dbRacing - Open Race Report Castle Combe 16th september 2001

Race Report - Porsche Open 16th September 2001

The Circuit

See the Porsche Classic report from today for details of the circuit and my good fortune to be there.

Practice

I set out onto the circuit and, this taking place before the Classic practice, I immediately noticed how bumpy the track was. I did not remember it being this bumpy in the RS. I followed Paul Edwards, hoping to pick up some pointers for the best lines. After the first couple of laps he left me, but my times soon dropped into the 1 minute 23's, but I could not seem to get any quicker. I did however catch and overtake a 993, though somehow he qualified ahead of me in the 1 min 21s. Nonetheless my time was good enough for 10th. A certain Colin Broster was on the row ahead.

Race

It was a very strange start to the race, we were held on the grid for about 15 minutes while the various FF 1600s from the previous race were collected from around the circuit. Then a marshal came and told me that Mark Littlejohn in a modified 930, who was ahead of me on the next row, had advised that he was a "bad starter". This was confirmed when we set off for the green flag lap. Upon settling for the race start Colin Broster pointed his car across the track, clearly blocking my route past. I knew I would have to go round the outside. The lights went green and I did try to go round the outside. A couple of places were made up, though another Classic competitor Steven Smythe slipped past me into Tower. This left me with Smythe, Tony Baxter in his 993, and Broster to chase.

At the end of lap two I passed Smythe, and accelerated up towards Quarry. My next quarry (pun intended) was the 993. On the next lap he tried to defend against me, but I took a different line and came through on the inside, giving me the line for the esses. For the next half lap I pushed really hard and put about 30 yards between up. Over the next 3 laps I caught Broster, the remainder of the race was to be spent in various attempts to get past him. I tried passing him on the inside on the exit to Camp, on the outside on the exit to camp, and almost everywhere else on the circuit. I just could not make a move stick, and as I lined him up for a last lap attempt, we crossed the finish line with the chequered flags waving. Just 0.4 seconds separated us, and I slowed down, wondering where the last lap had disappeared to !

Colin won class 4, and I was second in class 3, 1.2 seconds ahead of the 993. We were both pleased with the result and the good clean battle we had enjoyed.