Round 3 was held prior to the lunchbreak with Gordon at the wheel for the first time in 8 months. He was a bit nervous about going straight into the races but given the relative lack of funding all three of us have, he couldn't test on Saturday (which I did with nothing spectacular to report - still off the pace I'd gotten up to last year which is a worry.) He got up to a pretty good speed in the warmup though so started in the grid, running pretty well in the first round and avoiding a big accident that happened right in front of him towards Clark, that said however myself and Rory's worst fears were realised when he vanished from the field with a couple of laps to go, eventually showing up on the back of a towrope in the paddock. A broken oil cooler was the issue and it was quickly replaced in time for him to get out again for the next two races which he got through both of with no further issues, setting a very impressive laptime in the final.
During the lunchbreak I was a little tense about running in the three afternoon races that made up Round 4 as Rory and myself had been really surprised at all the rough driving that was going on all down the field - quite apart from the two largish accidents that happened in the morning (Colin Atkinson needing a little medical attention after an airborne moment which ended his day completely and trust me, could have been much worse as it happened right in front of us and was close to being much bigger) there had been a huge number of aggressive moments with a lot of take and not a lot of give.
Still, drew 5th for the first heat and got underway, trying as hard as I could not to get swamped by the field. It was going quite well until I screwed up my braking for the hairpin and went deep into the corner, holding the outside lane so that I wouldn't get in the way. Right. Next thing I know impacts are coming and Alex Knight's car jumps over my front-right, tearing off the fender. The upshot was that I was left sitting in the gravel but after a push from the marshalls I meandered back to the paddock, the steering feeling to me like it was way off - turns out it wasn't - just dust, gravel and my inexperience making me think it was. I'll have to wait for the TV coverage to find out what actually happened there as I heard three different versions from three different people (one of which was very unflattering to one of the cars which hit me) but I really can't comment on it until I find out. Pic by Linz Gordon follows:
The second race was quieter as I was starting at the back but I made a terrible start and fell right to the back but managed to repass Ericco Palazzo into MacIntyres. After that I just had to watch in amazement as broken down and crashed cars proceeded to litter the track, only 15 cars actually finished in the end so I picked up my best result so far of 14th.
The final had me start third and given that this was my last race for the next 3 months or so I decided to try going for it. Nice idea I suppose! Got a decent start and managed to grab the racing line and only lost a couple of spots on the first lap. Then on the run up to Clark on the second lap whilst side by side with Rich Crozier, Chris Hynds lost a fender ahead of us. It landed on the road ahead of Rich and he jinked left to avoid it, clipping me and sending me off into the gravel. Got a push out by the ever-excellent marshalls and (in a bit of a raised state of adrenaline) pounded round in what had become something of an extended test session. One moment of note when the leaders lapped me was when John Marshall passed me at Clark only to go straight on and rejoin right ahead, but we got away with it.
Was pretty annoyed with Rich over the incident and made the mistake of not cooling off a bit before speaking to him afterwards and feel a bit of an idiot for shouting at him which hardly helped the situation. Sorted it out between us afterwards though and thankfully the car was fine, though it ended the day looking a bit battle worn.
There's been a lot of dicussion about the aggressive driving and the gulf in driving ability between those at the front and those of us towards the back among the drivers recently as the legends is really becoming a pro-am series these days. There are some extremely quick drivers and those who've come up from karts and may be eyeing futures in motorsport at the front and plenty of novices and those of us who are just out for some fun at the back and the way we all get mixed together in the big grid that currently exists is leading to occasional problems. Guess we'll see where that goes.
As for me, I get a big break until the August 3rd meeting until I'll be racing again, though I might get a go in the Saturday tests if Rory and Gordon don't do them just to keep myself in practice - and I need all I can get.
Results from April 28th meeting. Why I'm called Matthew by SMART Timing this time out, I'll never know!
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