Qualifying

Despite being one of the first out, I initially struggled to find clear air due to some radicals who were qualifying for Bikesports going rather slowly round the corners. I settled into a rhythm and as I got quicker, 3rd gear started playing up, occasionally popping out of gear which didn’t help consistent lap times. There appeared to be a general lack of grip which encouraged some oversteer during the session, but it appeared that everyone had the same problem and I qualified 4th in class.

Race

I made a good start, keeping up with the pack ahead until I struggled to get 4th gear, and quickly got passed by Bob Mortimer’s class A Fury and fellow class C runners Austen Greenway and Richard Wise, all before the first corner! I managed to get a run on Richard into the second corner, and was going round the outside of Austen Greenway when a spinning car ahead forced us all to take avoiding action. The race was stopped due to a car stranded on the track, so we formed up on the grid again in our original starting positions.

The second start again saw 4th gear being evasive, but this time only Bob and Austen got past before the first corner. Again, I took Austen into the second corner, but Bob forced me wide onto the grass due to the slippery

patch left by the earlier incident, so I lost some further ground and two more cars got past. I managed to re-take one the of places under braking into the Luffield complex and set about chasing the pack. However, it was clear that 4th gear wasn’t happy as I again struggled to keep it in gear, allowing a class C Fury to re-take the position I had just gained. The following straight was taken mostly in neutral as the gearbox didn’t want me to have any gears at all, but I managed to find fifth once the whole field had got past! Fifth and sixth seemed to work fine, so I spent the rest of the race putting in consistent (if slightly slow) laps using my only two remaining gears. To my surprise I was still faster than nearly half of the field, and started catching the tail enders. Although some of the overtakes took a long time down the straights due to the lack of gears, I managed to get past several cars: two from class C, two from class B and one class A (who had a bit of an engine problem). I managed to finish 6th in class, showing good pace despite a dodgy gearbox with a faster lap time than fifth placed Richard Wise.