The second round of the Castle Combe Hot Hatches ran on the first May Bank holiday Monday, under moody skies.

 

For the first time, I had both cars on track, as two friends had hired the Cooper to run alongside me in the Cooper S during the Dave Allen Trophy race at the end of the day.

 

After meeting up, and introducing them to the car and the team, I had to qualify for the Hot Hatches. I matched my PB time, which is always a good start, and qualified mid pack, 4th in class. The race was one of the first ones after lunch and it remained dry. I found some pace during this race, shaving a few tenths and setting a new PB time, which I am pleased with. I was just a couple of seconds off the 3rd place guy near the end, so it was an encouraging race, and lots of fun tussling with the other cars. Another 4th in class to add to the previous two from April. 

 

 

Going back a bit to late morning we had to qualify for the DAT race. Both cars taking to the track. I ran the full 30 minute qualifying, scoring 11th on the road and first in class 4, which was exciting. Morgan took the Cooper out for the first 10 minutes, handing over to Steve at the half way point, so they could both log at least 3 laps each to qualify.

 

Sadly Steve experienced a wheel issue, which he spotted early on during his stint, and came back to the pits. One of the new 16 inch wheels had moved against the studs and was effectively loose. Back to used tyres on the old 15 inch wheels. They still managed to qualify well, two rows off the back. 

 

In the run up to the DAT race it got a bit interesting. The heavens opened and the track started looking like a lake! I opted to fit my new, and as yet untried wet tyres on the S, but the boys in the Cooper were stuck with a used set of semi slicks. I'll need more wheels and tyres for that car, obviously.

 

 

After two sighting laps we took the rolling start (to save those expensive clutches) and we were off. After a first tentative lap holding place I realised we had left the rest of class 4 behind, and having worked the tyres I realised I had loads of grip in the torrential rain. On lap 2 I started to push, passing one car on that lap, two more on lap 3 and so on.

 

By my pit stop at around half way I was up into 5th on the road and had started lapping cars from class 4 and class 3! In the pits, 90 seconds stationary had me back down to 11th on the road, but I had stopped slightly earlier than most of the others. Two laps later Morgan yielded the Cooper to Steve, having battled up to 10th on the road, an epic achievement.

 

I kept pushing for the remainder of the race, passing more cars finishing the race on the leader's bootlid, albeit 1 lap down on his Touring Car spec Civic.

 

I had stormed (pun intended) through to third place, just half a lap behind the TCR Cupra, and one lap off the leader. I was about to lap the Ginetta when he retired! It was an intense 45 minutes, and incredible fun. The car handled like it was on rails in the wet. I think my slightly soft set up, which was holding me back a bit in the dry, was perfect for the wet.

 

I beat all of class 4, all of class 3, and only one car from classes 1 and 2 were in front of me at the finish.

 

I now have a third place trophy and class win trophy proudly sat on my desk. 

 

 

Morgan and Steve scored a tidy 13th overall, and 6th in class. 

 

What a day it was! Next time we can have spectators at the circuit, so roll on Bank Holiday Monday on May 31st.