dbRacing - Thruxton Race Report April 27th 2003

Thruxton Race Report April 27th 2003

Practicey

We arrived at Thruxton on Saturday afternoon to a deserted paddock and if it had not been for the race centre already being erected I was beginning to think that the meeting had been cancelled. Weatherwise, there was a heavy rain shower on Saturday evening but for raceday on Sunday the clouds held back until after our race was completed, thankfully proving the weather forecasters wrong once again.

The lack of testing at Thruxton means that practice is the only chance you get to re-learn the circuit each year and so it was to prove for me. Initially I started out quite quickly and passed a couple of cars but then got distracted by Ian Oliver who I made a real meal of passing. In the meantime Broster and Rothwell had passed me and Paul Coombs had streaked by - I later learnt he is a instructor at Thruxton obviously benefiting from good circuit knowledge. Tom McHugh in his 944 S2 had also caught me while I was behind Ian Oliver and I let him past so that I could have a couple of clear laps and give chase. This worked to some extent but with each lap getting quicker my final lap was compromised by the returning Craig Rapp who was recovering from an "off". A number of people got their quick laps on their final lap and I dropped from 3rd to 5th in class, but 9th overall and in front of five class one cars. My time was almost 2 seconds slower than my best lap in 2002 so I knew there was more to come from me and was fired up to provide it.

Race

It looked like I had the possibility of a really good race as Rothwell, McHugh and I were next to each other on the grid and separated by less than 0.2 second. Interestingly Dave Rothwell in his 911 had 911s on all the rows in front of him, while I had two rows of water coolers, meaning that he would have a clear run to Allard and even if I did manage to get a good start I would likely get baulked. Richard Harrison in his class one 3.2 was alongside me with Craig Rapp in his similar car immediately behind. On the green flag lap I felt a sudden hesitation from the car after rounding church just before I changed gear. I was a little concerned, but brushed it of as something to do with the bumps in the track and there was absolutely nothing I could do now.

As the lights turned green I could see Richard Harrison rolling forward but managed to get a good co-ordination of throttle and clutch and made one of my better starts in the GT. Allard was negotiated safely as we swept towards the Complex, but again I had hesitation from the car. In hindsight this was quite fortunate as there was smoke and cars everywhere. Craig Rapp was involved in incident with Marcus Fothergill and there was so much tyre smoke I simply had to come to a full stop. When the smoke cleared I was absolutely last, except for the car of Craig Rapp who was facing the wrong way just 4 feet in front of me. Well, that had really buggered the race up now.

I set about catching the rest of the field but the car kept cutting out as I drove round the circuit. I caught the 944 S2 of Alvero Crego but the intermittent engine problems I was having meant that passing him was going to be interesting..... I almost got him under braking into the Chicane at the end of lap two, but from that point on we were actually very evenly matched. On lap 7 I got a better run through the complex and passed him on the run down to Noble. I managed to stay in front of him all the way to Church, but he managed to get a good run taking advantage of my severe engine problems and nipped past on the inside. Each time he got space in front of me I would make it up through the bends but I just could not make it past again and in any case for the final two laps the leaders were lapping us and I did not want to interfere with their race.

I finished dead last except for Rapp and Fothergill who were DNF's but still picked up points for 7th in class. Tony Brown won the race, though Colin Broster led for the first 5 laps and Richard Lambert in his class two SC finished an absolutely outstanding 3rd overall. When the results were published I was interested to learn that cars 14, 8 and 69 had all made contact, had spun & continued. It just shows you how much the tyre smoke was obscuring the visibility of the official observers !

Post race checking showed an electrical problem with the boost safety switch, which was easily fixed. I just wish it showed itself before the race itself.