PBMW Round 6 - Thruxton

Bit late with this one... anyway...

This race meeting was unfortunately more sad than it was enjoyable. Tragically, an accident in the GT Cup race early in the day resulted in the death of one of the drivers. So our thoughts and condolences were very much with the family and friends of Jeff Leadley.

Much of the racing time was therefore lost while the rescue and emergency services dealt with the situation. Both the GT Cup and Heritage GT organisations withdrew from their respective races both as a mark of respect and because for a long time, it looked unlikely that racing would resume.

However after a long period, it was suggested to us (PBMW and TTRS) that we'd likely get the opportunity to race. A show of hands made it clear that most people would prefer to race, given the opportunity. But if the whole thing had been called off, I don't think anyone would have complained.

So at six o'clock in the cold spitting rain, we formed up to race.

Despite not having driven at Thruxton, I was well aware of its reputation for being fast, and both difficult and scary to learn. I wholeheartedly agree!, even putting aside the events described above. I should say though that having experienced racing there, I can't wait to go back. Some expert advice I received just prior to qualifying meant that I was given a fast-track to success with a couple of important bits on the circuit that I very much doubt I'd have figured out for myself very quickly. There are a couple of places where the best thing to do is counter intuitive, but turn out to make an enormous difference to your lap time. This, coupled with a car that is easy to drive made my learning process alot quicker than it otherwise would have been. But the over-riding pleasure is simply driving the car flat-out through a constant stream of curves for the better part of a minute every lap. Church corner is probably my new favourite, just pipping my previous candidate - Copse, at Silverstone. The car is fully loaded up and you can feel every little thing that is going on.

Life is curiously spooky sometimes.On the same day you get the worst feeling possible in motorsport (when someone succumbs to it's darker side), you can also get the best feeling. Opposites attract I suppose.

After qualifying I found myself 15th out of 40, after dropping from 11th on the last lap when I caught a load of slower cars.

Come race start I got a half decent launch this time. Grip levels were still pretty good so I pushed hard immediately and gained a couple of places back on the first lap. I tailed the bootlid of Tony Smith's car for the next few laps and had a couple of pops at him as we both moved up the order. Onto lap 5, he and Nigel Olive-Jones seemed to slow each other up a bit through Allard and then moved apart slightly so I kept my foot and took advantage between the pair of them on the run to the complex. There things didn't go quite so well I'm afraid, as I successfully passed Tony but had to tuck in behind Nigel on the way out of Cobb. I moved to my left to give Nigel some space and inadvertantly caught my rear left tyre on Tony's bumper as he poked his nose up the inside. Round I went and spun to a stop, losing the engine in the process. Bugger. Thankfully, nobody hit me and I got away pretty quickly and back up to speed in no time. I'd lost about six places, but you would normally expect to lose many more than that in such a close field. The rest of the race was spent trying to haul Jack Gabriel in, which I duly did but unfortunately not fast enough to get on terms with him. A number of other cars either fell off or fell away, so I was left with 14th place. Considering I'd been stationary at one point with the engine off, I was quite pleased with that! A quick trip to see the Clerk of the Course to explain my side of the incident with Tony and the day was done.

All in all, it was very a bad day for everyone. But, I came away a new perspective on just how much fun it is to be out racing in this Championship.

Some excellent video from Mike Dugdale's car provides an insight..