SILVERSTONE

Having left testing until we knew we had a car I find Helen can’t be booked onto the test day as it’s now full of Ferraris. Bugger. Only when the red car shed a hub did I manage to swap the booking and steal the last session of the day.

Having raised the rear a smidge the question was rear grip, and it was pretty good. No tyre pressures set as I wasn’t running these tyres tomorrow, but it felt a bit more restrained at the rear end, which is exactly what I’m after. Copse was a pleasure, couldn’t seem to go in fast enough to use all the track, rear still a bit too wayward to turn in at the sort of speed I wanted so on the power well early with no drama. Brakes were appalling, juddering and diving hard left, but the car was still improved over Oulton.

Look, a class D car, with me behind it! 4th is NOT the gear to start in.

Session cut short when a big modified Beemer smote a bit modified Ferrari and there were bits and fires and such dramas, but I got my money’s worth.

Oil change in the paddock to rid myself of running in oil, and new front discs. No new pads to match, which was an error.

New boy Gregory showed up, with a car not at all ready, beyond even our ability to get it done in time, but to be fair Bear and I were so tired we couldn’t help as we should, it was too much after a hard week, we were done for.

New wheels from Roger Webster, the lighter lattice type, and some old tyres on them that were better than I was on, so my tyre choice for the race was made there and then!

Which was an error. The tyres I put on my rear for the wet, greasy qualifying were probably off his front end, and the rubber, as I found when I took them off, was madly worn, whereas my rear planes tyres plane pretty flat, so the contact patch I was nothing, the grip was insanely bad. I’ve never had such a sideways driving session in my life, every time I breathed on the throttle it hung the tail out, I came in certain I was dead last. Bear blew past me like I was standing still, even Ray Hill breezed past me. Only the last two laps were anything like as the tyres started to give it up, or rather I kerbed my enthusiasm and talked myself round as gently and smoothly as I know how.

Team Kutuka.

Heavy rain prompted a swap to full tread wet tyres, which is when my qualifying error became apparent. Could have kicked myself, to be 7^th on the grid is a place I haven’t seen in over a year, despite conditions that I’d frankly expect to be in with a shout of winning the damned race in, even if it is Silverstone, it’s what this car should revel in.

To the race then, and a drying track with full-tread tyres. Dammit, it’s Oulton Park 2008 again. I know what happens here, I get great grip for 5 minutes, 5 more of moderate traction, and 5 minutes of sheet ice as they go over temperature. Not good, need to make hay early.

Having practiced my starts I’m going for a 2^nd gear launch. Revs spot on and off we go, car bogs right down and I peer down to see what the hell is wrong. I’m in flaming 4^th gear. Stir the box, find 2^nd and go, but the field streams by, Webster, Hill, Drage all gone, Dave Robbie’s old shed overtakes me, I’m down to about 12^th as I finally get her rolling. Happily 4 litre torque shows and I pull back a couple of spots before Copse. What happened between Copse and Becketts I’ve no idea, I saw Palmer and Lezzer going in the sandbox and a Bear miraculously in the lead, but my next memory is the pit straight, and me in 5^th place behind Drage.

I have no clue what happened to get me past Webster, Hill, and whoever the hell else was there, not the faintest idea.

3 laps stuck behind Drage, faster, especially the exit to Copse, alongside with ease and a definite pass into Becketts but yellow flags out for the 2 stricken cars, so having to back off and let him go again, not sure how deep into the yellow zone I dare go before I get in trouble, I can see the flag, but how close can I get?

Cautious then, until lap 4 when a proper run at Copse with the proper exposure of testicles demonstrates that there’s grip here in bundles and we sail past with ease, not even a hint of defence, he could have edged me out so wide I fell off onto the greasy grasscrete but I think he’d given in.

Dropped Drage fast and was on the tail of Merrett’s class E car for 3^rd within a few moments. Bear still out front and running, but Coppock has done Merrett and is in pursuit, I can still see them all not far ahead and I still fancy a slice of this race. Quickly clear that Merrett is in real trouble. He can’t get through Copse, the car is a massive handful that twitches on the brakes and runs him wide, understeering, then oversteering, whereas Helen swings through so sweetly I’m cross I’m not giving her more. 6 times I count I was alongside on the exit, half of those I made it all the way past before his monster power came on and he grunted back past into Becketts. 150bhp I’m down on him, but your brain doesn’t register that in the disappointing moment as he slides back past, it’s just one big scream of dismay.

Just look at the wheels on that! Orange they may be, but these are the full-tread wet tyres I use. 40 profile T1Rs, bought in '07 before I knew that the 50 profile was faster, and I'm stuck with them now, doubt I'll ever wear them out. On a drying track they're awesome, but on a dry one, oh no, no no no.

He struggles with Becketts too, so I’m trying a very wide sweep through the corner to carry as much speed as I can for the exit, but I’m not smooth enough with the loud pedal and she twitches the rear every lap as the revs rise in 3^rd on the exit. He pulls clear down the back straight and I close again through the 4^th gear left hander, blip of heel and toed double-declutch into Luffield and wait oh so patiently for the exit to appear, squeeze the throttle so slowly and get the run onto the straight.

Trouble was this worked so well that as we approach the kink in the straight I have the run on him and almost ram him up the boot, he’s lifting for the bend because his cams are trying to deliver a bootful of power bang on the corner, whereas I have better, smoother drivability with the stock engine and can go full power. Which means I’m being held up down the pit straight at Silverstone by a class E car. What the hell’s that about then?

Not enough to take advantage, I did look up the inside into Copse but he goes in fast and a bit late on the brakes, then wrestles with Copse and we start the cycle again. Fun, but I can’t get by, which is annoying, because I’m quicker than I’m being allowed to go, I want 3^rd place and I want to see if I can chase 2^nd place, I think it’s on. One glorious moment and I’m completely ahead by a good margin, but not enough to move over to squeeze and defend and he comes back, I was briefly third!

With so much more grip and trying round the outside next lap I’m ahead again and we’re side by side as the speeds equalise, I have nothing to do for a bit so look through his side window and offer a cheery wave, no passenger seat in an E car so you get a good look into the cockpit and the driver to see his little legs working away, but he seemed distracted and looking ahead, didn’t wave back.

Never did make it all the way past and made it stick, I needed another corner about halfway to Becketts to make it work, the D class curse at work, handling to annoy the modified cars, no power to stay in front!

Finished 4^th by 0.2 seconds. Irksome. Had it not been for the messed up start it would have been 3^rd. And I think, think, that looking at the lap times I had the speed to harass Coppock, which would have kept him off the Bear’s tale, sorry, tail, so 2^nd and 4^th for Kutuka is my fault.

But I’m encouraged. We raced a modified car, and did so quite well. The rear end was much more controllable than before, even in the wet, and I actually got to race for a change. First time I’ve had to mess with a D car since Rockingham ’08, and I get three or four of them to play with. Sweet. Just wish I could recall how I did the E cars.

So to Cadwell, and we’ll see how we go. We’ve decided that the rear shocks are tired and emotional, they’re 18 months old but have given in. It would explain my gripe about lack of traction and associated woes. Maybe.

The other joy though, the Bear leads the race for 10 laps in a car that we strapped together from bare shell in 7 ½ days. He does 7^th to 2^nd off the line in a machine that only ran for the first time at 10am Friday morning, at a track he’s never raced at, outbrakes Stewert into an error to take the lead and holds off a 6 litre G car for 80% of the race to take class win. It’s bloody brilliant. Fear him. I do.