Silverstone is always a track to savour. After all, many great and famous racing drivers have done battle at this circuit and still do. Whilst we only use half the GP circuit, the experience is nonetheless still electrifying. Despite the spectator stands being virtually empty, it is easy to imagine the atmosphere and drama of a Formula 1 Grand Prix race.
My tactic for the 5th round of the Roadsports Series was to hang onto the tail of friend and rival Ivor Mairs in his Class C Mazda MX5; he is a canny racer and often gets a place on the podium. My thinking was that if I could stay with him, I could challenge for position towards the closing 10 minutes of the race. Qualifying was decidedly lack lustre coming 11th out of 14 Class C cars and 40th out of a total of 45 cars. Ivor was 0.06 of a second ahead of me which was some good news and the next 2 Class C cars were 0.12 of a second quicker so there was very little in it. However, the front running Class C competitors were a massive 3 seconds up the road; I would have to pull something extra special out of the bag to catch them.
The first 15 minutes of the race went to plan despite a bit of jostling with a fiery Ben Gundry in his Ford Fiesta who slipped past a few times. Fortunately my MR2 had more grunt down the straights and I was able to get back in front relatively easily. Meanwhile Ivor was making good progress, passing the 2 Class C cars in front. I managed to get through the traffic as well and hang onto Ivor’s tail; the plan looked to be working.
About 13 minutes into the race the safety car was deployed for a couple of beached cars in the gravel at Club Corner. The first notification of this was the SC board being displayed at the marshal post just prior to the pit entry lane. The Pit Open board had not been displayed on the previous lap but Ivor took a gamble to go for his pitstop based on his stopwatch timing. I felt it was too close to call and elected to stay out on track for one more lap which proved to be the wrong decision. The wily Ivor Mairs had got it right and came out of the pits well ahead of me after I had pitted on the next lap. By the time I made it into the pits every man and his dog was there which cost me precious time. Such is racing!
I eventually finished 26th out of 45, 7th in Class C, making up 4 places in Class. My best lap time was 1.3 seconds quicker than qualifying and was a pb. Ivor finished 2 places ahead of me but his best lap time was 0.1 seconds slower so at least I salvaged some bragging rights!
Thanks to Jonathan Elsey, Motorsport Photography, for the excellent photographs.