The team were up against it yet again this season. The second car was being worked on almost round the clock - a legacy of the FIA and Spanish GT crashes earlier in the year. My regular mount, if anything can really be called that in my turbulent season, had to leave for the clashing Spanish round at Albacete on the Tuesday before the test session on Thursday 30th June. Due to the work still to be done to the new car it was going to be a test-less race weekend again!
The car arrived at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday still be completed by an exhausted team. Nevertheless on they worked, all those last jobs before a brand new car can go on track.
Time was running out with the second session due at 2.15 p.m. rather than the usual later time of around 5.00 p.m. This left the mechanics even less time and the session started with work still to complete. I was feeling ever so slightly nervous about our chances of qualifying but there was always the fall back of being allowed to start from the back of the grid. However there was a huge 34-car grid so it would not be great. With 10 minutes of the session to go I was pushed out of the garage but I had no steering to the right hand side - it simply jammed and would not go! So the car went back up on the jacks and it looked like we were out of luck.
But a red flag with 5 minutes to go gave us a reprieve and with the steering now working in both directions I was set for a shot at the 3 laps required to qualify for the race. Even if I went flat out straight away I would not manage more. The session went green and I set off for the car's very first lap.
Everything felt fine as I powered out of Redgate Corner until I noticed the gear lever fouling my hand as I steered into the top of Craner Curves. Thinking the mechanism was tight I pushed it away and it promptly fell off into the passenger footwell! The remains of the lever were now only a few inches long but with considerable effort I could still change so carried on running in the gearbox and bedding in the brakes.
The car felt really good and I was ready to go a bit faster but the chequered flag was out so that was it! I had put the car 16th out of 34 on the grid and felt that we could have a good race from there. What a fantastic job the boys had done and we celebrated with champagne courtesy of Eurotech.
Cor was due to fly into Luton Airport at 7.50 a.m. and Melindi volunteered to get out of bed early to go and fetch him. This all went off to plan and everyone converged on the pit garage at 9.30 a.m.
GT cars are very labour intensive so the crew had to get right back on it and with extra input from Cor they had plenty to do. Race time was delayed due to problems in other championships and as the time was approaching the heavens opened and a deluge flooded the circuit. With no chance of starting the race we waited the rain out and after a circuit inspection the countdown started. I was strapped into the car and set off to form up on the grid using my left foot on the brake to try to bed in the brakes a little more. It had been decided to start the race behind the pace car to allow some of the water to be cleared by the wide wet weather tyres. This worked quite well and we were released to race after 5 laps. I made a good start and by Coppice on the first lap was up to about 10th place. Alas, with no time to run the car the set up was not quite what it could have been and over the brow at Coppice it caught me out and round I went! Rejoining dead last I kept it together and by the time I handed over to Cor we were back up to 20th spot.
The pit stop went well and Cor charged off to get us all the way up to fourth by the flag. A sterling job had netted fastest lap and 8 more points. However the Lister had won again and my points lead is now down to 6. Never mind, we'll beat that Lister yet!
Next round is back up at Croft circuit near Darlington on July 20th to 23rd. This is where the Lotus works at its best but we will be right there looking for that top step again.
Many thanks for this report to Melindi and Calum - You can follow Calum's activities in 2000 on his website, but you'll hear how he's doing right here!