2000, Round 6, Cadwell Park

This weekend the format was slightly different again. There were 52 qualifiers, and a maximum grid size of 24. Therefore, the slowest 24 went out in the 'C' race. The next 20 highest qualifiers were joined by the top 4 finishers from the 'C' race to make up the 'B' race. This left the top 8 qualifiers, and they were joined by the top 16 finishers from the 'B' race to make up the 'A' race.

Qualification was a last minute panic. I wasn't ready in time, and the result of this is that I realised once I was already in the assembly area that I had not enough fuel for the qualifying session. As the cars started to make their way onto the track, I dashed back to the paddock to get fuel. Not the best of starts, but I was able to set what I thought was a reasonable lap time, and ended up 18th overall. Since only the top 8 were going straight into the 'A' race, this meant I would be 10th on the grid in the 'B' race, where all I had to do was stay inside the top 16 to get into the 'A' race.

The 'B' race was frantic. Actually I can't imagine any race on this circuit not being frantic. The track is narrow, full of hills, valleys, blind summits, blind corners, and is very hard on the brakes! The banner on the startline gantry says it all "Cadwell Park, naturally challenging". I narrowly avoided disaster twice in the B race. Simon Tyrrell outbraked himself along the straight trying to keep ahead of yours truly, and got the wheel too far over in his efforts to get back to the track, with the result that when he did meet the tarmac, he shot right across it, forcing me off the other side, into a very precarious position approaching the next corner. I managed to rejoin, but Tyrrell was still ahead - for a while at least. The other incident occurred at the hairpin, where at the last minute as I was about to turn in, I noticed the car three places back flying up the inside all locked up, and I had to slow further to let him skid past, losing a place in the process - but again, not for long!

The race was won by Julian Griffin in his orange bullet from Darren Blumson in his red effort. My 11th place put me 19th on the grid for the A race.

The 'A' race was another frantic piece of racing, mostly because I was desperate not to be last after an even more appalling start than the first one. Positions changed regularly as we scrambled round this tight little track, whilst up ahead Darren Blumson cooked his engine after breaking his radiator on another car, and Steve Powlesland was the man with the best view of the race, having a quiet smoke sat on the tyre wall at the hairpin after an electrical fault whilst leading the race brought his dominant charge to a premature halt. This was some of the most enjoyable racing I have ever had, although I really have to do something to get higher up the field! I believe I eventually came 17th, although official results are as yet unavailable.