. Who knows they may be useful? It was not a reward for the effort of all concerned - the team and indeed J C-W who drove so well. I think I could have driven better but I learnt quite a bit and hopefully that will help for the rest of the season.
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Jamie would go first in the "GT only"
allotted zone. A radio message back from the car indicated that the engine felt
better and a 1'20.2 showed that this was the case. A rogue "oil
warning" would not clear from the dash though and he pitted. I was asked to do my 3 laps below 6000 revs which I proceeded to do.
