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Brands Hatch Britcar / Belcar weekend June 26th & 27th
The first trackday I ever attended was on the Brands Hatch Grand prix circuit 10 or 15 years ago. I span off into the gravel at Paddock Hill on my first complete lap and finished the day with a very realistic insight into my driving skills (or lack of them !). I`ve never driven the full G.P circuit since and so this was going to be a steep learning curve. The full Brands Hatch circuit is magnificent, it only uses 2 corners from the National circuit and the run out into the woods really stretches a car. Every single corner is blind, either because the trees get in the way, the track changes height - or a combination of the two ! Some of the corners are taken very quickly, especially when you consider the proximity of hard objects.
I dug out the 964 RS and Pete brought along his 968 CS to do a trackday on Thursday so at least we`d know which way the circuit went. The weather held off and we got a few hours pounding round taking in all the bumps and corners. On Friday the GT3 came over fresh from a full engine rebuild courtesy of Steve and the boys at Jaz wembley. The car certainly sounded well, we could only hope that nothing would go wrong. The first hour of testing was painful, a 5,000 rev limit meant just as the car started to pick up and run you had to back off, I was desperate to exploit the GT3`s sharp handling compared to the softer road going RS from the previous day. But we had to behave and run the engine in. By the end of the hour the rev limit had been raised to 7,000 and all seemed well. In the second hour we had a free run and started to combine man, machine and tarmac. Pete was pedaling well, I was my usual cautious self but felt comfortable everything was in hand for the race day. Once again Jaz had delivered, the car was fantastic straight out of the box in spite of the fact they had completely rebuilt the engine and we had never driven the car on this circuit.
We qualified well, mid-field and 5th in class. The whole class structure in Britcar is a little "flexible" and our 370bhp looks a little vulnerable when compared to the 450hp or so of some of our fellow competitors we were certainly going to have to pedal hard to make any progress. Pete started off Saturday's race and after a steady start, (last time we were here there was carnage at Druids on the first lap), started to pick through the field. One by one they fell until we were in 6th place overall and 4th in class. We`ve worked to improve our pit stops and our efforts paid off. We have a minimum 60 second stop and I was sat waiting for the official to wave me out of the box come the 60th second ! I rejoined 3rd overall and 2nd in class. Things were looking good. David Leslie came up behind after 3 or 4 laps in his BMW, rather than fight I let him through so as not to be glued to my mirrors, this is endurance racing after all. The number 42 Marcos of Jon Harrison was never far behind and slowly closing in on the long drag down to Hawthorn bend a very quick 4th gear corner. Unfortunately as I was entering he tapped my inside wheel with his front wing, after the thud you know what`s coming next. I was heading for the Armco barrier at 90 miles an hour - backwards. Luckily I managed to steer the car so it went the other way and ended up in the gravel. Our hopes of a podium were blown. I got dragged out and headed for the pits where a wiggle of the wheels and a quick visual later I was back on my merry way but things didn`t feel quite right, once I caught up with the train of cars following the safety car, (to extract another stricken car), I pulled into the pits for another check of the right rear wheel. It was safe so I carried on for the rest of the race wrestling with a less than happy car. In the end 6th in class and 15th overall meant at least we had maintained our 100% finishing record.
Once the race was over the Jaz boys set to work and found we had both wheel and suspension damage that needed some love and affection. Given the lack of body dents they were convinced I`d just binned it going into the corner too fast until they found the damage! The clerk of the course asked me in for a little chat after the race but thankfully as a victim rather than to be told off. Jon isn`t a bad man and we shook hands afterwards, look on the bright side of things my money is no good at any of the bars now when he`s around !
Race 2 on Sunday saw me starting and we were towards the back of the field. There were a few cars behind me from the previous day`s race and half a dozen cars that had not finished. Like Pete I was fairly careful and kept the car in one piece. I managed to work through some traffic and hold onto the faster Marcos and TVR Tuscan. Another good pit stop and we were into the last 50 minutes of the race. Pete was 6th in class driving well when the BMW E46 that had been leading gave up the ghost. 5th in class, then he slid past a Lotus to take 4th with our old mates in the number 42 Marcos from the previous day in front. Not only that but the TVR Tuscan wasn`t too far ahead either. 2nd in class was on the cards. We were bouncing around on the pit wall as Pete inched closer to the Marcos, then he would drift back, then tantalise by closing the gap. A safety car brought everyone nose to tail but Pete lost out on the re-start and the gap widened again. There were 9 minutes to go, Pete was going to have to find some speed from somewhere. The two cars were now bumper to bumper at times but poor old Pete couldn`t get past. I did wonder about radioing Pete to tell him to re-pay the previous day's favour at Hawthorn but decided if we were going to beat them it would be above board. Then with 4 minutes to go Pete came into Clearways ahead of the Marcos. We were bouncing around cheering him on and as soon as we did the commentator said the Leslie / Handkammer BMW had spun off at Hawthorn and the race was red flagged. I couldn`t believe it. We had overtaken the Marcos only to have it snatched away on a red flag. When the red flag is shown the race result is taken from the previous lap, the Marcos had been given a reprieve. If I ever meet Mr Marcos I`ll bloody well give him a piece of my mind, they don`t even have the decency to fall apart like the other plastic cars - what are we going to do !
Every cloud has a silver lining. We did take 3rd in class as the stricken BMW wasn`t classified, as it couldn`t run under it`s own power when the red flag was shown. Who said endurance racing isn`t close ! A great weekend`s racing made all the more enjoyable by watching the Belcar boys thrashing it out. We have a return match with them in October at Zolder which should be fun.
As usual final thanks go to Wilden Services. Without their support we wouldn’t` have had any wheels on our wagon !
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