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Saturday Practice
Rudder has
done some work on the suspension for me and has
also adjusted the camber and alignment, all at his
Motor Works garage. Automotive Components have
given Robin and I a different type of Goodyear tyre
- Eagle GAs. Ravi is also on the same rubber. The
track is dry and the curbs have been repaired. My
first outing confirms that the car is finally
handling well - there's no more bouncing and it
turns in nicely. We make a minor adjustment and it
gets even better. Rudder gets me in the high
55-second bracket. Just about everyone else is over
56 seconds, however Ravi, who has gone back to
standard front struts and springs, is also in the
55s. A slight misfire during one outing turns out
to be a disconnected battery cable. We install a
set of slightly-used original Nissan disc pads and
I park it for the day. I get the impression that
both the Speedway and Shell cars - two of my main
competitors - are having trouble getting up to
speed. The weather has held out at the circuit
despite a lot of rain to the west.
Race Day
Its bright
and dry but still uncertain as clouds sporadically
blow in from the east. After an initial run in the
car, Rudder increases the front tyre pressures
slightly for me. I drop them back a couple of
pounds when I find that the car tends to oversteer
a bit more than is advisable for fast laps. TV6
have installed a camera in Silbourne's car so we
should have some interesting video by day's end.
Five drivers have been penalized for missing or
arriving late for the briefing meeting held the
Wednesday before race day. They will start both
races at the rear of the rest, reversing positions
within their group for the second race. There's
talk in the pits of Speed Promotions earlier in the
week finding one of the top cars in the series to
have a modified engine which they promptly had the
guilty party correct. Someone apparently thinks his
driving ability isn't up to scratch and feels he
needs additional support. TTASA takes forever to
get their act together, but they finally get going.
Once again there's no programme so we're kept
guessing as to when our first event will be
called.
Race 1
I'm in grid
position six on the inside of the second row. Its a
standard 3-2-3 grid with David Vizard is on pole,
Silbourne in the middle and Robin on the outside.
Tanko is in position eight, one row back on my
inside and Jimmy, who has taken over the Bel Ray
car permanently now, is next to me on the outside
of row two. I notice that the cars in the front row
have been gridded very close together - less than a
car width. They'll only get closer when the flag
drops so I've made up my mind to go for the inside
of David at the start. The flag drops and I'm quick
off the mark, achieving my objective to get inside
David as we head up to top corner. I know that once
I get into the turn first I'll be in good shape for
the race. I keep right up against the curb as we
brake and downshift to second - standard procedure
for the first lap traffic. As I arrive on the left
edge of the track on the corner's exit and shift up
to third, my mirrors show that I've already got a
car length or two to second-placed David, so I
decide to leave it in third for Da Costa Jones
instead of dropping it back into second. This way,
with only one more gearchange, I'll be even further
ahead by the hairpin. It works and the rest of the
race, with no one directly threatening, I'm able to
drive all the right lines and go as fast as
possible, opening a large lead. In the closing laps
the brakes begin to fade, so I start braking
earlier and softer to keep them from overheating.
David, still second, is just exiting the hairpin as
I cross the line for my second victory in the
series. Ravi completes the top three.
Race 2
As a result
of the special gridding arrangements due to the
penalty imposed on some drivers, I start this one
on the outside of row three. Jimmy is in the middle
of the same row with Tanko on the inside. Gary is
on pole in the Speedway car with Rawlins in the
middle. The outer spot is left vacant as Rishi is
absent. Again the grid is not just right... there's
a large gap between the first and second rows. All
the other rows are more closely spaced. What's up
TTASA? I personally hope to get another good start
and try to stay on the outside where I may be able
to go around some cars by top corner. It basically
works that way and by the time we're into Da Costa
Jones I'm somewhere around fourth. Assessing the
situation as we arrive at the hairpin on the first
lap, I decide to stick to a wide entry line. Just
ahead of me turning into the bend is the black
Motor City car, driven this round by Rawlins and,
apparently unknown to him, Tanko is doing one of
his late-braking, inside-line, kamikaze drives. I
see it happen in front my eyes... Tanko slams into
Rawlins who immediately spins across the middle of
the corner. On my wide line I decide to go around
the back of the spun car, but its a bad decision
since he rolls back a couple of feet, forcing me to
go even wider to get around and letting three cars
by on the other side. I've now got more cars to
pass to get back in the race for the front. As I
slowly begin to pick them off, I can see the
Speedway car disappearing into the distance and
there are still several cars between us. It almost
appears hopeless, but I push on, keeping clear of
contact with others as I make my way back to the
leaders. Eventually I'm last in a four-car group
which has broken away from the rest. Gary leads
with Tanko, Jimmy and I in hot pursuit. Its a great
battle which goes on for a number of laps. Jimmy
and I make it past Tanko and I get by Jimmy. I now
have the Speedway car directly ahead. One lap in
top corner I get a slight knock in the right-rear
fender from Jimmy which puts me slightly sideways
but I collect it without any problem. I don't know
why but Gary's driving seems ragged so I'm able to
catch him quickly. By now my brakes have started
the same fading I'd experienced in the first race,
so I know I can't outbrake him. Three laps from the
end he takes the inside line under braking for the
hairpin. I go wide for a clean fast line. I know
that this is my best chance to get him - get the
power on early and go by on the straight. It works
perfectly... I enter the straight on his inside and
move alongside him. As we head towards the start
line side by side, I suddenly feel the car rock.
Gary has decided that I should not pass him and has
turned into me. I cannot believe it. All along in
this series I've been telling all who would listen
that racing involves technique, not brute force.
Now here I was using the very techniques I had
extolled and this character drives into me to try
to stop me from passing on a straight piece of
road. I've tried real hard to keep the Carib car
from looking like the demolition derby junks that
some of the others have gotten to at times during
the series and this man has his car turned into
mine, leaning heavily on it. It was at this point
that I lost it. I can actually remember the moment
when my mind flipped and I forgot about racing and
decided that this was now a personal thing. If you
want to push Gary, then I too can push. All along I
had been holding the car in a straight line,
determined not to give way to his pushing. Now, I
actively turned back into him and up the straight
we went, cars locked together with plumes of white
tyre smoke rising up between us. This continued
till his left-side wheels dropped into the grass,
forcing him to back off. While all of this was
going on, Jimmy took advantage of the situation to
go by on the inside, closely followed by Tanko. As
I turned into top corner I felt the flat left-front
tyre - all the rubbing had caused the valve to come
out. I limped round to the pits and retirement,
leaving Jimmy to win his first Carib race, followed
by Tanko and Gary.
Post Mortem
What can I
say? I lost it and suffered as a result. It's been
through my head a thousand times since. If I had
kept my cool, I could have held the car straight
and would have been on the inside at top corner and
would probably have won the race. But I guess every
rope has an end and I apparently had reached mine.
The result is that I've been a bad example,
particularly for the new drivers in the series, and
for this I am sorry. I've just about thrown away my
championship chances - I'm now in fifth, fifteen
points back from Tanko. It will take a lot of good
fortune along with some perfect drives to win. As
for the rest, its nice to see a new winner in the
series. The in-car camera will hopefully add a new
dimension that attracts more interest in the sport
and the series. There was more contact between cars
and I was part of it. I suppose my question for the
organizers right now is: are we doing a demolition
derby or are we racing? We really need to put in
place whatever is necessary to discourage
intentional bad driving.
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