It all came down to Brands for us, and for several other Teams too. A whole seasons racing, loads of time, effort and cash and it would all be decided in the final two races at the Jewel of the South East. An Ex- British GP circuit, 20 miles from central London and just outside the M25; Brands Hatch’s shorter Indy Circuit would be used. Less than 1 mile long with loads of gradient and all types of corners, Indy is a loved by Drivers and Fans. Hugely technical whilst fast and furious its grandstands allow 95% of the track to be seen from one vantage point, so all the racing would be visible to those lucky enough to be there.

The GTFs and a couple of Tuscans were absent due to the imminent Britcar 24hr race at Silverstone, which meant that the Group A race and Season was up for grabs, but Deano Cook was favourite having come on form with a vengeance this year. In Group B the title was already decided (being won by Tony Abrams at Oulton as both Myself and Jonny Wilson were unable to attend) but we would be fighting for the Runner up position. Finally, but not least Group C was also already sorted. Sam was pushing for his 100% unbeaten Series and Mickey Holden was determined to spoil that by taking his first winners cup. A busy weekend for all!

Ours started on Thursday Afternoon. Rich and Big Col from Dulford Automotive made final preparations to the Monster Griff and Packed the Truck. We had some new stuff on the car that we hoped would help at Clearways. More of that later! Car sorted, Trailer loaded we set off for Brands. We would be there for Friday testing so we would be in Kent Thursday night.

Bright and early Friday morning we put up the Marquee and unpacked the car for our first testing. We missed Oulton Park as we had found a smashed piston skirt had gone round the crankcase at Rockingham totalling the short engine. I was really lucky that Col had found the problem in preparation, as there were no clues at the Rock that there were any issues at all. A wiz job from Dulfords had the engine out, off to John Eales for a rebuild, new pistons, liners, cam, then build and balance with it back in the car and race ready inside of two weeks. A huge effort, greatly appreciated. I was frankly amazed! This meant that we had to bed the engine in during testing. Four sessions meant we started at 4500 rpm, rising by 500 rpm each session. Our first full power run would be “Qualy” on Saturday Morning!

Our car had a massive new splitter for BH that I cut from “ally” and we shaped with raised side panels. “Indy” is “understeer city” and getting the front in at Clearways is the key to a fast lap so the splitter went on with some short top wishbones to give more neg camber too. But would that be enough to fight off Jonny Wilson’s 4.5 Cerbera with 400bhp and its own rear wing? We qualified in 6th behind Rich Wrights Tuscan, with only a 10th each between Rich, Me, Cliff (in the new T350) and Jonny in the Cerb. Half a second separating four very different tvrs! This would be very close racing, but all we were interested in was staying in front of Jonny! At the front, Deano had taken Pole from Hui “Humacher” Marshall who was only a 10th up on Howard “the Lion” Bryan. Group C was status quo with Sam ahead of Mickey and the boys.

Race 1 was very busy at the start. We got away well only to have Humacher block us in so I had to brake and dive behind the awesome Thorpedo. Down thru Paddock and Rich Wrights Tuscan runs out of room and spins in front of the pack around my Griff and into the path of Cliff T350. Amazingly there was no contact, but how? I have no idea! From 6th to 4th with Sam behind me in 5th and Jonny caught up in the incident…I was a happy boy and scampered away with the pack but Red flags were out to clear up after the spin, as we would be back on the incident too quick. Damn!
On the restart, we hooked up well again making contact with Howard’s Tussie on the way through. My car still proudly bears the scars on the right flank. A short battle holding of as many cars as possible sees us stay in front of Jonny, with Rich’s Tuscan out with coolant trouble and the T350 also having gremlins.  I am now even Stevens with Jonny as he pulled fastest lap! So it goes down to the final race with only 1 point in it. How close could it be?

Race 2 starts better for us with me sneaking past another couple of Tuscans. Well ahead of Jonny the Race is red flagged as the T350 is beached on the exit from Paddock. Had that one in the bag there, Jonny no doubt breathed a sigh of relief! Another strong restart put two Tuscan between us again, but they would soon be past me and Jonny knew it. From lap 9 it was a straight dogfight. Griff v Cerb. Over 10 laps of bumper-to-bumper racing with Jonny nearly getting through several times. The grunt of the RV8 taking me out of the corners quicker, but Jonny’s big power from the AJP nearly catching me at Paddock every lap. Thank God the straights weren’t longer!

And that’s how it finished for us. Two wins, taking the Group B Runner up slot, with some very close racing with some top guys. We were even third overall at one point! Steve and Jackie form Topcoatprint (our main sponsors) were there too and they really had a blast. With a whole weekend of great racing and stunning weather it was about as good as it gets for us. We even finished early in the day so we were home before midnight for once. Wonderful!

Hope to see some more of you next year. The racing will be closer still with some power to weight Regs looking probable. Add to that several new cars coming in and it looks like 08 will be the best year for a decade or so…so bring your own monster out and support tvr racing. We’ll all be pleased to see you!

The races were filmed as usual and can be seen here http://www.tvrmonster.co.uk/videomgchs.html