Prescott September 6th / 7th 2008 Results

Prescott Saturday 6th / Sunday 7th September 2008

A damp squib!

Undoubtedly the most disappointing meeting of the year. The poor “summer” weather was forecast to continue – and it did! The day before practice day much of the country was hit by torrential rain and flooding. Just getting to the meeting proved to be a challenge. I picked the car up from Keith Murray at Dialynx in the late afternoon. Rather than leaving it in the open at Prescott overnight, my initial plan was to take the car home and return in the morning. But the threat of flooding on the way home was such that I was not sure of getting through with the trailer so I decided to leave the trailer (with the Audi still safe and dry inside) at Prescott. The rain at that stage was torrential and waves of water were flowing down the paddock..

We arrived back at Prescott at 7am and although everywhere was very wet (and by the end of the weekend a mudbath) it wasn’t actually raining so we were able to unload the car and get the tent up without getting everything soaked. Practice normally takes place in programme order but there were few takers so Fen and I both had an early practice run. The track was wet and the times irrelevant but we had done enough to qualify. The rain then started again and by the time we were due for second practice there was standing water around Orchard and in the “S”s – too much for the cut slicks to safely negotiate so we declined any further practice and returned home to spend time with the family. As cancellations meant that we were the only competitors left in the Class we knew that the results would anyway be meaningless in terms of the Championship.

On Sunday we were a bit more optimistic about the weather. The forecast showed improvement was expected and as we left Somerset the roads were already drying well. Unfortunately Prescott has its own microclimate and it was still very wet and indeed continue to rain on and off all morning. With standing water and mud on the track it was a case of steady first runs. Fen was disappointed with her time of 64 seconds but there was nothing to prove or gain. I did 53 seconds for my first run.

By the time we came to second runs after lunch the rain had finally stopped and the track was slowly starting to dry out. Fen improved significantly to 56.24 seconds but I benefitted from running second as the track was dryer still and was pleased with a time of 48.8 seconds to win our class of two! Unfortunately with another round of insufficient competitors in the class to score maximum points, it meant any chance of the Championship was gone and Peter Cox was confirmed as winner for 2008. Well done Peter. It is a shame though that the way the Championship is set up means that anybody competing in a class with fewer than four regular competitors is effectively excluded from the possibility of winning, even if they win every round and set new class records.

Still, the Audi was running well and we had no problems to address as we prepared for the last meeting of the year at Loton Park, hoping that the weather would be kind to us and give us a chance to improve the record yet again.

In the paddock:

Discussing tactics:

Warming the tyres:

Up the hill:

Collecting the Class award:

[Photographs by Stephan Lewen]