Mallory Race Report

Posted on December 7, 2008 by admin

Mallory was the last round of the RGB season,  I went into the round just 3 points behind Neil Constable Berry for third place in the championship.  However short of winning the class, and beating everybody in the field I was unlikely to catch him.  So Mallory was simply a bit of end of season fun really.

Qualifying was the most uneventful part of the day, I did however spin on the first lap as I hit the brakes for the first right hander of the Essess, the right rear locked up and I weet careering across the grass.  Now this is the third of fourth meeting in a row where this has happened so it is not just me being useless on the brakes.  I think I’ll check the corner weights as something is plainly and repeatably wrong.  


Anyway I adjusted the balance and got going again.  During the session I hooked onto the back of Derek, Josh, Steve R and Doug… all of whom are front runners,  In each case I managed to stick with them a bit and get dragged along.

This really helped my times and  I  Qualified  14th on the grid which is my highest ever starting position   However I was still 4th in Class B  .. 52.25   Overall I’m pretty pleased with that result, but I am one place behind Tony G on grid (we line up side by side).  I am however  2 seconds  and three or four rows ahead of Neil. Next row ahead is David Whale and Richard Wise… which is pretty exhaulted company.

Unfortunately Colin Chapman, had a sprocket adapter  adapter failure in qualifying which meant hat his propshaft went walk about the engine bay it sliced the fuel line just likeTims did last year .. but luckily Colin didn’t have the major fire that Tim did. However, his  water pump + reverse is battered to death by the flailing prop, and Colin’s day was over :-(  but at least the car isn’t toast.

In the Race I  lost a place or so on Grid due to lots of wheel spin…. and tried hard to keep with Tony as we went round for the first couple of laps. Eventually I settled into a three way battle with David Whale and Phil Allcock.  On Lap 1 Josh loses it at the exit of Gerrards and dumps it in the barriers, so I’m now 3rd in class B, Josh damages his front end but he’s ok.

About 10 minutes in after having swapped places with Phil and David quite a bit, I got baulked and Phil gets by. … Tony G is about 10 seconds up the road now. 

I run deep at the Hairpin and let Phil and David through… Arrgh.  By now we’ve picked up Henry Carr  after he spins. Next Lap round  I get a much better drive out of Devils Elbow and up the start finish straight and we go three abreast into Gerrards. However I’ve got the inside line and nail both apexes.  Phil Tries to hold the power on level with me all the way round on the outside, but loses grip, puts two wheels on the grass, fishtails a bit and then spins along the outside armco wiping both ends off the car.  Later He freely admits it was his fault as he didn’t want to yield the position to me despite my better grip out of the corner. Of course with Phil’s car wrecked close to the exist of Gerrards we get red flagged.

We expect to come in, but  no after a fair bit of hanging around we get re-gridded for a 3 or 4  lap sprint.
On the gridI lose a couple of places that I’ve just taken to David and Henry on the count back to the red flag, but I’m gridded up behind the gap where Phil should be and then the next car is Tony Gaunt who is now 2nd in B and I’m 3rd.  So I’ve got some clear track to run into.

As the lights go out I get a storming start, a real monster…. by far the best all season, I zoom past Tony with a speed differential of at least 30mph.and go up the inside into Gerrards.  I’m ahead of such high flyers as John Cutmore, and Henry Carr and have dropped both David and Tony.  Heading onto the back straight I’m just four places behind Paul Rogers  who is 3rd and I’m right behind Doug Carter.  Next time round I carry waaaay more speed than him past the 2nd apex of Gerrards… and actually overtake him at the start of the back straight to take 6th on the track and that despite his big power advantage. Unbelievably my extra apex speed meant I just sailed  by him.   Fantastic for the first time I’m not the last Genesis on the circuit!

There’ a bit more carnage behind me.  John Cutmore gets stuck nose into the barriers halfway round Gerrards.  Henry and Tony take to the grass, Rob Grant blows a cylinder and sets fire to the car on the inside of the back straight opposite Phil’s wreckage…. but his on board extinguisher puts it out.   Mike Allen retires… new boy James Lindley is out again with an electrical problem.  Tony Carpenter half spins at Gerrards and gets gently T boned by Mike Allen at the restart plus a few other random mishaps.

Meanwhile I hold off Doug for two more laps… and at the last hairpin he gets better drive.  But I didn’t see him 3/4 along side me and unintentionally squeeze him at Devils Elbow…. this effectively holds him off and I take 6th and second in class B.
Neil is 3rd in B  someway back.  That is my highest ever finish on the track.

So another Pot.  Whoo Hoo.

I raced and beat both Doug and David whom I’ve never even been close to before. And swapped places with Phil for quite some time, and all this on a track where I thought overtaking was next to impossible.

I finally learned how to get it off the line. :-)

I survived a race where there where 9 DNFs,

I think I earned 6th on merit from the restart but was probably 10th or 12th in the original race so am slightly flattered by that road position but I wasn’t lapped in either race.

Getting second I think gives me 9th in the overall championship, although 4th by just two points from Neil in class B.  So no Class Championship pot, still to wear  a single digit “9″ next season…. I’ll take that thank you very much :-) and four of the top 9 are from class B (I think)

And did I mention it was gloriously sunny too.  Best lap was 52.05… Paul Rogers first in class B did 50.7  so only 1.3 seconds off him and less than .9 from last years class B lap record (51.14).  And remember my car weighs a full 80kg more than Paul’s does.

Plus all of our cars for the Birkett are in 1 piece too. Me , Neil, David, Paul, and Derek all emerged unscathed.  The other Birkett teams may be doing some forced amalgamations.

Fantastic day. :-) and a fantastic way to end a fantastic season

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