Stuff that popped up in print.
NEWS
BRANDS HATCH 25/26 July 2015
The weekend marked our return to the track, to the CTCRC, and to Brands Hatch. It’s fair to say it was a mixed bag of luck that we took with us.
Testing was wet, merely a way to knock some rust off the driver’s reflexes and see if the corners are still where we left them. They were. A bit of twiddling and sliding all over the circuit allowed some grip to be discovered, which was all seemingly a bit pointless, given that race day dawned dry and sunny.
Starting from scratch in quali when you’ve paid for testing is a bit of an irritation, but we’re all in the same boat. Chasing hard after Primett’s Escort set pole, with a 56.5, which on a green track was acceptable enough, leading Howard’s XJ12 by just shy of 4/10ths and taking Helen’s first ever pole position here.
The race went a bit wrong. We’d watched with glum despair as wider rubber got bolted onto the V12, but Helen sat down and fired off the line to take Paddock in the lead, and then defended for three laps until a determined wedge went up the inside into McLaren. XJ12 and XJS swapped places twice more, but mis-timing the charge at Paddock left Helen wide, and defenceless against Primett’s Escort.
Escort and XJS swapped places a handful of times. The Jag was faster, and her pilot eager to chase the leviathan in front. So eager that he leaned on the brakes about a week too late into Paddock, locked the rears, and buried Helen backwards in about twenty tonnes of gravel. That was not the plan. Howard charged to his 100th race win, whilst Helen charged to an appointment with a hoover.
Sunday dawned wet, and got wetter. Helen started 26thon the 28-car grid. Testing paid dividends, however, settings and lines discovered on Friday, and a helping of nerve, saw rapid progress up the field until the two leaders were in sight. Howard was dispatched into Paddock, and Primett’s madcap sideways Escort fell victim coming out of Graham Hill. 25 cars passed, Helen soared to her second race win of the season. We do note that once again it was in the rain from the back of the grid.
I promise we don’t do it on purpose.
It started well. Pole and leading into the first corner is about as good as we could have hoped.
But then this happened.
Obviously race 2 didn't start so well. 25 places worse, in fact.
But it ended 25 places better, for the second win of the season.
Photos by Rebecca Gibbs