Having made some improvements and progress at Croft the decision now was – what to do next? The increase in toe-out on the rear, despite being a small amount, seemed to help get the car turned better. Should I add more? In my 'softly softly' approach to getting the car sorted so I don't loose my way I contemplated this for a while and decided that on the whole it would be better to go to Snetterton with the car as it finished at Croft, do practise then make a change so I would at least get s

A long weekend affair this one – practise Saturday, race Sunday. A leisurely morning past by since the car was in rude health and all the usual pre-race prep in the garage at home meant naff-all to do except a window spruce-up to get rid of suicidal airborne wildlife. The main issue was – all that blue sky and blazing sunshine. Not a good omen for a pole position then. Ho-hum. At least I'd get a crack at what the car was like in the dry to assess where to go next with adjustments. Clambering in to my good and comfy Kirkey race seat I asked my crew what sort of times I should be looking at doing. My main stats man, Keith Manning, piped up with 'Steve's lap record (Steve Young, my mate and co class racer in another Clubby, holds all the lap records bar one for our class) is 1:18-something I seem to recall'. Right – so 1 minute 21 will be reasonable fro me then, and off I went. First timed lap display gave me 1:35-odd. EH?!! Well – I was settling myself and the car in so I let it pass. However, two laps later I was getting 1:32+ signs – and I was sweating profusely wondering where the hell I was going to get another 14 seconds from. I thought I may as well pack up there and then! 3 seconds yes. 14, no. I had an eventful practise in as much as I kept falling over/getting fell over other cars so the laps times were a bit varied, but a 1:31.7 was the best I could manage. Talk about disillusioned. But this just had to e wrong. I wasn't THAT slow.

On returning to the paddock, I swung the door open and asked KLM ( Keith Manning – alias Otto von Stukka since taking up aviation) just where did Steve find the other 14 seconds... perhaps a short cut? The admittance that Steve's lap record was 1:28.something-or-other made me feel heaps better! But still some way adrift of being competitive. The messy practise also meant I hadn't been able to apply my mind solely to the purpose of how the car was behaving handling wise. Hmph. So what now? A peak at the front damper travel indicators (sounds technical – but just tie-wraps around the damper rods pushed down to the damper tops before take-off) showed I was using the whole 1” or so right up to just below the damper-mounted bump stops. Some finger tapping and sky-searching later I decided to play with damper settings rather than tweak geometry further. Whisking the wheels off with the car on axle stands also allowed me to check out the brake caliper seals. Dry as a bone. Cool. But the brakes still have no feeling to the whatsoever – I am starting to suspecting the pads for this now. Anyway, I upped the rebound damping to 9 clicks from 6 and left the bump alone at 3 clicks on my wonderful AVO double adjustment dampers. I also dropped the rear tyre pressures by 3 psi. And that was it. The engine was in fine fettle so needed no attention. A re-fuel and we were ready fro Sunday. I was till praying for rain though, and weather reports that evening said there would be showers Sunday afternoon... there was hope then.

Oh – something else I've forgotten to mention... I was a bit concerned that I had the wrong final drive ratio in for here – a 3.9. I would have liked a 3.76, so made myself stick to a strict 7,500rpm gear change point but was still running in to 8,400rpm at the end of the long back (Revett) straight... I willed myself not to use more in the race....

To make sure I was prepared for rain I asked my pit crew (that'll be Karin then as KLM was busy sorting a full English breakfast - yummy!) to make sure the screen and side windows were cleaned, Rain-Xed and Rain-X anti-fogged inside. Just in case. Just in case the gods favoured me and it bloody lashed down for the race. But the sunshine persisted, although a few clouds made an effort to give humankind relief every few minutes. It certainly didn't look like rain was on the cards.

And it wasn't. So – starting 10th out of 14 (practise left a decimated grid – seems none of the Dolomite Sprints liked Snetterton at all and a few others failed to make the race) I was looking for my usual demon start and a determination not to be intimidated into giving way to the bigger cars without a fight. Lights out and... wheel spin. Felt like I was on ice! The tyres just would not grip. Bummer – lost several places in to the first corner. I was singularly unimpressed! OK – head down, get the engine/tyres warmed through and get on with it. First few laps felt OK. I got passed two cars (Mk2 Lotus Cortina and Hillman Avenger) and the car was feeling OK. Then the car felt not OK at all – no front end grip it felt like- though basically understeer to the point I was having to lift off to get back on line.. and it wasn't long before the Cortina and Avenger had caught em up and eventually got past me again as I simply could not make a decent line. SO FRUSTRATING!!! I then noticed I was using 8,200rpm as a gear change point and assaulting 8,500rpm at the end of the Revett straight, and now was over-driving everywhere in an attempt to catch up again. Gadzooks! What a hash I made of the last few laps. Still – I made it to the flag with the car and engine in one piece again, so we live to fight another day. And a bonus half a second quicker than practise.

Reflecting on the race and the changes I had made I obviously was too stiff on the rebound – hence the crappy start. And I think I need to look at tyre pressures more closely. Inspecting the tyres post race (and practise come to that) shows the tyre is staying up on the tread – so the geometry must be working. So may be the tyres are over-inflating once they get hot, hence the loss of grip in the latter stages of the race. So, for the next race at Donington on the 2nd September I am going to re-set the dampers t where they were, go back to the original tyre pressures, and during practise take a flyer in to the pit lane and get one of my crew to do a tyre pressure check with the tyres hot to see where we are at with them. And there was me seriously contemplating some fairly drastic measures to get the damned car to turn better like sling on a rear anti-roll bar and sorting bump stops for the front... One good long look at Craner Curves will steady the most fervently shaking tool-gripping hand though – you simply do not want an unknown quantity by way of suspension changes slapping you in the face there... I want to make the season without incident if I can at all help it!

Damn me but I need a decent test day to sort things out faster. Me included.