NW Championship RD1 - Anglesey

Well its official - I now lead the Northwest Formula Ford 1600 championship!

But that only half the story as Matt says! It was a really hard weekend for all three of us with a mileage between us being around 1200!!

Combe was good, and as ever the atmosphere was brilliant and Matt was on top form (second quickest in qualifying without a nose cone!!) but got robbed my the conditions in the race. Still he was fifth and his main rival (Ed Moore) didn't finish - so roll on Easter Monday for him!



After much ****ing around with hotels (turns out its quite traditional to book them - especially when theres a netball tournament on in Bangor!) and something to eat we finally got to a hotel on Angelsey around 9pm. We landed on our feet with a a family room for £40. Very nice it was too with nice beds (bunkbed for Matt). After ahem a few drinks and after Richard hiding my phone and all the toilet roll we actually got some sleep before waking up (without the alarm call we ordered but never got I might add) and did the usual **** the clocks have changed panic!

Qualifying went well with third - 3 tenths off poll, and surviving more than a few leary spins unharmed!

It hammered it down before the race and we quickly changed the setup (record pace thanks to Matt and Rich)and bolted on some new tyres. I got a good start, and after Ian Gough loosing it at the hairpin I was up to second and onto John Hutchinson in the lead only for the red flags to come out! (incident at the third corner). After a 20 minute delay we finally re-started and I got a bad start and dropped to fourth. I was into third again by the second corner and with a 15 minute race figured I would just bide my time and see what happens at the front. I made a move on Gough for second on lap 3 only for the door to be closed, rather than hit him I tried to get around the side only to spin!!!

I fell down to around seventh - and assumed I would be lucky to get back onto the podium! When I passed every car except the two leaders in one lap I figured I might still be in the hunt! I pulled the gap back to "hutch" in second and put a move on him round the outside into the radar chicane - he didn't see me (or lost in to the inside and slid into me) and we tangled, I had the choice of the tyres or his side pod, so I had to keep turning into him to avoid the rather tough-looking tyre wall! We ended up stopped and tangled, I floored it and we managed to un-hook each other! Even more bizarrely no damage!! Off I went even further behind Gough, add this to someone dumping every last bit of his oil (plus a bit more) on the track and it was looking tricky! Despite a half spin and and over-the-grass moment I caught Gough on the penultimate lap and after we fought through what seemed 100 back markets I got him round the outside of the hairpin to take the lead with one lap to go - a bit of a relief as you never know the laps remaining on a timed race! Needless to say I took the last lap very steadily and took the win by a tenth! What followed was much relief and a lot celebrating and much beer and Chinese at home!

Could NOT have done it without Matt and Rich so thanks for all you help and hard work guys!

So there you have it - I am leading a championship overall for the first time ever :-) but this time next week it might be all different with Oulton Park on Saturday for round 2!

Next race - Oulton Park 1st April - Round 2

Broken Wrist

My right wrist 6 weeks ago and 3 weeks ago - Feels fine now, but not very strong :-)

Justin at Mallory in 2005

This is an account of our 2006 and beyond.

Matt is racing in the Castle Combe FF1600 championship, and I will be racing in the North West championship. Richard plans to do a mix of different stuff.

Next race: Brands Hatch 19th March - all three of us out together for a non-championship race!

Out of Racing we all Mountain bike and plan a few trips. We need to wait we for Justin to recover from his broken wrist though...