Championship Round 2 and 3
 Croft 15/16th May 2004                                                                           Back to Calendar & Report

Following on from the race at Silverstone I was confident of a good result. This soon looked less likely when the front brakes were constantly locking during practice. Putting brake bias to the rear didn't make any difference. I qualified in 7th which was much lower than I had expected after the 4th place at Silverstone. We then checked the brakes out and found nothing wrong.

The race started well and I was soon up to 4th place but as the first race went on the brakes got worse and worse and even though I was having a great dice with Mike Evans I knew I would soon be unable to keep up with him. Soon enough I was forced to slow up letting Mike Evans Peter Richings and Paul Freeman overtake. Then I went off into Tower when car didn't slow as it had on the previous lap and  I went off onto the grass. I carried on just aiming to finish and pumping the brakes down the straight enabled me to carry on safely. I then caught Peter Burnham after he had spun and as I pulled alongside down the straight before Tower. Peter hadn't seen me and pushed me onto the grass, the nose cone folded under the car and race over and my first non finish so far!

Race 2 starting from near the back of the grid due to my non finish in race 1 was going to be a challenge. The start went well and I was soon moving up the order. Until that is the Red Flag came out and the race was stopped with me in 9th. Not a bad result I thought but it could have been better. Then it transpired that the race hadn't run for enough laps for it to count as a championship round so we had to restart. Fortunately we were lined up in the positions we were when the flag was shown, with me in 9th. Again I started well taking Ian Crombie in the first corner and then Adrian Lester and Paul Freeman went off. I could see Adrian Brown and Howard Payne ahead and although I was catching I doubted I would get past either of them but then Adrian suffered fuel surge in Sunny In and I slipped past to take 5th place a great result from the back of the grid.