Six races, one disaster.

Sadly the weather forecast for yesterday turned out to be accurate - heaving rain! Familiarisation session was sodden so I didn't go for any lap times, just saw what you could get away with at various corners.

The first heat of the first round started with me in mid-pack. Went ok on the first lap as the fast guys streamed by and on the second lap I found myself in amongst the guys I tend to be close to. One of the new Hynds came up the inside of me into Clark which was fine but he had gone in too hard and got sideways on the exit. As I was right behind him I had to react and lost it a little myself, catching it but getting spat out to the right where Frank Ogg was. We banged wheels and both spun to the left, right into the path of Murray Ford who couldn't see a thing in the spray. Huge impact and the next thing I knew my car was stuttering to a stalled halt half on, half off the track. Having been pinballed around a bit I was a little dazed when the marshalls came over and with three cars off the road (Murray's missing his left front where he hit me) they red flagged it. I'd hit my arm off the door during the crash so they decided to err on the side of caution and give me a quick ride in the ambulance to the medical centre but all was ok. The accident was just one of those chain-reaction racing incidents and thankfully no-one was too badly hurt and Murray's car was fixed in time for the third race (Frank's suffered no damage!) so we all got to continue the day.

The car amazingly stood up well and after some hammering and new bits Aly and Co managed to get me out for the second heat but the steering was all over the place so I dropped right to the back and wandered around feeling it out to try and explain the problem as best I could. More tracking work and so on but it turned out the steering column was bent so I just had to make the best of it.

Felt a bit better for the final, indeed I went for it a lot more once my confidence in the altered steering was restored! The rain by this time was absolutely torrential and the car was squirming on the pit straight over the bumps. Add to that you just couldn't see anything at all in the spray and I'm amazed that everyone mostly made it round ok to the end. Had a good fight with the guys at the back and managed to pass Sandford Imrie on the last lap to pick up a spot.

With talk of the meeting being abandoned as the track was so sodden the water wasn't draining anymore, we were helped by the weather starting to turn from the lunch-break onwards. Drew second for this race and went for it as best I could, all going quite well until I utterly stuffed up my braking at the hairpin and ploughed straight on, getting beached. The marshalls gave me a shove and I got on my way but I was a lap down by then.

The second heat went pretty well, even though I had to start towards the back. Lost a spot late on to Sandford after holding him off for a couple of laps but was quite pleased with 17th of 22 starters at the end as it was still treacherous. Indeed, the rain had mostly stopped by then so it was starting to get greasy.

The final started in bright sunshine! The track was very greasy by now as I discovered when (starting from pole for the first time!) I went straight on at Duffus, bouncing down the hill and rejoining near the back. Mark Lees had spun into the gravel behind me though so the red flag came out and we had a full restart so I got a chance to try again....

...and I did the exact same thing!! When we got underway I could see Colin Atkinson looking up the outside and I maybe had too much of my mind on him as I didn't brake enough and went bounding through the trap again. Rejoined dead last and stayed there to the end.

Easily my most eventful race meeting so far!! Just hoping that the October meeting (which is also a double-header) is in better conditions! As for my war-wounds, most of my left-side hurts the day after - neck, shoulder, big bruise from my elbow to my armpit, knee and ankle but still, can't complain too much given that it could have been a lot worse!

Race Results