Brands Hatch ? Testing
A Thursday night first date with a hot lawyer was not supposed to impact the weekend racing however things went astonishingly well and it was only at 2am that I realised that an 8am sign on was starting to look a little tight. A fitful few hours of sleep before the alarm went off and a high speed warm up drive through central London saw me at the leafy Kent circuit with whole minutes to spare. Talking of spare, Tony was edging towards going spare at me being late, yet again, but once behind the wheel things seemed to calm down and the benefits of preparation started to become apparent as consistency, slow but consistent, started to come.
Brands Hatch Qualifying June 2009
My education as a driver continues with lessons in humility and superstition. You may have read that our first visit to Brands was less than successful for me and the paddock wisdom suggests that drivers have lucky and unlucky circuits. I?ve always leaned towards Jackie Stewart?s view here: he was adamant that his only superstition was to be completely un-superstitious but this weekend has had me questioning the great man?s dogma. Last time we were here Matt rather famously wrote that Paddock Hill was ?a lot quicker than it looked? and rather failed to demonstrate this as he binned it into the gravel on his first qualifying lap. Having taken a fair amount of ribbing for this, his jaw was set fairly squarely during qualification and set right behind him on the start finish straight was mine. We pelted down to Paddock and I was determined to follow him directly but at the short braking zone I pumped the middle pedal once and the brakes locked up for a couple of meters. As Matt nailed the turn in point like a rock star at the prom, I sailed straight into the off cambered half of the turn and the marshals hunkered down behind the Armco. Another pump unlocked the brakes and I tried to turn in. For a very brief moment the car was straight and I tried tickling the accelerator. It was going to be okay but then the momentum caught up with me and after an enormous tank slapper I shot backwards into the kitty litter exactly replicating Matts performance of the previous meeting.
I then had to sit and watch the remainder, nearly all, of the session with the august men of Post 4 who gave me the honour of being their first chalk mark of the day.
Brands Hatch Race 1 & 2
Keen followers of this blog will be aware that my starting performance has not been great. I lost 15 places off the line at Anglesey however starting from the back here today would offer up another challenge as the back of the grid is on a downslope which requires the driver to hold the revs and brake with the same foot before releasing the clutch. By the time the red lights went out my calf was cramped and it was with some relief that I was soon charging past a couple of cars. A very, very soft brake pedal prevented any further heroics and it was simply a matter of claiming the odd place here and there and waiting for the natural Locost attrition to lift me up the order. Started 32nd finished 22nd not a bad result overall but not really that satisfying. Not remotely satisfying compared to the howling banshee of a performance put in by Matt. Seven years of Locost and finally he meshed with the black beast to record his maiden victory by the grease on the hair of a gnat?s chuff.
Its rare that you see someone get what they deserve, politicians spring to mind here, even rarer to see someone get something positive but in the short while I?ve been racing with Matt I don?t think anyone has deserved quite so much. Tony too should be mentioned in these dispatches, he?s put more broken Locosts back on the track than mere sporting etiquette would demand, and this is as much a team victory for the Cherringtons as anything else. In fact it was difficult to say who had the bigger grin at lunchtime.
Race two was a similar affair for me, minus the good start. Got a couple of places back in the race and finished 23rd from 32nd. Hardly setting the world alight but from the cockpit more satisfying as for once I could actually see where the speed was coming from and where it was simply desperate ragging it. The former is something that can be built upon whilst the latter is behaviour of Yoofs.
To confirm my suspicions that Brands might be becoming Matt?s lucky circuit, both his first podium and his first race lead were here, was an immediate follow up to his maiden win with another win. Stunning result for Matt, Tony and TMC Motorsport (www.tmcmotorsport.co.uk) and the black beast never looked better with two winners cups and garlands.
In order to make up for not getting an upgrade signature on my licence due to the over exuberance of the marshals at Snetterton, I made up for this by standing on Post 2 for the day on Sunday, resplendent in Orange. Of the plaudits headed Matt?s way the most sincere I was witness to was the senior marshal, himself a former F3 driver, when he said that both Locost races were easily the best sporting spectacle of the weekend and by far the most intensely fought races on the card. They all loved it, I loved it, congratulations Matt.
