We’ve had a bit of a mare so far this year, as you may know, but for once things went to plan for the Monster Griff. I’ve always liked Brands Indy, so it’s a track that I’m confident at, just as well as we had no testing as the test was on Friday and the Races on Sunday. I decided to save my time off for Mallory and go with a “runwatchabrung” strategy. With many doing the same, we did Ok in Qualy - though slightly slower than last year – with steady 54 but the days star was Mike Saunders who posted a 48 in his yella cerb. A taste of things to come?

The weather was fantastic all weekend. Storms were forecast earlier in the week but fortunately they held off and that meant no tyre swaps and set up changing. We could watch the Ferraris race. They had a good spread of cars, one of which contained Chris Rea, so there was some interest in the races. Not as dramatic as ours obviously.

After lunch we pulled out early to hold a minutes silence on the Grid for Peter Wheeler. This is the second time we have done this in a year or so. We did the same for Trevor Wilkinson at last years Brands round. A sad coincidence.

Off for green flag lap and Race 1.
I got away well, passing Tom and Owen, only to have them pull it back at Druids. A busy couple of laps followed fighting of CJ in his T350R, now powered by his twin turbo cossie V6. Still being finished at the circuit, the likelyhood of it finishing the weekend were slim. CJ and Jools were using it as a Test weekend I guess and the car certainly went well when on song. It passed me twice. I retook the position once when it spun out on it’s own oil and then when it went pop. Turned out it had been black-flagged several laps earlier, but CJ hadn’t seen it…I guess because he was focussing on me. Anyway, that was the end of Cliffs weekend. The Safety Car (SC) came out for Rich’s Griff that was dug in at Druids which pulled me right behind Mike Saunders. This meant the end for me as Tom’s red Griff pulled up to the back of the pack giving him a full lap on me. Still, I was right behind the race leader, so I pulled my best SC strategy and tailgated him as the lights went off. I stayed with him for about ¾ of a lap…then he was gone. We caught the others napping and fighting amongst themselves. Sam Head had had worse luck, running off at Paddock. I let the others through easily a lap or so later and coasted to the flag. I see very little of the GpC guys ofcourse, but Tim Davis took the C trophy over John Simpson and Dave Chant. There was contact back there…they do seem to have fun!

Race 2 was quieter still for me. Marc had taken off at the front, with Danny, Mike and Deano in a pack behind. Tom got away better too and we just didn’t have the pace to catch him. From the data, our laps were very close with the difference being Paddock. Tom was braking much later than me, giving him over a second in one corner, but recent changes left me hesitant to press on 100%. We would gain little and could lose everything. Back at the front the battle raged. I’m not sure what happened to Marc, but Mike worried Danny into a mistake at Surtees, with the Green GT car leaping over the kerbs removing the splitter and several other bit of important aero. Deano must have kept his foot in as he ended up with third with Marc second. The honours went to Mike who dominated all weekend. Even his poor starts could stall his relentless push to the front. That’s one quick Cerb and a lad driving it who’s even quicker. Back with C and Tim did it again! He’s found a rich vein of form there which is keeping him well up in the Championship stakes. Speaking of which Tom in the red Griff is taking a grip of the points, and with two wins and fastest laps he starting to edge clear. Can I stop him? I doubt it. Mines too heavy, CJ could rattle his cage, but not for a while, and so too could Graham in his Tuscan. But he’s concentrating on building his Sagaris GT. We’ll have to see if I get lucky.
Anyway, what a weekend.

Results

Class	Race 1	Race 2
A	1, M Saunders	1, M Saunders
	2, M Hockin	2, M Hockin
	3, Dean Cook	3, Dean Cook
B	1, T Stewart	1, T Stewart
	2, A Race	2, A Race
	3, T Broughton	3, T Broughton
C	1, T Davis	1, T Davis
	2, J Simpson	2, D Chant
	3, D Chant	3, N Rekord