Rockingham - 19th June 2016 - PBMW rounds 7 & 8

After the previous days results in the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons races I lost a bit of the confidence gained over the last couple of rounds. Headed out for qualifying having made a very set up changes. The car felt better and the times were falling, although annoyingly what was best time was lost as I had to pass another car through the last chicane . Ended up qualifying 11th which was a little further bak than expected but I wasn't the only person who seamed to the struggling a little.

Race 1 got a reasonable start passing Matt Wileman but was passed through turn one by both Gregor Pryor and Ross Stoner. By the first coner of lap 2 I'd moved past Ross Stoner, Jamie Jeffery and Pete O'conner. The rest of the race consisted of trying to chase down Gregor Pryor whilst defending against the always fast Matt Wileman. Managed to pass Gregor into turn one on lap 6 but was unfortunately passed by Matt on the second to last lap and ened up finishing 10th.

Race 2 was a little less eventful, after I good start where I passed Rob cooper the whole race was spent either chasing Pete O'Connor or defending from Gregor Pryor, the latter of which I only just managed to do, finished the race in 9th position.

Pleased to have left Rockingham still in 4th position in the PBMW championship although Harry Goodman has already claimed his 50 Marshalling points hwich everyone else is yet to do.

Post Rockingham the top of the championship looks is

Matt Swaffer            380
Harry Goodman       348
Dave Graves            329
Andy Gay                320
Edd Giddings          284

Rockingham - 18th June 2016 - TTRS rounds 7 & 8

It had been a couple of years since the last time the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons and Production BMW championships had been to Rockingham but on the last visit I'd had a reasonable weekend.

After a couple of very good results in the prevous meetings at Brands hatch and Donington I arrived at Rockingham running 4th in the championship so opted for a bit of Friday pratise time. Car felt ok in practise although the times were not really where I hoped, this carried accross to the TTRS qualifying and I ended up qualifying 5th in class F.

Race 1 brought a good start and I was quickly up to 3rd in class F but could quite keep up with Edd Gidings or Andy Strong, maybe slighty down to running older tyres for the TTRS races but I dont think this was the key issue.

Race 2 I started 2nd in class as Andy Strong was not running, again got a reasonable strat but was again frustrated to find I didnt have the pace to worry Edd. A few laps in and I was battling with Matthew Newman in his Lexus IS200 which ended up with us being caught and passed by Calum Noble and Jamie Jeffery, with the main event being the PBMW races on the following day I opted not to turn a two way PBMW battle in to a three way one as it would have been silly to risk damaging the car and either miss or compromise the PBMW races.

Brands Hatch Indy - 15th May 2016 - PBMW rounds 5 & 6

The PBMW's set off for their qualifying session on Saturday evening, Luckily as we set off in championship position order I was to follow Harry Goodman and Matt Swaffer for the entire session, always good to follow the front runners and study their breaking points and line. I was fairly lucky with traffic and managed to get some very consistent times in. Of the 16 laps we did only 3 were outside of the 58.xxx seconds, the best of which a 58.425 was good enough to qualify 6th on the grid 0.411 seconds behind the pole time set by Harry Goodman.

Lining up on the grid I'd already decided the plan (should I get a decent start) was to be heading straight between the 4th and 5th place qualifiers Jamie Jeffery and Ian Shepperd. As luck would have it I again managed to get off the line cleanly and as was the plan made the move between Jamie and Ian stick and also managed to pass the 3rd place qualifier Rob Cooper before Druids. The race from then on was a mixture of trying to hold onto the back of Matt Swaffer and Harry Goodman who were battling for the lead, whilst defending against the always fast Rob Cooper. Managed to hold Rob off until about 2 laps from the end when he got a better run along the main straight and took 3rd place away, I had been quite looking forward to another trip to the podium but it wasn't to be. 

For race 2 I'd moved up to 4th on the grid for the start, was lucky enough to get another clean get away and get into 3rd place again.As with race 1 the whole race was spent trying to hang onto Matt and Harry whist having my mirrors full. However this time the pressure was coming from Dave Graves and Sam Strong as Rob Cooper had, had a poor start and then retired with mechanical issues. It has to be said this was one of the exhausting races I've ever had, Dave drove very cleanly but was feet away for the entire race meaning there was no option for me to make any mistakes. Luckily after 15 minutes of this I exited clearways for the last time ecstatic to see the chequered flag waving in the distance. Pleased to have proven to myself that the podium at Donington wasn't a complete fluke. 

4th and 3rd place finishes at Brands Hatch means I remain in 4th place in the championship although closed up slightly on David Graves who is currently running in 3rd. 

