by Thomas Brimblecombe of Grandstand
Friday 3rd November and I wake up very early to a cold but clear and crisp morning. I meet the team who have had an even earlier start. Its then we go to sign on/sign our lives away. After that I go with Neil to get the car scrutinised. No problems with the car but I am told that my race suit will soon be out of date!
Free practice for my heat (heat 4) takes place at 11.00 and I am feeling comfortable in the car but very nervous before I head onto the circuit. A mixture of fear and excitement is felt as I hear the whistle to signal our group to start practice. Things start well and the fear slowly subsides. About three laps in and its then that the oil flags come out. A sick car has laid oil all the way around the racing line! This makes learning the circuit tricky and I come away with a time of 1.09m, which is 6 secs off pole! This is an age in motor racing terms. I come back in, the team congratulate me on my time for my first time in the car (since a short test at Mallory anyway at the start of the year!).
Qualifying for my group takes place a couple of hours later. I know that I need to find at least a couple of seconds so that I do not find myself at the back of the grid in the race. As I head onto the track things are looking up as the oil seems to have gone and I can attack the circuit a bit more. I seem to be getting into the groove and I come in at the end of the session to find I did a 1.06, 3 secs up on my practice time. The team and I are very pleased.This leaves me with a grid position of 12th position out of 27. Not bad after half an hour in the car.
On Saturday we have a leisurely start, as the heat is not until the afternoon. I am told that I will need to finish in the top 11 to get through to the semi-final... that leaves a bit of work for me to do. After a lot of nervous pacing (and trips to the lavatory) I get strapped into the car and get some encouraging advice from Neil (Fowler) team principle. Luckily we get a green flag lap so there is a chance to get reacquainted with the circuit and get some heat into the tyres. As we form up on the grid it seems like an age before the red lights on the gantry illuminate, I blink and find that the lights have gone out and we are off. I get a good start and make a position before we reach copse corner but as I am about to turn in, a cloud of smoke appears and a car with all four wheels locked up carries on straight through the corner making no attempt to turn! It seems like millimetres away but no contact is made and I continue on my way in 9th! I hold this position until a fluffed gear change and a faster car on a charge relegate me to 11th, my pit board tells me I am in 11th, which is the result I need. With clear air behind me I concentrate on making no mistakes to the flag. It works. Result! Quite unbelievably I’m through to the semi as are both my team mates David Wild and Neil.
Race day and it transpires that my team mate David and I will line up on the same row of the grid. We decide upon a strategy of not 'hitting' each other. The nervous pacing before we get called is heightened as we learn of a serious incident that has happened on the circuit. One last toilet visit and we are being strapped in again ready to race. David and I line up on the grid, I glance over but he seems focussed on the car in front. As we form up after the green flag lap its eyes to the start lights. We’re off and all I see is David’s blue Lola disappear, what a storming start. I hold position and am a little tentative of potential incidents through copse, though everyone gets through cleanly. To my dismay I find myself dead last as we come out of Becketts. I am still with the pack but I need to get a move on. I manage to stay with the pack and after what must be five laps I see the yellow flags ahead, I then see the car that’s spun on the exit of Brooklands. Everyone has backed off it seems until another car t-bones the stricken car just in front of me. I have to take avoiding action and then see the red flags come out to signal the race being stopped. We continue back round to form up in the positions we were in when the race ended. I am one from the back!
I tell myself to be more aggressive on the start, I hold position as the race is restarted but its not for long! I am now in a pack of three all battling not to be last. I pass one and line up the guy ahead for a pass into Brooklands. Brake, grab third, snatch second……..NO he’s spinning I can’t decide which way he will go and end up spinning 
myself. I pray that I don’t hit him until BANG there’s contact and we both end up facing backwards in the gravel. I flick the cut off switch and I’m out of the car the quickest I have ever been before. I glance at the damage before the marshals come over to see if we are ok and point us to safe area. The other guy in the accident and I don’t speak, I swear repeatedly under my breath and watch as my team mates go by. I wonder what they must be thinking; I don’t suppose they are impressed! What makes it worse is that I was driving Neil’s own car, a car he has won many championships in – I feel terrible. The race finishes and the marshal’s tell me to go to the medical centre for a check up. I know I don’t need it but follow orders. Not before I return to the car to try to survey the damage. I see a lot of bodywork ripped off and the exposed radiator hanging loose. As I make my way to the medical centre I pass the other driver in the incident, I apologise that I could not do anything as he was already mid spin – he seems to accept this.
After a quick check over from the circuit doctor I skulk back to the team to explain myself. The first thing they ask is how many wheels were left on the car, I think they were joking? Neil seems very upset, but David assures me this is because his engine continued to play up in the race and that he has not made the final. The fact that I just bent his car probably did not help! We check the on-board footage of the accident and the team put it down to a racing incident, I can’t help thinking that with more experience it could have been avoided.
We watch the Walter Hayes Trophy final which ends disappointingly behind the pace car. I am sure the eventual winner Peter Dempsey wasn’t disappointed though.
After a team de-brief over a beer I leave the circuit mildly consoled. What a weekend!
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