Honda Prelude UK

Kris! · M.O.T Fail Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 64

So rounds 10 & 11 of the Nippon Race series took place this weekend at a very dry, hot and sticky Snetterton. It was doubtfull that we would make this due to financial worries as normal, but at the last minute we managed to scrape together the funds and put in a late entry and made the trek to the otherside of the world for some motorsport action.

With Dixon running his new 'Touring car' engine it was doubtfull that I could match his pace, as we had not touched the little Civic since Cadwell and nothing had been done to it in any way, shape or form. 2 good class finishes would have been good enough in my eyes and as we as a team just cant compete with those with bigger sponsors/deeper pockets etc etc

Qualifying....................

As per normal I was first into the assembly area to allow myself a clear run of the track, but a red flag in the session before meant we were kept longer than normal and due to the heat, we stood outside the cars chatting away (well me and Tim did anyway). This lack of attention meant that when it was time to go out and qualify, me and Tim were discussing what colour socks look best when wearing a suit, aswell as what moisturiser is best when suffering from chaffing......oh didnt we look stupid!!! This meant that by the time we had buckled up we had 6 or 7 cars infront of us kinda of ruining the earlier effort of getting there first.
Anyway, once out it was clear there was a lot of oil on the track from the earlier session so caution was needed, but quickly settle into a steady pace. After 4 or so laps the heat started to play a big part and tyres and brakes started to wilter so a few steady laps were needed before pushing harder again for the final laps.
Once back the times came in and we had Qualified 6th and 1st in GT250 with Dixon 1.5 seconds behind in 7th.

Race 1..................

I had what I thought was a good start passing the Suzuki swift of 5th place but a fluffed 2nd gear meant Dixon was on my bumper and then trying to pass on the inside. I quickly shut the door and rounded the next 2 corners and onto the back straight happily infront of the K20 DC2. I managed to pull a few car lengths and was happy that I could keep this pace up, but a few stupid mistakes meant that I kept letting him gain on me so it wasnt plain sailing by any shot. 2 laps later and the Suzuki swift put a rod through the block as he passed dixon ending with the little swift in a ball of flames. This was distinguished quickly by the marshalls but due to the oil etc the safety car was out for the following 4/5 laps. This meant that Dixon was once again on my bumper and I had all the hard work to do again. Luckily as the safety car pulled in, I had a great run up the pit straight and the final 3 laps where clean and consistant resulting in me finishing 4th overall and 1st in GT250

Race 2......................

The start was exactly the same but this time Dixon was even quicker and when I tried to shut the door, he used the pitlane exit and it was clear I had to admit defeat into turn 1. However, down the back straight I tucked in behind him and as I hit 5th, I started to gain on him so the game was on. Dixon moved to the left slightly to stop me outbraking him but it was now or never and as his brake lights came on, I darted to the left while still on the throttle and came up on the inside into the left hander and stamped on the brakes. it was a close call as Dixon is good on the brakes but I had the inside line and then went wide forcing Dixon the tuck in behind me for the tight right hander. From that point on I settled into a nice clean drive and started to ease away from Dixon until I had enough of a lead to not take any risks, and that was how the rest of the race was played out. No mistakes and a much cleaner drive than in race one and even the heat didnt seem to destroying the tyres/brakes as much (although I have no doubt it was driver error that had made race 1 so hard)
Crossing the line it was a repeat of race 1 finishing 4th overall and 1st in GT250

To add to that, Tim Clarke in the Performance Autoworks Evo finished 3rd overall and 1st in GT500 in both races and Paul Garrod in the Performance Autoworks supported de-tuned DC5 taking 2 class wins in GT200, so a great day allround for the PAW team. Also well done to Lee Bennet for bringing his DC2 home in his first ever races without any problems.....great stuff!!!

Another great weekends motorsport and as usual I couldnt of done it without the help and support from friends, family and my sponsors who seem to pull out all the stops to get me out there racing.
Was also great to see some new/old faces out spectating and appreciate the support you guys have to offer as always.........christ its bringing a tear to my eye!

Richy, Simon and Sam from