Saturday kind of showed me that wasn't - in the morning warmup I had trouble stringing coherent laps together but I was still feeling rusty so expected it. We were the last race of the day after the first British GT race of the weekend and I had drawn at the back and got a little left behind. Found myself fighting with Mervyn Wilson and Kenny Thompson (both newcomers this year) but was starting to wonder how long we had been going - I was sure we'd done 8 laps. With cars starting to litter the side of the road I was sure something was up and with my mind wandering slightly and (as it turned out) my brakes overheating, I had a massive spin down Duffus Dip. Got going again just as the top five or so lapped me and toured it back in for the last few laps, sure that the race had been a lot longer than it should have.
Turns out there was a misunderstanding with BRSCC who run the British GT Championship and therefore this meeting somehow getting the impression we ran 15 minute races. As this became 15 laps, a couple of cars had run out of fuel along with others suffering overheated brakes and tyres and possibly even engines. This led to Tony Caig (who led at 8 laps when a standard legends race would have ended) losing everything when his engine blew. A vote was put to the drivers afterwards and the preffered (but by no means unanimous) decision was to go for a result after 8 laps. It obviously made no real difference to me in terms of results so I just voted for what I thought made most sense - i.e an 8 lap result given that the last 5 laps had just been a comedy of errors as we all fell off all over the track. Obviously the top five finishers after 15 laps weren't happy with this idea and you can understand why.
In the event on Sunday morning the BRSCC decided that a 15 lap result would stand with regard to working out the grid for the final. Whether the result will stand for the SMRC Championship points, I don't know. Anyway, the second race was the first of the day and thankfully it was dry. I'd originally meant to be starting second but this became pole when Scott Hynds couldn't get started in the pitlane alongside me. I got an average start and this meant the quick guys mugged me pretty quickly and before I knew what was happening I was in the midfield. There was a lot of hard driving going on with a lot of wheel-banging and I was "moved" out of the way once or twice. Still, the race went well and I finished right with Murray Ford and Jason Ogg who had suffered a couple of offs.
The final was also thankfully dry and I was second again but things went much the same way as before and a pretty poor start meant I got pushed wide at the top of the hill and got a bit freight-trained. Had a few fights as I went backwards but was soon at the back again. Tried to follow Aly Hunter and Kenny Thompson but they dropped me in the last couple of laps. Finished 22nd of 24 finishers. Best lap of the weekend was a 65.1 so about half a second slower than at the end of last year which is a bit dissappointing but then it has been six months. Hoping for better things in two weeks when I'm driving in the second round of the double header.
Results can be found here.
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