Ooh - fame at last! I did wonder if I'd walked past you somewhere in the paddock, Bob, but it was a busy place and my mates, campervan wasn't directly outside the pit garage so we could have been hidden nearby if you called in - apart from bleeding the brakes and adjusting tyre pressures we didn't have to do much to the car so weren't in the pit garage much.
It was quite a good day, apart from the race being red-flagged after a first corner incident, possibly triggered by the rolling start meaning that first corner speeds (and possibly ambitions) were higher than most drivers are used to, as we normally have standing starts. Apparently not enough startline marshals - there was a 750MC meet on on the National Circuit, and of course Donington Festival not far up the M1.....
After 30 minutes plus, the race was restarted from scratch, tho' shortened to 30 minutes. The International Circuit is quite quick for the powerful cars - the speed at which some of the quick lads were passing me down the hanger straight was incredible, yet from Stowe back to the exit of Club I could usually stay with them. Despite the fact that we were effectively in the "slow group" of about 5 cars running several seconds a lap slower than the rest of the field, we still had a bit of fun, whilst spending a fair amount of time waving the quick cars past
I particularly enjoyed managing to get past the Aston V8 (though he later retired so may well have had an issue
, and towards the end of the race gradually caught a Dolomite Sprint - which could pull away from me down Hanger Straight but I could catch through the corners. I had no idea what race position we were in, but just enjoyed the last few laps as the Triumph's driver did an excellent job of making it as wide as possible to block my overtaking attempts. I finally managed a strong run through Stowe and made a determined dive up the inside at Vale - it was a bit edgy but the Triumph gave me room and we went side by side round Club and I hung on to cross the line 0.5 seconds ahead - with the chequered flag waving.
We pulled into the pit garage and I clambered out to check that the Triumph driver was Ok with my lunge - to find a blonde lady about half-my size running over to say what a great race we'd had, as I congratulated her on her defensive skills.....
Fight to the death for 20th place - that's Club motorsport
