Goodwood - Qualifying Day

Had a terrible night's sleep again after our dinner, which I have to put down to nerves, I kept doing laps of Goodwood and other tracks whilst dozing, and would wake myself up! Not ideal ...

My qualifying session wasn't until 1355, the track was wet at the start of the day, but there was a reasonable chance that the rain would hold off, and that the track would be dry for our session ... indeed mid-morning the sun even came out for a while! Lots going on, lots of people to chat to, quite a few friends and acquaintances popping by to say hello - quite busy in fact - Goodwood is always like this. Although it was very early, about 1130 I wandered into the Driver's club and got changed, several others had already done so too, when I went in the sun was out, when I re-emerged it was raining - maybe we weren't going to get that dry session I so wanted... The rain did stop, and we had about 90 minutes to kick-off, so if only we could have a few minutes of sunshine ... 

I was keen to get to the assembly area early, but was surprised to see a few cars heading that way with nearly a whole hour still to go, but I followed suit. Time ticked by, I drank about a gallon of water, and off-loaded a similar amount. Watching the tv screens whilst waiting, the track has some damp patches but looks dry, although drivers are reporting it to be a bit greasy. Right - time to go... 

An 'interesting' session ... I was still getting into it, the track was indeed dry, although there were patches that looked damp it really wasn't affecting the grip, but then on turn-in for Woodcote on lap 3 or 4 the car just swapped ends on me ... I hardly ever spin, there was no warning, I wasn't even 'trying' yet, so it was a bit off-putting to be honest. I ended up on the grass inside the circuit, then crossed the track again still spinning and finally came to rest on the outside at the exit - didn't fancy staying there, in case someone else did the same, so I fired it up and rejoined, somewhat chastened. I was very cautious for a couple of laps, initially wondered whether something was up with the car but all seemed to be in order - my assumption is that I may have hit a little oil, as it was greasy in places - apparently I got on tv, so maybe I'll see it one day. 

As I got back up to speed I had a couple of 'moments' with traffic, both with 3 cars of different speeds, one slower than me, and one a touch quicker, no real issue, but enough to fully focus my attention - in one case I was closing on a slower car through Madgwick and pulled to the left to overtake on the run out to Fordwater, I knew there was another car close behind me, and I assumed that he'd follow through on the same side of the slower car ... but 'No'; having completed my overtake I started moving right for Fordwater to find him just on my right hip, having gone the other side of the slower car - gave me a bit of a surprise, and the very fast Fordwater is not the place you want surprises! Towards the end of the session I was on my best lap, and slowly closing down the Envoy that had come past me the lap before; I gained a chunk of time on him between St Mary's and Lavant to find myself right on his tail in Lavant corner ... and he misses a gear on the exit, 'aghh!', I saw it in time, but with another slower car inside I had no opinion but to avoid him by heading out over the nasty kerbs there, two wheels onto the damp grass, cue tank-slapper, and another visit to the live streaming tv (and the laundry!). We survived. 

Net result though, not a single good clean lap in the 11 laps I ran, and I was very disappointed with my efforts to be honest, really beating myself up - Iain had had the watch on me and my best was a 1:37.3 - before the meeting I'd done some research and had been hoping to get down to low 34s or even high 33s, and at the same time I'd expected to be slightly over half-way down the grid. It was a little while before I got to see the timesheet, but I was astonished (and delighted) to find that I had qualified in 10th of the 30 cars. I still think I drove the session poorly, but clearly the greasy surface conditions were having an affect on everyone as well. That lap time equates to an 88mph lap, by some way the fastest at any circuit I've raced on in this car.

Chris Drake in the later Elva 300 is on pole, with a 1:28.4 - he'd allegedly run 1:26.2 in testing! He was 4 sec quicker than anyone else! I think that car in this company is a bit of a mismatch to be honest, not to take anything away from Chris's driving, as I know he's quick. My sparring partner from the Lurani Trophy, John Delane, is 3rd. Only one non-Ford-powered car is ahead of me, the Cooper T56 of Crispian Besley. Previous night's dinner companion, Robert Barrie, who is very quick, and a race instructor here at Goodwood, is behind me ... obviously something's up with him ... turned out he had a misfire. Kim Shearn in the borrowed Ausper is also behind me.

I found my Mum and took her into the Driver's Club for tea - very good it was too, sandwiches, scone and jam, slice of cake - we ate it outside, just behind the parked up warbird aircraft - really not a bad place, Goodwood!