Preamble
There was a lot of preamble to this weekend. I collected the Scarab from AHS and was looking forward to driving the car after a 20 month break (mitigated by a generous lend of Francis’ Storm and rental of an AHS’ Challenger). There wasn’t a lot left of the old car so I had a half day test booked on the Friday to refamiliarise myself with the car and understand the changes made.
Testing – or more accurately working out what on earth is going on – was not confidence inspiring. I missed most of the first session as my race wheels fouled the new brake calipers and the time ebbed away as AHS kindly attacked the car with an angle grinder. Neither session was very good with me struggling for grip, trying to get the brakes to work whilst trying to stay out of the way of the incredibly quick F1000 cars which we shared testing with.
Okay, the car ran but I was driving like a muppet. Racing is about confidence and I didn’t have any!
Qualifying
In short, I qualified but I was so far back that I was almost in the next race. Driving rain and hailstones didn’t help the session and my “carefully” was at odds with those who pushed and had the occasional spin but got a couple of good laps in. I failed the strategy test….
The car felt no better.
Race 1
Now dry and with a sticky track, we seemed to have a chance.
I had a stonking start and immediately overtook several cars. Avoiding the corner accident meant I lost those places but, more importantly, the red flag meant a restart.
On for another good start, then. Well, no. A good leap away but selecting fourth instead of second bogged me down and I was dead last and with a few hundred yards to make up. On the up side, the car was now being predictable and I was actually driving it; making space on slower cars on Druids, Graham Hill, Surtees, and Clarke. Getting through Paddock Hill was still hard work as I was still backing off. It was good to finally pass a few cars.
Race 2
Similar to Race 1 and mixing in with some traffic. A slightly better start helped. I was keen to overcome the start issues for the restart and found myself between Alex Jones and the pit wall and defending my space looking for the advantage into Paddock Hill. Alex was unlucky to come up behind a stationary car and his front clipped mine. When I lifted off, his rear then ran over same front and snapped a ball joint pin. We were both a bit unlucky.
The pin was a simple 10 minute fix but without the spares at the circuit, the 10 minutes would be another day.
Summary
A pretty poor weekend but at least the Scarab is running again and there was a glimmer of hope for 5 minutes in race 1. Is this a sound enough foundation to build on? Let’s see.