Sadly the Steyning Duathlon didn’t materialise as expected. Due in parts to myself contracting a severe case of man flu from which I was lucky to survive and Liz twisting her ankle whilst we were Snowboarding in the brilliant resort of Briancon. There is some mystery around the exact cause of the twisted ankle and whilst Liz is claiming it was a boarding injury I do seem to remember having to give her a piggy back ride home one night after she insisted on wearing her high heeled boots out drinking – apparently there’s only so many days a girl can go without her heels!
The truth is the winner from all this was probably the Duathlon event itself as it was spared the slightly ridiculous sight of me being lapped several times by the competitors of an event which we hadn’t realised was part of the British Qualifying series and therefore attended by all the would be internationals looking to gain a place in the more prestigious international events.
So that made the next event on our schedule the first race of the BARC Westfield Series the at Rockingham, a circuit I’ve never been to before. Rockingham is quite and intimidating site as you drive up to it. The Grandstands dominate the skyline as they envelope the oval track to provide seating for nearly 100,000 people. Needless to say we didn’t manage to attract those numbers and the 2000 odd spectators that enjoyed the glorious spring sunshine hardly seemed to make a dent on the miles of green seating.
I arrived with my pit crew (Josh, our neighbour’s lad) on the Saturday evening just in time to witness the Mini Challenge team setting up a double pit garage with a huge plasma screen, glitter ball, sound system and even a couple of grid girls! How the other half live; we made do with beans on toast by torch light.
The next morning saw the car safely through scrutineering although being a new car
on the grid the MSA scrutineer was very thorough with his examination which can be no bad thing. After some friendly banter with my new fellow competitors the qualifying took place. I had problems pretty much straight away. The car just felt undriveable to start with. I can only really describe it as like driving on ice. The steering was very light and it seemed to have no grip, especially under braking.After a few laps I came into the pits to check the tyre pressures. We are using a new tyre this year and the pressures had gone through the roof. With little knowledge on what pressures worked best Josh reset them in the pit lane and I went out again. The car was noticeably different although braking was still an issue but sadly the chequered flag came out so I didn't get a flying lap in and would start 15th and last on the grid!
It was great to see my friend James arrive just in time to give me some much needed moral support and the photos are courtesy of his hidden talents with a lens.
So on with the race and lining up at the back gave me a great view of Rockingham’s wide start line from where I managed to get a pretty good start utilising a technique I’ve been perfecting over the years and which cannot be divulged here. It’s a long run down to the first corner during which I flew past three cars, one of which belonged to series newcomer and novice Harry Gordon-Finlayson who had some issues selecting 2nd gear but recovered well to put in some strong lap times that bode well for the future.
I then managed to take another car into the first corner and another into the next. It's amazing how being in a race pushes you much more quickly than testing or qualifying and pretty soon I'd picked the pace up and was chasing down the guys ahead of me. I noticed I was much quicker than them through the back section but quite slow on the brakes into a hairpin and too aggressive on the throttle getting out of the tighter corners, one of which led onto the main straight where a fast exit was very important as it was then a straight drag along the banking and round one of the banked bends.
With a couple of laps to go I had caught up the two cars battling for 6th and thought about a lunge up the inside into the last corner onto the long main straight but decided to try and get a good exit and use the tow to get past. Unfortunately I just got too much wheel spin and lost ground so had to leave it very late into the hairpin at the end of the straight and locked up onto the grass and span twice. Fortunately I didn't lose too much time getting back onto the track and crossed the line in 8th with a massive grin plastered across my face.
With battles raging throughout the grid there was always something interesting happening but up front Simon Pryke took the win and was generally in a class of his own. However my heart goes out to Will Chappell whose gearbox gave up the ghost in the final corner when he was looking set for a podium.
Personally I reckon there are a couple of areas for improvement. Just knowing the track helps massively as it's not immediately obvious at Rockingham where the best lines are. Also my driving style could do with some improvement to say the least. I was too aggressive on the power and the rears were just lighting up on exit from the slower corners. A couple of times on the last couple of laps I focused on being smoother and got my fastest lap so there should be some more time to come from just being better at that. Then there are the brakes. I was using a set of pads that had sat in my damp garage for the last couple of years having last been worn in 2006 they just gave no stopping power. It was impossible to get the car slowed from high speed and they had no feel at all so a couple of days ago a deal was struck with EBC to become my first official sponsor. EBC make the excellent Yellow pads; if they’re good enough for the last two Westfield Champions they’re good enough for me.
So with the first race out of the way I feel like a proper racing driver; that first win is surely only an excuse or three away now. Roll on Mallory Park on the 10th May.
In the meantime the marathon training is going well, Liz has now recovered from her twisted ankle and the four weeks off doesn’t seem to have affected her fitness too much. I’m having a few niggles with my right foot which is probably a result of increasing the length of my runs and the fact that my left leg still has slightly less muscle mass from the ACL surgery. I’ve booked in to see a Podiatrist next week to get some advice on how to overcome this but I’m suspecting it will involve leg exercises and maybe some custom orthotics.
In the meantime I’m focusing on losing weight so have been running before breakfast which is a truly horrible thing. I’ve been told your body gets used to it, I hope so! I’ve set a target weight of 11st 7lb having started at 13st 8lb, currently I’m at 13st 2lb.
