A confession to begin with. Following a little altercation going into Clearways at Brands (sorry David), the Seven needed a trip to Caterham to have the tracking sorted. But a couple of comments on the race video suggested 'my' car looked a little slow down the straights and that Caterham should have a look. No harm in asking, right? Either there was a problem with the car or I really was just as bad as I thought.
Look see, it's there in black and white
There was a problem with the car. It's been running with half throttle all season because of a mistake in the build. I need to investigate exactly what that means and the changes to give full throttle but suffice to say it felt a fair bit nippier after its hour with Caterham. The pedal response was more immediate, the car pulled harder in every gear and it felt so much more eager from about 4,500rpm to the limiter. It also had sufficient to poke to power through most understeer which it never seemed to have before. Perhaps that was subliminal but there was no doubting the little Seven was a fair chunk faster than before. Goody.
And I'd been looking forward to Croft all year having enjoyed watching so many BTCC events there on TV. Faster car and a cool circuit; how exciting.
A little too exciting really given the qualifying performance. Knowing that some of the the field had enjoyed two test days during the week prior to Saturday's qualifying, I probably pushed a little too hard. 15 minutes to learn a track, set a time and actually just enjoy it does scramble the brain a little. Missed apexes, missed gears, missed overtakes and a spin at Sunny left #98 in ninth. However, there was just half a second to fourth place so the potential for a great midfield race was there. I won't tell you how far ahead the actual frontrunners were...
Fast circuit and a faster car. Speed matters!
That my fastest lap of the weekend was during the race tells you how bad qualifying was. The race itself was mega though, easily the most fun I've ever had driving a car. The start was OK, bumping me up to sixth by the chicane. But a missed gear (again!) on the exit dropped me back and the pace of the others began to tell fairly quickly.
I've never been so grateful for a safety car. Two procession laps are never ideal in such a short race but it allowed some time to refocus and, far more importantly, put me right behind the lead group.
The last few laps shadowing Rob (third) and Joe (fourth) were brilliant, trying to work out if there was any way through. The run from Tower is easily the best section of Croft. Grab fourth (don't miss it!) before the Esses and then it's flat through the left, right and the Barcroft kink. Sunny then comes up very quickly! It's a fabulous circuit Croft, flat but certainly not without challenge. You must experience it if the opportunity is ever presented.
Ninth to fifth goes down as a great result
I was elated to finish fifth, as you can probably tell by the hands off the wheel going through the chequered flag. To have kept pace with guys who had been at the circuit previously was great. Yes, the result was helped by a bit of carnage behind but having found myself up in the top five I didn't fall away. To have had full power all year eh? The next (and final) round is Silverstone at the end of October. I want to go out with my best result of the year!
Video here. The GoPro recorded two so I'll upload the one featuring the start soon.