Well that went with a bang! The Mallory race started of with pouring rain, which posed a new challenge as I have never raced in the wet before. But we like challenges don’t we?
Mallory 07  

Cunningly I had plastered the windows with rain repellent and the inside with anti-fog, which worked a treat. Whilst other cars were struggling for visibility and grip, I was merely struggling for grip. I started off very conservatively in practice, feeling my way round and slowly building pace but it very soon became clear by the way the car veered sideways at every opportunity, that there was not much more pace to build. Then it started raining harder.
After lunch, the first races included MR2's and single seaters, both having substantial 'offs' and a number of Toyotas limping back to the pits heavily damaged. This was like an old fashioned warning, a bit like when they used to put severed heads on spikes on the city walls to warn incomers, but without the hygiene issues.
Just before our race was called, the sun came out. In practice I had dropped my tyre pressures to try to get some warmth in, without much success, but now I swiftly set about pumping the tyres up with my nice shiny new high power 12v compressor, the sort that burns your cigarette lighter wiring out, I like over powered motors.
By the way, I now have a race 'team' which is a novel experience. Well, I say 'team' its only three other people and a 'sponsor' but it’s a team to me. I am still used to doing everything myself and haven’t got the hang of delegation yet so they spent most of the time hanging around asking to help, but give it time. We have Nick being race mechanic, Kev being in charge of tents and food, Chris in charge of logistics. My new sponsor is Rik and Lotty who happen to have a vinyl cutter and made me some excellent stickers, they also run a driving school in Birmingham and are very nice people (www.auto-success.co.uk). Right, that’s my part of the bargain done.




Back to the race, it started well enough but the track was still very slippery just off the racing line and as the first overtaking started, so did the graceful ballet of sideways Jags. Going into the esses I was right on the tail of number 47 Paul Reynolds, who is usually the second in class bloke and significantly better than me. A car span in front of us, in a split second Paul had gone to the left and I chose the right but as we passed the stricken car I had a straight run up the hill to the hair pin but Paul was still on the grass. I just got ahead but he was not going to give up easily and went up the inside into the hairpin, I dropped it into first and slid round just in front again then got away cleanly down the hill. My heart was pounding, this was proper racing and as a novice it was quite an experience.
I even started making a little headway, almost getting the hang of it, when a number of cars arrived on the inside just as I went into the big corner at Gerards. There was some tyre squeal, a degree of rotation, a thump and then I was hurtling towards gravel. Now, gravel stops cars and I didn’t want to stop, so I kept my foot in, aimed for the shortest rout across the trap and onto the grass beyond. Now my off road racing paid off as the V12 Jag snaked across the wet grass in a merry salsa back towards the track. But not before Paul had cruised past.
Well, that’s racing. I have to fix the front wing, door, bumper, front and rear suspension on the right and something's bent in the transmission. Time to take it apart again.
Next race will hopefully be Oulton on August 11th.