This is my Church - Cadwell Park Race Report - Jonathan Lewis

After the long doctor enforced lay off from racing I was chomping at the bit to get out and race my Mini again. At last we had the letter from my Dr, that I needed to prove to the BRSCC that I was fit and well to drive in a motor race. 2 weeks before because I could not stand not racing I had got hold of a Classic Modified VW Beatle which happens to be Herbie with a monster of a V6 engine in the front and I turned up at Swaffham raceway which is a small oval near Kings Lynn. In a 2 day meeting managed 2 wins and second in the final, something I was quite proud of and for sure. I am going to race Herbie as much as my Minis allow in 2014 as its good cheap grass roots racing but local and with good people, just look at the lovely retro cars you have to use. Anyway back to the Minis I managed to get the prescious letter and the game was back on, young Zack Booth had done his job perfectly at Oulton park with 2 poles, 2 wins and 2 fastest laps, so he had stolen the Championship lead off me in a big way and now it was me on the back foot.

In the weeks leading up to Cadwell we at Snetterton Speed Shop had been commissioned by the RAC to build a replica MK1 Cooper S. Italian Job Mini and we had not had much time to do it, in fact how does 1 working day sound !!! it was like a Discovery Channels programs where the clock was ticking, but for us it was as the car had to be at the GoodWood Revival by 5pm on the Wednesday evening or it would not get in !! we worked through the night, as long as we could and thanks to Mini Spares centres London and Harrogate we managed to do it. See the pictures and one lucky person will win this little Mk 1 Mini FOC...

After the dram of the Mini Build we had a few days to get the race cars all ready and with some new CVs and such all 3 were ready, we set up on the Friday afternoon as none of us were going to test and we had a last minute new team mate in Emmerdales kelvin Fletcher who is Andy Sugden in the soap, as well as being a great actor he is a massive Mini fan and a great little driver to boot.

The Saturday could not come quick enough for me and I did not sleep much as I was so excited to get back in my beloved Minis. In qualifying I decided that Young Zack had had a test the day before and had now had 68 points for free so I was going to go it alone and try to beat him good and proper. I needed to win the last 4 races and all with fastest laps to be in with any chance of being Champion. I knew zack was fast as he was under the lap record in the test so he was to fly solo from now in my book and I needed to see if I could beat him.


I put together a good string of laps and was delighted to get pole under the lap record and faster than Zack who was second with Kelvin still learning the car after racing a 400 bhp Porsche. We stat down and had a chat and I told Kelvin what I do to try and help him, in between our races was as usual the Supers but if I am honest they just don't ring my bell as there is so much unreliability from the engines that its soil destroying. Chris Slade managed 6th on the grid which was good but then while fighting for 4/5th place in the race his crank broke - so you can see yet again why we have all lost faith in the Supers. Great news for the Slade - Chris' sister had had a little girl in the morning so to be fair they were all ready to just drive back to Plymouth.

In my race I made a good get away and was in control of the race as well as Zack and I was confident that I could have won and got fastest lap. Except for only for 4 laps into the race the car was acting very strange and I soon realised I was doomed not to finish this one, as I had a puncture, my first ever in Mighty's and as I retired to the paddock I knew that Zack was now holding the Championship in his hands.

The only positive was our Actor team mate was driving a dream and using all my tips had got up to third so we had a delighted Kelvin and a sort of reason not to sulk to much !! This all meant that in the second race I would start at the back and on a track that is not easy to overtake on I was thinking its all over, and I might get up to top 5 if I am lucky!

Well I was in some very strange mood and in my head I was thinking SOD this I am going to show them all just how good I can be and thats why I have called this blog This is my Church as I believe for the 22 minuets of this race I went to another place and believed no one was going to beat me, I drove like my life depended on it and one by one I picked people off, some were easy and some were much harder but I got to see zack leading up front and new I had to hunt him down, he had half the straight by the time I got second off team mate Kelvin who was flying again and then I put together a string of laps all well under the lap record and I would guess it will stand for quite a few years as I was in my Church and I was going to win the race, I eventually could see Zack was making mistakes as he was watching me in his mirrors it was his fatal mistake as I kew he was doing this so I pushed as hard as I could until I was on his boot lid.

Over the next lap i set him up for a pass on the pit straight and he tried to weave and moved about so I could not get a run on him. I gave him 2 moves, then OK thats your lot and I just pushed past him with a tiny bit of contact, but for me this was necessary as I had to get to the front, once in front Zack was able to stay with me in my slipstream but I knew i would have him covered, not even with his pushing up the hill or into the final hairpin, was he going to beat me and I took the win to the delight of all in Team Bailey and some of my sponsors who had come to Cadwell to watch.

Was it my best drive ever in a Mini "Yes I think so" and I was delighted that I had done it, is there any chance of still winning it ? I don't no but one thing I guarantee you is I will fight as hard as I can until its over, and If I win then great but if I don't you will have a fine young Champion in Zack.

Thanks as always to all Team bailey and my sponsors

JONNY

Importation rules regarding vehicles are very specific: Only those over 25 years in age may be brought in to the USA without compilance to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).