Pau - Sunday

Race One

Really nervous this morning, street circuit part of it, but part of it was wanting to convert the class pole position into some solid points today... It then wasn't helped at all by finding the clutch proving trick on the formation lap to the grid, a few times the pedal went to the floor but still the gear would not disengage ... Stress levels mounting! I muddled through by changing slightly less often, and a little cautiously, clearly slower, but we need to see the chequered flag!

I seem to be getting better starts at least, and gained one place on the run to the first corner, but it was Andrew Tart in the slow-starting Front-wheel drive Bond, and he's otherwise very quick, so I let him past easily later on. Had a bit of a dice with John Chisholm in the front-engined Gemini, eventually got back past him, but then made a mistake and ran wide on the long right hander through Beaumont, putting me out of shape into Foch ... I'd been warned that this circuit punishes mistakes, and I was lucky to get away with a tank-slapper and was looking straight at the Armco for a time, but we muddled through, however I exited the corner somewhat 'flustered'(!) and in the wrong gear so when John went up the inside on the next corner I decided I'd let him go as he wasn't in my class. John Dowson who was in my class was close behind early on, but fell a little behind at the end, so I got a class win. At the front Jonathan Hughes won, from John Fyda and Patrick Buhofer.

So I'm half way to a Class win ... The nerves build again!

We get two races at each Lurani round, but they are scored as one race on cumulative times, so I beat John Dowson by 7secs in Race One, so in race two if necessary all I had to do was to stay within 7secs of him if he got by...

Race two, didn't go quite so well, insofar as I went backwards in the race, dropping 4 places, the clutch had been sorted, but I was finding it a bit slippy in places, and rather than make any more mistakes I was perhaps a bit over cautious. Early on I could see John Dowson in my mirrors, and he got close a couple of times but then dropped away a bit, so when I was attacked by a few guys who were suddenly going a bit quicker, I tended not to put up a fight as they weren't in my class. Delighted to see the chequered flag ... A Class Win! Fantastic, I'm chuffed to bits - worth remembering that I've been a little blessed by the misfortunes of others, but I'm sure the tables will be turned at some point during the season.

We got all six cars plus tools and stuff, loaded into truck and trailer quicker than we imagined, enabling Iain and Mike to knock off a few hours of the drive home. I get about 4 hours sleep before an early start to Toulouse Airport, I need to leave about 0400...

So I leave Pau very happy, and with none of Hockenheim's heavy-scorers taking points away from here, I think I currently lead the championship. It's early days, let's not get too excited, although I may allow myself a bit of a grin when I walk into the office in the morning!

Huge thanks to Iain and Mike for their support this weekend.