Silverstone 2 race

Silverstone 21st/22nd August Race

Six in a row and the Title!

It is a shame that controversy always raises its head at all levels of motorsport. Our series is no different – indeed with the large sums of money being spent it is probably worse than most! I have always said though that I would only report on the sport. It is sufficient to say that both Rob and I have been long term supporters of the Championship and wish to remain so and indeed wish to see the Series flourish further in years to come.

It was however extremely frustrating to be handed a further penalty after our wins at Donington. We already carry 50kgs of ballast and were informed a week before Silverstone that we would have to drop two sizes on our restrictors….In addition to this our main competitors were permitted an increment of one on theirs….This was not good news particularly as the first time that ours were tested was on Saturday qualifying! Our main grumble was that the race times at Donington were close – we won because we were good in the pits and others made mistakes (enough of that…)

Anyway the effect on the car was dramatic – it felt as flat as a pancake (Rob’s language was a bit more profuse.) I did a 1.24, complained and then handed it to him. He "wrung its neck" for a 1.223 which was still over a second from the NCK Marcos. Things were not looking good. Although we were second after first qualifying, we dropped to fourth in the afternoon despite lowering the wing and leaning off the engine.

We were going to have to be better than normal in our pitstop so this is what we practiced on Sunday. We put the wing back up and concluded that a 3^rd/4^th was the best we could hope for.

We fought our way past 5000 Minis on the Sunday and readied ourselves for the race at 3.00pm. I lined up on the grid next to Cor Euser’s fabulous looking new Marcos and wondered to myself how aggressive Cor was going to be on the opening lap…As the lights changed I was also concerned that the extra power of the Porsches behind would show on the drag down to Copse. I had a reasonable start though and held position behind the three in front who were squabbling for position.

I held back a bit as it looked as though it would end in tears – it did but only small ones fortunately as the NCK Marcos nudged the Lotus into a spin. I crept through and set about Andy Purvis. This all however had allowed Cor to build up a commanding lead but I wasn’t too concerned as their slower driver was still to go and I had Rob champing at the bit….

Andy and I pitted at the same time – nose-to-tail down the pitlane. This was going to all about the speed of the stop for track position (as good as F1..) We broke our own record (12 secs quicker than anyone else and Rob emerged 3^rd on the road (the first two still to stop..)

After the Lotus stopped we were second and after the Euser Marcos pitted the lead they had was only 12 seconds. Rob was on a mission and as soon as he saw the back of the Marcos I thought that maybe we did have a chance – he reeled it in with surprising ease as did the Lotus which was absolutely flying at the end.

A great drive by my partner and all credit and thanks to everyone at Lister – the car has been brilliant and has never missed a beat. One of the Championship coordinators called the car Rasputin! " No matter what we do to it, ballast it , strangle it, kick it……it keeps coming back……"