Trying out some new tyres on the car, running Toyo R888's so these should be stickier than previous race rubber. Also we had got a new bundle of snakes exhaust manifold on the car curtesy of £21 off Ebay. So going to Brands Hatch our optimism was high, especially as it might rain for our race taking away our competitors power advantage.
Practice and qualifying went well putting us 10th on the grid out of 18 although I was unhappy with my driving which turned out to be sliding on dropped oil in Clearways making each lap markedly different to the one before although Glenn pointed out the lap times were quite consistant. So not pleased with my quality of driving but a better than expected grid position.
We spent the next few hours scratching our heads about what to adjust to improve handling but with the risk of rain we decided to leave things alone as we were class leading on the grid so on the theory that quicker in practice means we should be quicker in the race, it wasn't broke so don't try and fix it!
Tyre pressures were adjusted for a wet start but it stopped raining the moment Glenn left for the grid and the track soon dried so we ran with tyre pressures 2 to 3 psi higher than we would otherwise have set them.
Glenn was straight into a tussle with a Toyota Supra who so nearly lost it with a big tank slapper on the back "straight" on lap 1 but this hurt Glenn more as he lost momentum to prevent being collected and so was pushed back into hands of the following P car, a 924, and a V12 XJS and a V8 MGB who all managed to out drag him along the front "straight". We so need more power.....
Glenn kept our class lead from the flag running the same good lap times achieved in qualifying of just over the minute per lap, a lap being 1.199 miles so an average speed of just over 70 mph.
After 20 laps Glenn pitted for our driver change which went smoothly. We were calmer than we had been at Snetterton in the driver change and so were a little quicker. I popped out into a clear space on track but soon the 924 P car appeared from its pit stop and we become joined by a peice of short elastic for the rest of the race, about 15 minutes to run. Our lap times were never more than 0.5 seconds apart with each of us taking a turn at being the quicker car. He out dragged me on the "straights" and I punished him in the corners. I tried using back markers to box him out, leaders lapping us to suck me through, suicidal late braking, dodgy lines, anything to get past and to stay past but each time I got by, he out dragged me again! But it was great fun and really close racing with zero contact. On the last lap I had a back marker appear on the last corner so tried a last ditch effort to use it to box the P car out but I got caught out and ran wide onto the dirty part of the track letting the P car take the flag 0.75 seconds ahead of me. So I am really annoyed the video system stopped recording 4 minutes into Glenn's stint! It would have been worth watching compared to the real lack of action we had at Snetterton!
But we finished 12th overall and were 1st in class right up to the moment the organinsers realised they had incorrectly classed another car so at the trophy presentation they put him into our class dropping us down into 2nd place. So we get a whiskey tumbler and not a wine glass....
But a great race for both of us. The top cars are 4 seconds per lap ahead of us at Brands. If we can only get some more power.....
This link is one I found showing an early single lap of mine just before I hooked up with the P car, taken by someone elses pocket digital camera so quality not so great but it shows how good Brands Hatch is for spectators.
MVI_0184-out.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Re: Brands Hatch race report 27/4/08 
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