After the fiasco at the last race meeting at Silverstone we had decided that we would scrap this year and put it down to 'a learning experience' and look to purchase a car for the 2001 season.  Things happened in the Cirtek team, that are way to complicated to go into, and an offer was made to us to purchase car 59, talks are still going on but it did enable me to race at Brands Hatch this weekend.

Thursday afternoon was plagued by red flags (typical session 2 laps - red flag, 3 laps - red flag, 2 laps - red flag) a little annoying as this was only general testing and not pre-race practice.  In my limited time in the car I had noticed that at Paddock the car seemed to be sitting back more than normal when throttle was applied, in the evening when the car was being prep'ed for Friday the reason became clear, the rear anti-roll-bar had broken.   Friday was better and with 4 sessions of 35 minutes there was no real need to rush things and force a mistake, so the team strengthened the joints on the bar and replaced where necessary.  My co-driver for this weekend was team owner Rob Schirle, his vast experience of GT racing was going to be valuable and come the race I knew that he was unlikely to make any mistakes out on track.  Rob spent the first session in the morning bedding the new pads in and adjusting the brake balance for optimum performance, with the GT3R it is important to get all four brakes working rather than just the fronts, it reduces tyre wear and allows for a more consistent running in the race.  Before session two we made some minor adjustments to the set up and Rob went out for 10 minutes to see if he was happy with them.  The problem of understeer we had at Silverstone was still apparent, but we looked like we where cracking it.  Rob was happier and I was sent out for the last 20 minutes to get some laps in so I could give some feedback, my initial thoughts where that it was almost right but it still seemed to be sitting back at Paddock.  Sure enough, the bolt holding the anti-roll-bar in place had sheared or rattled loose with the vibration, so lunchtime was spent making sure that it wasn't going to happen again.

For the first session in the afternoon we had softened the rebound in the front in an attempt to keep the nose down and the weight over the front tyres and also stiffened the rear anti-roll-bar in an attempt to get a little oversteer, thus reducing the understeer - well that's the theory!  It was working and finally we were making progress with the car and the rest of session three was spent putting in some quick times before Rob went of to France for a 21 hour race in an E-type Jaguar!  He had assured me that he would be back Sunday morning so that meant I had all the qualifying to do.   For the last session of the day I wanted to run the car for at least 20 minutes to see if the setup held and we didn't get any problems with the car deteriorating, after 15 minutes the car was still running well and with no deterioration of handling.. then the rear broke loose under breaking (the same thing that had happened at Donington) it didn't spin me round but I was cautious of it happening again, a lap latter on the approach to Druids it happened again.  I informed the crew over the radio that I was winding a half-a-turn to the front in an attempt to cure it, three laps later and back on race pace again the problem had disappeared and I was happy that the car would last race distance.

So Rob was in France and I was left to do both qualifying sessions; the setup on the car had changed a little overnight after the technicians and I had a discussion and we all felt that it was the best way to go.  With four of the six new tyres that are allocated to you over a race weekend on the car I knew that I had to put in a quick lap within 2 or 3 laps of them coming up on temperature.  On lap 5 I posted a 1:32.708 which was half-a-second quicker than I had been the day before, I was happy with this but felt that more could come from the car and me.  On the next lap I pitted and told the crew to stiffen the rear anti-roll bar to full, this I knew would save tyres in the race and I hoped it would prove to be a quicker setup, sure enough on lap 9 I posted a 1:32.348 which put me 4th in class with a three-quarter second gap to the car behind.

In the second session of the day the GTO's had only the last 20 minutes and I had decided that I was going to use this time to scrub in the last two tyres.  The weather for Sunday had been forecasted as a hot one and its better to go out on slightly cured tyres than fresh new ones.  As it went, the second session had a GTO drop oil around the circuit and rain out on the GP part, so nobody went quicker and I was qualified fourth in class for the race on Sunday.

Race - Sunday

One of the other GTO's had sustained serious damage in Saturdays qualifying and was unable to race, this put us 3'rd on the grid for the race.  The rolling starts are getting tidier every round and this one was no exception, as the lights went green all 38 cars rushed forward up to Paddock Hill, in front of me I had another Porsche and a TVR, but by the time I'd reached Paddock I had passed them both and was leading the class.  Unfortunately at Druids I was boxed in and lost them again, no worries I thought we've got an hour to go yet.  I held position up to lap 5 then after  GT class car had passed me a few laps earlier, the same one was having difficulties and blocked me as I tried to pass, this allowed the following two GTO class cars to close right up and the GTO Viper get the run on me down to Hawthornes, then a lap latter CBH's Marcos nipped up the inside of me into Druids.  I wasn't to concerned over this as I new the Marcos was quick out of the blocks, but suffered from excessive tyre wear later on in the race and sure enough a few laps latter the gap he had pulled on me was starting to come back.  Then it went back out again as I got tangled up in lapping back markers then back in, until finally on lap 16 I pitted and Rob took over for the last 30 minutes.  It was a few laps latter that the Marcus and the Viper had a coming together and took one another out moving us up into 3rd in class and that was the way it stood until the end of the race.  The gap to the lead two cars was to great to close and the car in 4th was a lap down over us so Rob was under instructions to bring the car home in one piece ready for the next round.  That's what he did and it looked like finally my luck was starting to change back in the right direction, lets hope it holds at Donington in 4 weeks.

CYA there!