Club Lotus - Cambridgeshire

With the Seven 'hors de combat' following the Brands race, our focus was limited to just the 23 for this event. And when it poured with rain on Sunday morning, the organisers thought that three laps behind the pace car was the safest approach to Qualifying. Conditions didn't seem too bad to me; true, there was a mini-river flowing across the track at the entry to Starkey's, the fast left just after the Old Hairpin, but it was possible to choose a line to straighten the steering for that, (otherwise the car would slide a couple of metres to the right). Grid positions were then announced, based on speed through the season and championship positions, putting me 9th overall and second SRB car among the 36 competing cars.

In the afternoon the weather cleared as predicted by the Met office, so in chilly but clear and dry conditions the race got underway. I made a good start, making up one place to 8th and was closing on the SRB car ahead of me, the Wilson Elva Mk7 and on the second lap I slipped past him into 7th place - and leading SRB car. But conditions were very tricky - the tyres were not getting up to temperature and the grip was poor on the approach to the chicane before the pit straight, (where we cut out the 'Melbourne loop'), and this is a prime overtaking spot, which demands confidence under braking to deliver a clean pass...

A couple of times I used up more tarmac than planned, missing the first apex and only just making it into the corner. Then on lap 5 a Porsche slid into the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin, only just off the racing line; that was one of the corners I had been attacking quite nicely, but out of respect for the marshals my lap times suffered as I gave them plenty of room in which to work. This allowed Mike Newman's E-type to close on me and when I made another error at the chicane he nipped past on the pit straight, only for me to counter-attack on the outside under braking for Redgate. But as we both negotiated the long, tight right-hander the E moved further and further left, until the two wheels I had on on the grass were likely to be followed by the other two, so I had to back off and concede 7th place before the exit of the corner.

On lap 8 two cars had tangled at the Old Hairpin gravel trap, so yellow flags appeared all around the circuit with the deployment of the safety car. I realised this would be the perfect time to take my compulsory one-minute pit stop, but this was only allowed after ten minutes of the race had elapsed... Not having counted the laps or monitored the clock on my dash properly at the start, I thought I ought to give it another lap to be on the safe side - with the benefit of hindsight this was a bad decision!

The Merlyn Mk4A of Adrian van der Kroft had been seven seconds behind me before the yellow flags appeared, but he pitted right away and won the race as a result! To be fair, he also drove very well once the safety car was withdrawn, while I continued to have braking problems at the chicane. I flat spotted my tyres as a result of one mighty lock-up, which resulted in quite a lot of vibration on the fast back straight - and, of course, an increased tendency to lock-up as the flat spots met the tarmac! Two laps before the end I eventually ran out of road at the chicane and had to do a U-turn on the Melbourne loop before rejoining the track, costing me 15 seconds or more and forcing a swap of sixth overall for eighth. Nevertheless, I naively thought I had won my class, since on the road I'd passed the only SRB ahead of me on the grid, and was amazed to discover that the Merlyn had snatched the overall win, in an SRB car, thanks to great pit stop strategy and superb driving.

The good news for us - besides the 23 and me finishing the race intact - is that this second in class, combined with consistent finishing and scoring through the season, has earned us the SRB Class Championship again, with the 'Silverstone Finals' event still to come.