Halifax

It was time to make the 200 mile journey to Halifax for
Rnd 2 of the BRCA British Touring Car Championship.
We traveled up on the friday and camped at the track friday and saturday.
We were going to leave and travel up friday afternoon,but dad was really excited about this event,at 11 am friday morning he called to "load the car son,lets get going"
When we arrived at the track i could see why dad was so excited ,the track was awesome,nice big track,newly laid tarmac,it was everything a racer could ask for.
Unfortunately we weren't allowed to practice on friday evening so we set about doing as much as we could to our cars in preparation for saturday practice.
Our friends Lee,Dave,Leighton,Rob,John,Sue,and Gethin joined us later.
We made a new friend Ian,he sat with us for a couple hours Friday evening showing us how to get the best set up for our cars,he had raced x-rays for years and did a great job of helping us out.
The helpful friendly thing was something that really stood out at this race meeting,from the top drivers down to the bottom.Dad even ended up helping Jimmy Maddison set up his speed controller .Russell Williams and Dewi the welsh dragon gave us advise on gear ratios .Leighton Batter very kindly gave us 4 shells,and John sold us 3 motors at half price.

Saturday. Practice Day
Jamie and Dad practiced hard all day,the cars were handling superbly, thanks to the advise Ian had given us on friday evening.

Saturday afternoon the track was getting really busy,with the top modified drivers out practicing. These guys were great to watch,there speed and skill is amazing,Jamie said to Dad,"one day ,that will be me"
With all the practicing done it was off to the local chinese takeaway for some food (and beer for dad).

Sunday.Race Day
Dad was up at 5 am Sunday morning ,skimming motors and giving everything a final check before the days racing.

Qualifying rnd 1
Jamie suffered badly with radio interference in heat 1 and had to pull out of this qualifier. Dad drove well and came 4th in his heat with 14 laps in 5mins 14 sec's. John Hollyman had 15 laps in 5 min's 14 sec's,Leighton Batter had 15 laps in 5 min's 7 sec's and Rob Harry had 15 laps in 5 min's 1 sec.

Qualifying Rnd 2
Jamie again suffered with radio interference in this heat and then picked up a screw in his motor forcing him to retire,fair play to Jamie despite his problems he was still smiling and enjoying the meeting,he did however head of to race control to ask if he could change frequency to try to solve the inference problem.

Dad had altered his gear ratio for the qualifier and his car was much faster,but 2 laps from the end Dad made a terrible mistake,got his car sideways heading off the track,hit a curb and ripped away his front left wheel,drive shafts and suspension,ouch,back to the pits you go Dad,you had better get busy fixing that car.

Qualifying Rnd 3
The sun disappeared behind the clouds and then the rain came down.Not many drivers went out in heat 3,knowing they wouldn't set better times in the wet than what they had done in Rnd's 1+2.
Jamie had only done 4 laps in Rnd's 1+2 so he decide to give it a go in the wet,he drove really well and did 14 laps,but in his haste to set the car up for the wet he had forgotten to put in his lap counting equipment.Dad thought this was sure to upset Jamie,but when he broke the news to him Jamie just shrugged and said "i'm still smiling"

Final 1
Jamie and Dad were in the same final,Dad was 2nd on the grid and Jamie was 7th.As the drivers headed around the track to the start grid it was obvious that there was something wrong with Dads car,it just kept on doing donuts every time he tried to put on any power.Dad struggled around to his place on the grid.The lights went to green and everybody roared of from the grid except Dad,his car accelerated very slowly,and at every corner he was fighting to try and stop the car going out of controll.Jamie had managed to get past Dads troubled car and drove well to finish 2 places ahead of Dad.When Dad got back to the pits after the race he discovered he only had rear wheel drive .Driving with 4 wheel drive is hard enough in the wet,but with only rear wheel drive its impossible.

Final 2
Dad had sorted out his problems and the car was handling much better with 4 wheel drive.Jamie drove well,but Dad wasn't going to be beaten twice in one day.As much as Jamie tried he couldn't catch Dad, and Jamie finished 2 places behind Dad

We had a fantastic weekends racing at Halifax .Thanks to the B.R.C.A and the team at the Halifax track and our many friends.

Looking forward to racing at Southend on Sea 2nd July