Yellow

I was lucky enough to be at Brands Hatch for the inaugural A1GP metting - I even got to compete in two races in front of the 45,00+ crowd.

Friday was spent getting used to the car over 2 test sessions, closely followed by 2 quallifying sesions that saw me 14th and 12th with a fastest lap of 1:28.120.

Saturday: I met up with the guy who paints my lid for me - He, as usual, had created a work of art.

Sunday: Race one was great fun - I latched onto the tail of a group of about 6 cars and was feeling pretty confident for later in the race, as I hadn't used any of the 48 seconds of overboost. Howerver, Bruce Hodges was forced off track by Daniel Tapinios and spun back across track in front of me - I had to brake hard to avoid him, and that was end of the racing - The train of cars was now 8-10 seconds ahaead, so I settled for 11th place and brought the car home in one piece.

Race 2 was after the A1GP feature race, and it was a bit mad - On lap one Stuart Prior spun on the exit of Paddock Hill and the yellow flags were out for someone having an incident at Druids - 3 cars passed me on the way into Druids, totaly ignoring the yelolow flags - I got pretty pissed off at this and then set aboout catching them. After 4 laps we had the safety car for a lap and then after another 2 laps we had it again for 2 laps. So 8 laps, and no boost used - I got the tyres back up to temperature on lap 9 and then just as I dived up the inside of Terry White on the exit of Surtees, the heavens opened. For the 3rd time in the race I got along side Bill Knowles on the exit of Hawthorn, but then the red flags came out, ending the race.

I guess I'm a bit disapointed in my own driving, but when I take stock, all of the guys I was racing against have had 15 races to my 2. I hadn't even sat in the car this year, so 11th and 12th wasn't so bad. Let's hope I can push a bit harder in the Autumn Trophy.

Beef

Today I was going to write about the latest round of the Raceland Endurance series, but it kinda becomes pretty meaningless when put in context. Michel Park was another dedicated petrolhead who did one of the toughest jobs in motorsport - Being a co-driver in the world rally championship - A job he was passionate about, and a job that took his life. It's all to easy to forget how raw rallying is - But todays tragic events on Rally GB, only serve to remind us all that we participate in a dangerous sport. My heartfelt condolences go out to his wife and family and his teammates at Peugot.

Fourth Again

Round 8 - Raceland GP Series

Heat Grid Finish
One 8 1
Two 13 7
Three 15 7
Four 1 1

Overall - Fourth

A fun day with good clean racing - In last year's championship (my 'rookie' season), I finished 4th in the first 6 race meeings - It's nice to be back where I belong :-)

Owen had a bad day. He was my mechanic when I had a shot at real karting in 2002 in Rotax Max - great racing against 16-25 year olds (mostly) who've been racing for at least 8 years in karts! It was great fun but very expensive. He has been racing since he was a nipper and is really quick, winning the Scottish Junior TKM Championship in the mid 90's. So far this year, he has won all of the events he has entered at Raceland, with him managing to win all four heats a couple of times. (never seen anyone else do this).

However, he missed out on last months event and then had a poor result today, so depite his pace, he's under real pressure from Dave Morgan for the championship. The last two events (Oct 9th and Nov 11th) should be interesting.

I'm currently in 3rd, but as I can't make the final meeting, I think I'm out of contention.