Brands Hatch Indy - 14th May 2016 - TTRS Rounds 5 & 6

Following on from the high of my first Production BMW podium at Donington a few weeks Prior I arrived at Brands Hatch looking for another positive weekend.

As always I'd opted to enter the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons event on the Saturday. Headed out for qualifying with the aim of beating last years best time of 59.5s and hopefully qualifying towards the front of the 10 Production BMW cars in the field. Ended up qualifying 18th out of 29 and 3rd in class F behind Will Davidson and Mark Palmer,also Just behind one of my oldest friends James Salmon in his first race in his 306 GTI6. Pretty pleased to have made a significant time improvement over last year with a 58,800 second lap.

With Will opting to start the race from the pit lane it looked like the class F race was likely to be between Mark Palmer, Sam Strong and myself as we'd all qualified within 0.3s of each other. I got a reasonable start but couldn't find a way past Mark so had to settle for 2nd with Sam never far behind, at the end of the race just 1.642 seconds separated the 3 of us. Best lap time had again dropped slightly to 58.664.

Race 2 didn't go as well a poor start meant that Sam and Jamie Jefferys in class F along with the Lexus and mini cooper S of Matthew Newman and Richard Ibrahim got passed. Not wanting to risk the car for the PBMW Qualifying session later in the day I opted for a conservative run to 4th in class.

Donington Park - 24th April 2016 - PBMW rounds 3 & 4

After a pretty good day on Saturday in the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons races I headed out for the Production BMW qualifying session. Headed out behind Harry Goodman and made a point of trying to sick with him during qualifying as I knew he'd be near the front. I pleased to say I managed to stay close and Harry was on pole with a time of 1:26.464. I ended up 4th on the grid with a time of 1:27.129.

Unfortunately Rob Cooper who had qualified 2nd didn't make the grid as during qualifying he'd smashed the sump on a curb, despite managing to change the sump itself it turned out that the engine wasn't sounding good.

Robs loss however was my gain and as a result I'd line up on the grid with a clear view of the first turn. As with the TTRS races I managed to get a great start, looking back at the videos I may have lead a PBMW race for the first time (all be it for about 2 seconds and by about 200mm) However Harry held on to the lead through the first corner. Finished the first lap in 2nd place but through out the rest of the race dropped to 5th overall as Will Davidson, Matt Swaffer and Alan Wileman managed to get passed. Finished 5th but was promoted to 4th When Alan received a penalty for exceeding track limits. 4th was my best finish in a PBMW race to date so along with my best lap dropping to 1:26.601 I was pretty chuffed.

As with race 1 I started race 2 4th on the grid. Had another great race, Will Davidson and Harry Goodman managed pull a slight gap leaving myself, Matt Swaffer and Alan Wileman fighting over 3rd place. On lap 7 Alan made a small mistake and was out of the fight for 3rd. By this time I was starting to think about the possibility of my first PBMW podium. All I needed to do was keep Matt swaffer behind, Although Dave Graves was close enough that if we'd got to scrappy it would have been a 3 way battle again.

Please to say that I managed to keep the 3rd place and after over 4 years of trying I finally made it onto the podium.

Massive thanks to Rob at Gary Feekins Racing who have got the car handling fantastically and Jody Halse at Climax motorsport who built me the engine which has powered the car pretty much untouched for the last 3 years.

Donington Park - 23rd April 2016 - TTRS rounds 3 & 4

Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2016 championship took place at Donington Park on the 23rd April, unlike 2015 we would be running on the shorter national circuit which leaves on the Melbourne loop, Personally I much prefer the national circuit as it avoids the two slow hairpins.

Having had a rare chance to test on Friday morning I was feeling pretty confident in how the car was handling although wasn't aware of the exact times as the track time on Friday was a trackday so timing wasn't allowed.

My previous best time on the national circuit was around 1:27.7 so I was happy with a qualifying time of 1:27.537 which gave me 13th on the grid and first of the 12 class F production BMWs.

Race 1 - After a great start I was fortunate enough to build up a bit of a gap to the remaining PBMW cars in class F however whilst battling hard with Johnathon Atkinson in the E36 318ti, both Ed Giddings and Alan Wileman managed to close up the gap and eventually pass leaving me with 3rd in class. Best lap time had dropped to a 1:27.096 leaving the chance to break into the 1:26's looking like a possibility.

Race 2 was much of the same with a good battles with Alan Wileman and the 2 E36 compacts, Ended up finishing 2nd in class behind Alan Wileman

Clio Progress

Between rounds 1&2 at Snetterton and 3&4 at Donington we have somehow managed to find time to crack on with preparing the clio 182 for the 750 motor clubs championship. A decent days work and the Saftey devices 6 point bolt in cage was installed and we even found time to change the brake hoses for some Hel performance braided lines and bleed the brakes with some race fluid.