7th October, Silverstone - Last Race Of Season (and the golf as well)
Me passing Julian up the inside - yeah honest !!!
Well here we go the end of an era, the golf's last race, with me driving it anyway, better try not to write it off...
Arrived Friday evening after being stuck in traffic for ages, and for some odd reason turning off the M6 onto the M69 to go to Mallory Park - brain fart me thinks....
Found a nice empty garage, and stuck the car in, decided the ground was a bit wet, and it was a bit cold for camping, so stuck the tent in the garage. Quite cosy really. Waited for Simon and Eff to turn up with beers & food.
Had a bit of a shock in the morning, originally we were supposed to be scrutineered in the garages, - change of plan, got to get the cars out of the garages - bit of a tall order - we had 9 packed into 2 garages... down the pit lane and into the scrutineering bay. - Had a very nice scruit this time round, complemented me on the car prep - he liked the extra fire extinguisher, and the fact that i had used proper roll cage padding....
Qualifying
Put last years tyres on the rear as the 048s are looking a bit bald, went out and tried my best not to fall off, the rear end was all over the place on corners, and the now running without brake servo issue was taking a bit of getting used to.... anyway got round in one piece and managed to qualify last...
Race
Stuck the now "Bald as a bald thing" tyres on the rears, set pressures as usual, 25 front 27 back, and went off to the assembly area, nearly ran a marshal over... he indicated for me to go back a bit and turn in so I did so, he was still standing alongside NSF wheel... argh... well hope that's as close to a Marshall as I get all day..
Was placed one row behind Julian and 7th of all the Class D cars out today... yeah that's right 7 class D cars.... gonna have to pedal like a bugger to get a pot....
Had Rich in the Nissan Super Tourer behind to give me something else to worry about as well.
Nice clean start, got left behind a bit as I got distracted by Rich, otherwise went round for 2 laps keeping tabs on Julian and the Fiesta... After about 3 laps I decided that I had better straight line speed and decided to pass Julian up the back straight..... got him and the fiesta as well, all I had to do now was stay on the track and not let him past. He had a go with about 3 laps to go, and came charging up the inside at maggots, I closed the door too late and he came flying through, out braked himself and went wide to I tucked it up on the right hand side and floored it, load of tyre smoke, and got him back on the straight. Spend the next few laps keeping him behind by hook or by crook and trying to keep pace with the grey BMW in front of me... nearly ran into his back end at one point as braking was a bit heavy... think I prefer it without servo...
Spotted Mark H going round on 3 tyres on the entry to start-finish straight and nearly clobbered him, he was right on my usual "racing line" ie out very wide after taking corner too quick.
Kinda hoped he would stop, but he was still going round 1 lap later, he needed a finish to take Class D championship, I need him not to finish and finish better than 6th to win class D, talk about tight...... think I may donate my tagline "To finish first, first you have to finish" to Mark to use next year.
In the end he got me, he finished last in class D, but a good effort and well deserving of the Class D championship. and get this.... I managed to finish 3rd out of 7 in class, Chris's new engine had packed in and almost made the finish 2 laps short of full race distance.
All in all a good race for the last one of the season, the golf is up for sale on eBay at the moment, and on racecarsdirect.com hoping to raise some money for the VX220 for next season.
Be kinda sad to see the old fella go, I have owned it since 1993 and it was my first car. AM just pointed out, actually its "her car" .... she paid for it.....