Having driven Cadwell Park less than a month ago there weren’t really any excuses for not having a good race. But as you’ll all know racing drivers turn up preprepared with excuses and apply them to every eventuality. This time, wheel alignment. Having spent a day hammering over the kerbs on the track day I had pulled the camber out. Readjusting it isn’t difficult but the problem is when you do, you also alter the wheel alignment. When you notice this, the race is next week and your wheel alignment tools are a plank of wood withtwo nails in you might consider taking the car to a garage. Not the VT Racing way. Plank of wood withtwo nails in it was, also combined with a seized rear track rod end that we had to take apart and refit, somehow keeping things in alignment.

The testing after this work was a sneaky drive up a road (a private road, officer), a run on the paddock grass at the circuit (which turned into doing donuts) and running up the circuits access road. After extensive testing, and donuts, we concluded the alignment was fairly accurate, but we hadn’t been above 20 mph. Tomorrows qualifying would be interesting…

The Saturday night entertainment was provided by the annual Red Dragon BBQ, and the torrential rain which followed. Pity all those who had used weight saving measures in their cars engine bay by single skinning the cover, as they had removed the rain gullies meaning the rain drained into their spark plugs. Haha… sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. ROFL!

In the morning both me and Ian woke up really early and virtually climbed out of our tents at the same time. To waste some time before breakfast opens we had a walk down to the hairpin to take some photos on the track, where we also got a real perspective on how steep this place is. Being up so early also meant we could go to scrutineering early as well, missing the queues and meaning we had all morning to do everything that was needed without worrying about the time. Graham and Gav also made an appearance to see the car, and Stewart came along again to see the car being raced. Nothing like a bit of extra pressure then.

Qualifying would be the first test of our wonky wheel alignment, and amazingly it was absolutely spot on. Result! All hail the plank of wood with nails in! The session was a fairly frustrating affair and even Ian could tell watching through Halls Bends. There was a gaggle of slow cars in front, and too close behind to properly drop back another gaggle of cars. This meant getting a clean quick lap in was incredibly difficult. My first real attempt was ended with a trip across the grass at Park - a corner I truly hate, which gave me another go on the final lap of the session. It was a quick and clean up until Hall Bends when I caught traffic, but it was good enough to put me 9th on the grid. A good result then!

Lining up for the race. Usually a fairly simple affair. I knew I would be on the left but the marshals direct me to the right. They know best so I follow instructions. Oh wait, they’re running back, realising they have us on the wrong side of the grid. A bit of shuffling around - we must be right now? No, everyone has to move back. They hadn’t noticed a car on the row in front was missing. Everyone in their spot? Good. Let’s go. The one thing on my mind was not to cock up the start like I did at Castle Combe. I had a plan in my head and stuck to it, and it seemed to work well. My start was on par with most of the cars around me with only Jason Jesse coming through after a superb start. Being on the outside of Charlie’s you will always be left high and dry but there wasn’t much I could do about that. What I could have done something about though was not being on the outside of Park as I discovered there is very little grip, and room to do that. Cue my second trip across the grass there. I lost quite a few positions but during the race managed to get a lot of them back. The hardest to pass would be Gareth Newton from Stockport just down the road from me. I knew I was quicker but as they say, catching is one thing, passing is something else. Eventually I got past when a recovering Adam Lockwood came flying past down the straight (I’m sure he has a hidden turbo somewhere) and later made a move on Gareth into Park. This gave me the advantage and I slipped down the inside into Mansfield. My next target was Jon Winter. I caught him up but would never get the chance to challenge him for position as the race was red flagged towards the end. Coming in to the paddock I was absolutely knackered after a full on charge for the full race and was hoping Ian, Gav, Graham or Stewart would be walking back at the same time, see me and offer some form of liquid. Sadly we never crossed paths so into scrutineering we went where I noticed the engine temperature was higher than normal. Remembering from Castle Combe I checked under the bonnet to see the coolant boiling and overflowing again. Gareth suggested turning the heater on to pull the hot air away from the engine which would have worked had we not disabled the heater over the winter. The only thing left to do was shut the engine off and push the car through scrutineering which is what most of the other drivers were doing too, having suffered a similar problem. Taking a walk back through the scrutineering bay afterwards revealed the extent of the problems people had - there was coolant everywhere!

Before the second race Ian set about the task of quickly bleeding and refilling the coolant to get the car through the second race. Rather a lot of black gunk came out of it which is never good news, but I’d keep my eye on the temperature gauge through the race making sure it doesn’t overheat again.

Lining up on the grid for the second time my thoughts were not to go off in Park. I got a pretty decent start and was on the inside through Charlie’s but couldn’t make much progress up the straight being boxed in behind other cars. What followed was an epic battle with Simon Lockey and the lovely McLaren car. I passed Simon round the outside in the Gooseneck and down into Mansfield, but he got past me in The Mountain. The McLaren car got past when Simon lost control at The Mountain causing me to back off. This is the thing with one make racing - a little slip up is all the car behind needs to get past, but it does work both ways. My next adventure in the race would be that dreaded Park corner. You’ve guessed it - another trip across the grass! Good for practicing car control though! I don’t know what it is with that corner but it seems to suck me in. After that it was just a case of backing off and bringing the car home as it was starting to overheat again. In clean air it was OK, but as soon as you get close to other cars the temperatures started to go up.

All in all a good day with some brilliant racing. A couple of things to do before the next outing at Mallory though - bleeding the coolant and also repairing a small bit of damage to one of the front wings after a bit of rubbing in race 1. The biggest news for me though was these two finishes meant I had enough signatures on my upgrade card to finally remove my novice cross. Hurrah!