SMRC Round 2 @ Knockhill 8th & 9th May

Race meeting 2 of the season was a shared round with the British GT Championship card, bringing the Global Lights, British Formula Ford Championship and the GT Cup to Knockhill.

After a week and a half spent gather parts to repair the car from round 1's accident, testing on Friday was the first time I'd been in the car since the smash. Unfortunately, things were not all well initially. We had changed the set up based on learnings from race one and some advice I had picked up and she just did not want to turn in. Session one was more like a round of rally cross with the car understeering wide in to the gravel as often as it could.

After a bit of head scratching, I tweaked the set up, changed the pressures massively and got my head down for session two. Much better. Times were on par with those I had been running previously and more importantly, the car was running very well. Back in the game!

Saturday morning was an early start getting the car through scrutineering as there hadn't been time on Friday. What followed was another fairly disappointing qualifying session with only 10th on the grid the result again.

Race one I got a good start getting the drop on Steven Brewster off the line. The next four laps were spend with Steven chomping furiously at my bootlid and some serious defending on my part. He briefly got past me coming in to MacIntyres when I wasn't fast enough to defend, but knowing he wasn't going to be able to slow it down, I got back past up the inside in to Butchers as he ran wide through the gravel. After that his car seemed to drop off a touch which let me break away and chase down Alan Waugh who was dicing with Carol Brown. With one lap to go, the time came for a move. Taking a flyer through Duffus and Leslies, I got hard up behind Alan coming in to the chicane and luck shone on me with Alan running wide. I got past him on the inside in to Carlube and then stuck to the inside along the railway straight (right past where race 3 ended last time out!) in to the hairpin. Alan got the cut back and tried coming past on the inside, but I managed to out drag him coming up the hill to the start finish line, getting 8th by about 12 inches!

Race two started in the finishing order from race one, so I was along side Geoff Gillies with Carol Brown in front. Although I got a good start, I had to back out coming through Leslies due to traffic and this put me in striking range of Alan Waugh who was pushing me hard for the first couple of laps. Traffic behind did me a favour at this point, turning their attentions to Alan making him play defensive and allowing me to pursue Geoff and Carol who were battling for 6th place. Just to ensure my mother had her heart in her mouth one more time; last lap, last corner, side by side along the railway straight in to braking for the hairpin. Got the cut back and out dragged Geoff to the line taking 7th place.

Race 3 on Sunday promised to be exciting with the grid being reversed at 8. 6th ever motor race, front row of the grid! Although I wasn't nervous on Saturday, by Sunday morning the reality of the pack chasing me in to turn one had hit. The plan had to be smoke Geoff off the line and let him worry about defending whilst I try and make a run for it then defend when the pack catches up.

The weather decided to give us all kittens just before the race. 20mins to go, light drizzle. What do we do? Change for a wet set up? The rest of the paddock were staying on dry so we did too. In to the holding area and we were bathed in sunshine. Excellent! Half way through the race before ours, and with no time to change anything on the cars, it turned very dark and started drizzling again that bit harder this time. Bollocks! Luckily it didn't lie and a cursory test on the green flag lap said Knockhill's notoriously greasy kerbs were still fit for riding.

Off the line I got a flier just as planned, two car lengths up by the time we went under the Beatsons bridge. Unfortunately there was an "ambitious" dive up the inside that saw me pushed wide on to the gravel through Leslies to avoid a smash, the diver airborne and 3 other cars hobbled as avoiding action was taken sending cars across the grass skipping MacIntyres and others trying to find their way through the dust cloud thrown up. I got back on track in 8th but the front suspension had taken a knock in the contact and the tracking was out. I made up a couple of places to finish 6th. Much better than last weekend, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

SMRC Round 1 @ Knockhill 18th April

The first round of the season kicked off with testing on Saturday the 17th April. It had been a bit of a rush getting all the last details sorted out but come Saturday morning we were at Knockhill with the car freshly painted and liveried up. My father's companies, The Travel Company and In2Scotland, subbing for actual sponsors at the moment. (fair's fair, I lived in his house for 25 years)

The first session didn't go entirely to plan, my best time being recorded as 65 seconds flat. I'd run a 64.5 in testing prior to this so wasn't best pleased. Tweaking the tyre pressures a little helped in session two but then my wipers stuck on. Fighting with the wiper stalk pulling out of the hairpin, I missed the upshift and bounced the rev limiter pretty hard. All of a sudden, I was back in to the 67 second bracket and there was nothing I could do about it. Seems the hard hit on the limiter had induced a limp-home mode in the ECU. Game over for testing!

Come race day, Hugh from HWS MotorEngineers was up providing race support and we plugged the diagnostics in and checked the ECU was clear of error codes after Craig from Minimax cleared the limp home condition. All was well and after a bone dry testing session on Saturday, we set about softening the anti-roll bar for the soaking wet qualifying session on Sunday morning. My set up was far from ideal and I was rather disappointed with only 10th on the grid for race one.

My first ever race start in a car was quite hectic and after a few laps I managed to clear traffic and take off after Geoff Gillies. Geoff played a good defence and the circuit commentator loved the close battle that ensued. I managed to pass him twice, then made a couple of mistakes letting him back past.

Race two I was a little slow off the line and ended up having to play hard defence for the first few laps and ended up chasing down Geoff again in the latter stages of the race. Now that the track was drying out, I posted the 6th fastest time so hopes were high for the final race.

Race 3 has a reverse grid format and this always makes the first few laps quite chaotic. I found myself at the back of the lead train making ground fast after shaking off the second pack. Coming through the chicane I carried a lot of speed and went round the outside of Hamish Brandon coming through Clarks/Carlube on to Hislops. Unfortunately, there was then some contact with his front wheel hitting my rear wheel sending the car in to a spin and ultimately, both of us in to the tyres. Although the initial spin was recoverable, the car whipped back the opposite way leading to it tank slapping the tyre wall at ~80mph. Its been widely commented its a miracle the car didn't roll.

Lots of late nights ahead to get the car ready for round 2!