With no testing, the Friday, usually so full of noise and sweat and chaos, instead consisted of drinking and tormenting Chris Palmer, which usually I don’t do until the evening!

Without testing, my first time to try this new tyre would be qualifying, and the only thing in my favour was that I’d tried the new diff and brakes already at Cadwell. I lined up third in quail behind Andrew, the Sneaky Beard had pipped us both to the front.

Dave Bye’s saloon was behind me, and I was curious how the modified S would measure up against the modified saloon. I ought to have the legs on it, but I don’t know this rubber at all.

My plan was to sit off Andrew’s boot for the first few laps to learn how he thought the tyre behaves, then kill him. It is traditional at Snetterton for me to try to kill him one way or another.

Onto Revitt and I’m winding up to follow Andrew through as he lines up to shave the Beard, and the car just dies. Just stops, like someone turned it off. I coast the rest of Revitt, trailing enough fire that Dave was worried I was in serious trouble, and parked it out of the way.

I tried some hasty repairs with the aid of a helpful St John’s crew, but it turned out they are more adept at healing humans.  A couple of laps later Merrett had clearly got bored and came to park next to me for a lovely chat.

Back in the paddock and it didn’t take long for Officer David to diagnose the lack of spark and why. The stupid cheapo rotor arm had burned itself a new path for the spark. At least that’s not exactly a taxing repair.

I went to race control, to find out if I needed to now qualify out of session to get my three laps. A rather amused band of CSCC officials reminded me that I got pole here last October so they were happy I knew the track. You never really realise that anyone else keeps track of that sort of thing.

To the grid then, and I still don’t know the tyre, and I’m starting dead last. I line up alongside Bob Beecham’s orange monster, with Gregory ahead. I know this is not going to be a fair fight.

For once I warmed the tyres up on the green flag lap. We never bothered with the T1R, but I need every advantage I can from 14^th.

Lights out and the usual recipe worked well. Dived hard left to miss Merrett, who had tried a 3^rd gear start and bogged right down, and in the dash to turn 1 I outdragged Beecham, Gregory, Comer and Reynolds. 5 places off the line, now 9^th.

Through the mess of turn 1 and a good run out of Sear takes me between Drage and Ramm into 7^th. In the excitement I forgot 5^th gear, but fortunately Roger also forgot what the gearstick is for, and I out-braked him into the essess, now 6^th.

Seath was next, he ran very wide at the exit of the Bomb Hole,  and I don’t need an engraved invitation, straight through into 5^th.

Next target is another pesky D class, a blue one driven by a cretin. It took another lap, but the class E advantage hauled it in down the straights and under braking. Through the corners he may have actually been faster, uses far more road than I need to, but it didn’t help, I cruised past him as we crossed the start/finish line.

As usual I gave him my dismissive wave, and forgot to brake for turn 1 in the process, which got a bit interesting. Now THAT would have been embarrassing!

Now 4^th, and the next up the road is Lezzer, the leaders are fighting and not getting away, leaving me free to close the gap. I was on Stewert’s boot quickly, in fact I almost ended up in his boot at the essess.

Stew ran wide at Coram, big oversteer laying out the welcome mat, and I put the car alongside into Russell, which got a bit entertaining. His tyres were shot, the T1R couldn’t match my R1R, and we exit the corner side by side. Then something happened I never thought I’d see, he let me have the place. The braking contest into turn 1 with the different rubber just wasn’t a fair battle, and he used his head, let me have it. I know what he was doing, let me chase Palmer and sweep up the pieces to collect second place!

Right on Palmer’s boot as we head for 2, and there’s a yellow saloon waving its tyres in the air and showing off its exhaust. I don’t know much about Xj40s, but I’m sure they go better the other way up. I can see Gail out of the car and OK, so back to check the marshalls’s post, no way this stays as just a yellow flag.

And indeed, the next one was a red, race over. On countback I didn’t therefore pass Stewert, i take 4^th.  2^nd in class from the back in 3 laps will do for now.

I still don’t know the tyre, the lap 1 attack was all based on Andrew telling me the tyre was good, and trusting that he was right, I hit the brakes on faith alone! It’s only afterwards that you think about that sort of thing.

RACE 2 then, and I want to play at chasing Palmer, it’s always fun. I will offer some free advice to anyone who wants to chase Chris, and it’s this: don’t take your foot off the throttle at the start, it isn’t the best way to get a car moving.

I drop 3 places immediately, Andrew and Seath are drag-racing to turn 1, Roger goes up the inside and I finally get her moving well enough to hold off Ramm, just. Down Revitt and it’s video game time again to out-brake Roger into the essess, again.

Seath has learned from yesterday and I have to wait for the pit straight to sail past him, leaving that bloody blue one again to catch. Takes a bit longer today, it’s lap 4 when Andrew eases over and lets me past down Revitt. We both know I’m coming past, no point arguing over the braking zone, we’re both a bit older than that sort of thing now.

That leaves me chasing Stewert and Palmer, but they are a good distance ahead, unlike yesterday the fight hasn’t slowed them down. I can hold them, but I can’t seem to catch them. It’s just a tenth here and there, not enough to make any real progress.

As we got the first backmarkers it was over for me, I was catching them in all the wrong places as the front three got them just right, and I was losing time. I did what I thought was the right thing and turned the race into a test session, the next car in the mirrors is Andrew and he’s not a concern. The car had gone into understeer and I was struggling to get her turned in, the drop off in the tyre between the first few laps and mid-distance was quite a lot. Rear grip was still very good though, but it has always tended towards understeer.

A long, 25 min race, and plenty of entertainment lapping slower cars, I started to count off the XJS grid as I caught it. I got as far as Simon Seath, who I’d had to pass for position on lap 1, and then lapped. Next up the road as the flag fell was Drage, 2^nd in D class, and it was quite satisfying, my first time at Snett I lost a place to Drage when he fooled me with his headlights as we were getting lapped, so to put a lap on him with the headlights on was quite amusing.

Nearly race distance, and as I round turn 1 there’s a long white shark stranded in the middle of the track on the racing line. I’m sure they will get the stain out of my fireproofs. That gave me third place and a red hat. Not a bad way to start the year.

Race over, the usual dribbling on the microphone as they interview you to find out the size of your underwear, but I had fooled them this time by going commando. Well, I’d forgotten my balaclava, so I had to wear something on my head.

Two class seconds at the power circuit I’d predicted two seconds at. No upgrades yet, but they’re coming...

The new tyre clearly has more grip, but you can feel the tread moving, like the whole thing is flexing, and they’d gone a nice shade of blue, which we only used to see on the class D’s T1Rs. We may need to play with some settings to make these work better.

A successful weekend, certainly my best ever start to a season, and in fact the team’s best. We were all pleased to see the Beard bring it home 3^rd in class both days, proof his winter rebuild and hard work had achieved something.

Next to Brands, and we have some tinkering to do before then!