2001, Rounds 7 & 8, Pembrey

The Clerk of the course made the decision that the times would be ignored, and the starting order would be determined by current championship places. I would therefore start 3rd.

At the start, Pete Morgan starting 2nd moved across straight away to ensure no-one could go up his inside. I went up his outside, and pulled alongside before the first corner, but with the inside line he was back ahead as we entered Dibeni. Hot on his heels, I pulled right up to his rear bumper, and looked up the inside as we approached the Brooklands hairpin. He moved across to defend, and Stanway made an opportunistic move down the outside, braking late and trying to overtake me round the outside of the hairpin. We gave each other enough room through the corner, but his wide line took him off the track at the exit, his back end swung out, and his front end swiped down the left side of my car. This slight drop in momentum put the ball in Scarlett's court now, as he moved alongside me at Woodlands and into the Honda curve, but I was still on the inside, and made it stick. The tighter line still meant a slow corner though, and now it was a two pronged attack with Scarlett still on the outside as we went up the straight, and Stanway now nudging my back bumper as I hugged the pit wall to stop him going up the inside. At the hairpin, Scarlett was a nose ahead, but I still had the inside line and stayed ahead. One lap down, and I need a break already!

As the race progressed, Stanway became less of a threat, and Scarlett frequently got very close to overtaking me. Meanwhile, I managed to get close to Pete Morgan almost every lap as we approached the Honda curve, taking the occasional look up the inside, but he was able to brake later and corner faster to keep me at bay every time.

At about mid-distance, Andy Burgess who had been leading all this time ran wide at Dibeni, and myself and Morgan were through. Burgess began to slowly fall back with a misfire, just as Mark Davies began to show in my mirrors having completed a good surge from near the back. Scarlett did a good job of keeping him at bay, leaving me less challenged at the end to take a very pleasing 2nd place.

The grid for race 2 was based on fastest race laps in race 1. I had only managed the 6th fastest lap, so I would be starting 6th. I had terrible clutch slip at the start, and seemed to be losing ground all the way to the Hatchett's hairpin, but did not lose any places. At Spitfires, I was close behind Morgan again, but everyone seemed to slow mid corner, and I nudged his back bumper (sorry Pete). Pete had soon passed Daniel Neil, who I then had a good battle with. He had a slow run through Dibeni, and I found myself alongside him through the Esses and approaching the Brooklands hairpin, but he defended well. All of this was slowing us up, until he gave a signal that we should concentrate on catching up first, and resume this battle later. A lap later we were back with the 3 cars fighting for 2nd, and battle recommenced. A while later, Stanway ran wide at the Esses, and shot across the track in front of Daniel Neil before exiting to the other side. This moved us up a place, but slowed us down too, and we never really caught the group ahead again. Mark Davies won it from Tony Scarlett, Pete Morgan, Daniel Neil and myself.

The championship is now over half distance, and it is still very close at the top, with Morgan from Burgess, Scarlett and myself all within 16 points. Darren Blumson has been quietly mopping up points that no-one else seemed to want, and now finds himself in 5th!! Silverstone is next on the 28th. I finished 10th there at the first race this season, but I feel that both myself and the car have improved since then, so it should be an interesting race!