(robin) for all his technical involvment, and also for just taking the piss out of me all weekend 
So, the weekend started for me at 6am on friday morning. I was heading to the airport, having just finished a 12 hour nightshift. not my best idea. :wall Walshy drove my car to the circuit, so it would get there before ze germans closed the paddock. Robin picked me up, and we arrived later, very tired, but looking forward to the weekend. Qually was ok, but i had issues with a wheel bearing (again) and my poor maintenance meant i had no front pads and no rear tyres :wall never mind, i was only 2 or 3 tenths behind skeggsy, and 11th on the grid, so was looking forward to a re run of Oulton Park once we had sorted the car. Hit the beers at lunch time, and after about 3/4 of a pint, i was falling about the place and slurring my words. ended up having 3 pints and falling asleep on my pax seat in the corner. Awoke later when some barsteward poured cold water over me. still dont know who it was
Sat morning was better. I had almost caught up on sleep, and was feeling ready to go. Had a pretty lousy start, and lost a place or two, but my view of the incident was hindered from starting on the 4th row. Regardless, i could see the commotion, and made the decision not to lift, for fear of causing a pile up from behind. Managed to sneak through a gap on the way into paddock, and another on the way into druids, then past a couple more on the exit at druids, and found myself in 6th overall as we lined up behind the safety car. At this point i still didnt know who had went off or what had happened as i just concentrated on the gaps and not rubbernecking. I felt a bit sick as we went past the start again and saw it was skeggsy and steve, two of my good friends on the grid and also 2 of my fiercest competitors. Bit of a reality check as to the dangers of motorsport, but just so glad they were both ok. Lost count of the laps behind the safety car, but as we lined up for the restart, i was raring to go. Almost crashed into the back of Chris pearson, and tony doe almost hit me, as the chain seemed to speed up then slow. wasnt expecting that, as we were warned against it in the breifing, but i suppose thats racing :rolleyes:
Got a good restart and managed to dive up the inside of chris pearson, between exit of paddock and entry to druids, to take 1st place in class B, it was just a case of hanging on to the finish now. Except i wasnt finished yet
I spotted Russ slowing down rapidly infront of me, and i almost drove off the circuit in sympathy :lol rooky error 101. Unfortunately i think Tony Doe went off trying to avoid what he thought was me spinning, but thats just the way my car seems to corner :yes After that it was a case of keeping Mr Kell behind me. he obviously has a big power advantage, and mullered me down the main straight, but i could peg the gap over the rest of the lap. Next time round i see Malcolms car parked in the gravel at the bottom of paddock, and the next time over the finish line the red flag was out. As we drove into the pits we were waved the chequered flag, and that was it, 1st in class and 4th overall. 
I joked with walshy that he could have had the decency to break down again, and let me get onto the main podium Had the LOTRDC prize giving in our own paddock later and was well chuffed to get a big cheer, thats what its all about racing with friends. Was a bit gutted to get the win at the expense of steve and skeggsy, and that played on my mind for the rest of the day, but i wasnt about to hand the trophy back, steve has enough of these already :pThat night, had a few beers in the pool and relaxed, and a curry to celebrate.
Sunday, was feeling much better after another good nights sleep. We arrived at the circuit at midday for our bad boys breifing from clerk of the course. MSA and DTM obviously expected better behaviour. We all took the warning collectively and promised to behave from now on :saint
Watched the DTM race, made it to lap 15 before me, brian and graham dissappeared off for an ice cream. was very dull, with no overtaking, and very much like modern F1. I'm sure they're technically brilliant, but it just isnt a great spectacle to watch.
Our race on the other hand was fantastic
I was lined up in 8th due to skeggsy and steve starting at the back. I expected to see Steve behind me on about lap 5 tho :lol My other competition, Sean B, had a failure on the warm up lap, so had a bit of breathing space off the line. I had another bad start, too much wheelspin, and followed chris pearson again into paddock. Also lost a place to the very quick class C audi of Tony Doe. Over the next few laps i pulled out a huge gap over the people behind, but was just losing 0.5 of a second a lap to chris, tony and david harvey. Then i started to gain some ground again as they fought each other. I was just back up behind them and looking tp join in the scrap as the safety car came back out due to Thorney's off in the VX220 on the exit of clearways. I was cursing this as it let christian and steve williams catch right up in the other class B cars. I had made a good restart in the first race, so was hoping for more of the same, as i didnt want to get jumped and lose my 2nd place. Confusion with the safety car didnt help, but as we went green again, i managed to get another run on chris and get up the inside into druids, same as the first race. Was well chuffed, and was back in 1st in class, but chris was hot on my heels, so i tried to get past tony and put a car between us. Put the move of my motorsport career (so far) on tony. Dummy'd a late brake round the outside of druids as he defended the inside line early. He locked a tyre on the way and ran wide as i had hoped. I turned the car round and dived for the inside on the exit, but he spotted it and moved over to block. I kept my foot in and swerved round to go the long way, missed him by millimeters, but was alongside on the exit kerb on the run to graham hill bend. Unfortunately, in all the excitment, i forgot to change to 4th gear, and hit the limiter in 3rd. I was side by side halfway down the straigh. If i had changed to 4th he would have dissapeared, so i started to squeeze over to take my line. It worked, and i braked later into the left hander. I lost the rear end a bit on the apex, but the resulting power slide didnt cost me much time, and infact probably made tony lift as i think he thought i might spin. Made it to the end with no more incidents and crossed the line to another class win and 6th overall.Was absolutely extatic, 2 class wins, and 2 good drives, but drove home knowing i didnt win on pace. I think what served me well was keeping my head, listening to pauls advice of not wining the race on the first corner, and just taking oppertunities when i could.
No doubt silverstone will return to normal once steve and skeggsy are sorted.
Good on ya
