Hockenheim - Race Two

Once again courtesy of those very nice Mini racer chaps I acquired a new starter motor, which Iain fitted, having had to take both the new one and the old one to pieces to make one up to suit my car! Iain had also had yet another go at improving my brakes. All in all, the F2000 car and my FJ kept him busy pretty much all weekend...

Unusually I got an acceptable start! Not only holding my position but making up one on a slow-starting car ahead. Yellow flags waving at the hairpin, exitting which there was a failed car to one side and a slowing car, turned out to be my class competitor Charles Cook, I assumed he'd be back at me before long. I was then a bit lonely for a few laps, but the car was running well, brakes were better than at any point over the weekend, and I was sure I was knocking chunks off my best lap time. Charles never did reappear behind me, in fact I ended up with the whole straight empty behind, so considering I was having the odd difficulty selecting gears on the downshifts, I elected again to back off a touch and look after the car. The tightly packed leading group of four came past me at one point, being led at that time by John Fyda. I was saddened to see waved yellows on the final corner of the final lap, and to see John Fyda's car, lightly damaged - he admitted his own mistake, I'm not sure of details. So Urs Eberhardt got a double-win. Marc Amez-Droz was second this time, with Tommasso Gelmini taking third. John Delane cruised to an untroubled win to take the weekend in our class. I ended up second in class today, as Charles Cook had in fact retired, but I don't know the reason. That's unlucky for him, and it gives me second in class for the weekend - I'm sure 'normal service' will be resumed next time out, in fact I'd be amazed if I don't have a DNF in the series at some point to even things up.

So a good weekend for me, slightly flattered by the overall result, but great to finish two races with the car improved each time. Two trophies, one for each of the children's bedrooms! You know I said I was putting in some good lap times today ... I wasn't ... In fact my qualifying time was better by over a second, which amazed me - as well as being a slight disappointment, I shall be reviewing the videos this week to see if I can work out why, today certainly felt quicker, funny how it can be deceptive sometimes.

Thanks to Iain for all his hard work, and thanks to the Mini guys.

Just the small matter of 500 mile drive home ... Followed by a meeting in the office at 0900 tomorrow... And another at 1600, which they might struggle to keep me awake for!