Silverstone – CER – 14th - 15th September 2007

This was the last race of the European "Classic Endurance Races” for us (George Tuma and myself) in George's RSR.

It was good to be back in England and also to be visiting a circuit that I had raced at many times in the past, though the circuit had changed slightly since I had last raced there, in 1996. Abbey bend, just before Bridge corner, used to be a flat-out kink and now is a very deliberate 2nd gear left-right chicane.

The weather over the three days I was in England was excellent, more like Laguna Seca/Monterey in August! Thankfully, therefore, the wet tires that Siggi Brun and his mechanics had brought were never needed.

I was staying with my daughter Lisa, who lives near Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire, so each day started with a fifty minute drive through fabulous English country lanes to Silverstone, with only a few of the dreaded speed cameras to slow down for. At least there are signs warning you of them so you have the chance to slow down.

On Friday morning, as the cars all streamed out for first practice, I found the engine and transmission suffering from a bad vibration period that was difficult to drive through. Certainly it was impossible to race the RSR like that so, after a few laps of warming everything up and hoping it would go away (it didn't!), I took the car back to the paddock and Siggi and "the lads" (Kurt, Karl and Dimitri) went to work to try and sort the problem. The problem occupied the next twenty-four hours and turned out to be in the fuel injection pump timing. Siggi took out the "space cam" and carefully modified it with epoxy glue, put everything back together and, on Sunday morning, at qualifying we found the engine much improved.

I had also found the gear change to be problematical but then found that I simply hadn't been depressing the new, twin plate clutch far enough and when I did so, hey presto! Problem solved. D'oh!....

This Classic Endurance Racing series has quite a few very experienced drivers in it, including such names as Jean-Claude Andruet, Ian Giles, Alain Gadal, John Sheldon, Martin Birrane and Claude Nahum and the driving is exemplary.

And so to the race itself, held on Saturday afternoon. George took the start after Philippe Brun had qualified the car at a time that showed that old duffers like me need much more practice! But then again, he's young and working for BMW. He should have been a professional driver.

After George had brought the RSR in, I took over and started getting used once again to Silverstone's fast sweeping bends. Bridge in particular I love, as it really can be taken flat out but some kind soul had his engine let go at the end of the hanger straight and the first lap out, I suddenly found the controls go very light and the RSR had a "bit of a slide" until I got her back under control.

Shortly after this, I found myself gaining on the 1972 Greenwood Corvette of Didier Miquee. This monster has an 8.4-liter engine and was, of course, slow through the corners but when it came to acceleration from a corner it was just as if someone had lit the blue touch paper of a rocket! It must have taken me four laps of panting after it down the straights, out-braking it into corners and trying to get by, both on the inside and the outside before I finally made the pass stick coming out of the Abbey Chicane. It was a moment of satisfaction, followed by a few laps more and then the chequered flag.

So, we've done our three races in Europe which should see us get an entry into "Classic Le Mans" next July; George already has plans to do the whole of next year's season, starting at Monza. I can't wait.

Plans for over here are now drag out the Jagermeister RSR and race that at Virginia at the end of this month. Then do "Rennsport" in a 935 at the beginning of November, back in the RSR a week later, still at Daytona for the HSR meeting and then finish the season off at HSR Sebring. See you at one of these?