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The Oulton Park rollercoaster........ 26th March 2008 The first weekend of the 2008 British GT championship was a mixed event. You Tube My new team mate, Jon Barnes, got his first taste of the car on the Friday practice. I was very pleased when we signed Jon up to the team, I have seen him race, and raced against him, so I know its going to be a good year. Jon did extremely well and got to grips with the car immediately. Throughout the Friday test sessions we kept the car at the top of the timesheet, and were very much looking forward to qualifying. It was my job to qualify for the first race, and having only completed just one lap, I went to provisional pole! Following this lap, I was unable to find clear air, despite getting the impression the car would go faster still. Team engineer Andy, decided we should save the tyres, and come into the pits. We knew we might slip down the table a little, but considered this to be a reasonable gamble. In fact, I slipped to third fastest, but we were very pleased with this result. It was now Jon’s turn to qualify for race two. Jon did a great job to qualify ninth, against some extremely quick drivers, and cars which are undoubtedly faster than the Viper. This we thought was an excellent start to our championship campaign….but the rollercoaster was about to begin! Following post qualifying scrutineering, our car was deemed to be illegal, due to being 10mm too low at the rear. A devastating blow to us, as it meant disqualification from both sessions, resulting in us having to start both of the weekends races from the pit lane. Later that day we lined up in the pitlane for round one of the championship. A pit lane start means no warm-up lap, which means cold tyres, which means flat out with no grip! Sounded like fun to me! Coming out of the pits also meant that by the time I was on the track, all the cars had entered the second corner. This did have its advantages though, like being able to pick my way past a flying Lamborghini. This resulted in a safety car period, which at least allowed me to catch the pack up. After the clear up, and a green light, I was able to pick my way past all the of GT4 cars, and a couple of the GT3’s. Unfortunately, Hunter Abbott then decided to turn his GT4 Ginetta into a very large Petrol bomb. He was able to get out unhurt, after a few somersaults, but this cause a red flag whilst they put the fire out. Following the restart, I was able to pick my way past 8 cars in 5 laps to put us fifth on the track, right on the tail of third & fourth. This again is where things get tricky! Whilst looking for a way past the Ferrari of Phil Burton, I unintentionally selected second gear…… at 115mph…… and pulled 8100 revs! I am told this is a new record, but the mistake had some serious repercussions. For instance, the valves bouncing off the top of the pistons! Only one lap later it was time to change drivers, but by this time the engine was running on only five of the ten cylinders it has. Following a couple of laps, we decided it was best to park the car, as we were not going to score any points. I felt terrible, we could, in fact should have finished on the podium in that race….and from the pit lane! I was very sorry for Jon, and the team, who I had let down. I was very annoyed with myself for making that mistake, I don’t do mistakes! More hard work now had to be done. We needed an engine as we didn’t have the parts to fix ours. Myself and Andy spent hours on the telephone, and on the internet looking for parts or a replacement, and other members of the team were working away behind closed doors doing the same, and looking at other options. Thankfully, we found one, and the guys did a fantastic job of fitting it, but had to work through until 0400 Monday morning to do it. THANKYOU GUYS! So, up down, up down so far, time for some good news I think. Mondays race saw Jon start, again from the pit lane. The start was a lot cleaner, which didn’t work to our advantage as a bit of chaos would have helped us catch the pack. Jon plugged away, setting some great times, on a mission to get the car as far up the field as possible. Brilliantly, he passed the car to me half way through the race in 10th place. I was then able to keep pushing, picking off odd drivers, getting right on the tail of fourth and fifth places. Unfortunately due to some very hot and worn tyres, I didn’t quite have the grip to make any moves stick, crossing the finishing line in sixth place… but still… from the pit lane!! It was an eventful weekend, and everyone agreed we could easily have come away with a couple of podiums, and this would have put us right at the top of the points table. The speed of the car is great, and we have gelled well together as a team. Myself and Jon have had many discussions, and we 100% believe we can win this championship at the first attempt! Here’s looking forward to Knockhill……….. JIGGY |
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