With only two weeks between Cadwell and Rockingham, and loads of work to do away from the car, Danny (my mate and race mechanic) took the car to Dulfords on Wednesday prior to Rock, for sorting after the dramas of Cadwell.

Inspection showed it needed, another new hub (the existing hub was for the wrong side) new bearings, seals etc. Oh, and new callipers, discs and pads. Again. Still atleast they held the wheel on! Thankfully they (TVRcarparts) had got everything in stock so we picked the car up on Friday night and headed up on Saturday morning. Qualy was at 5pm.

Rockingham was the 20th Anniversary of TVR Racing so we were fortunate to be on the Britcar and Dutch Super Car Bill. Great for crowds and atmosphere, but it meant that we had no practice, it was straight out for Qualy. I pushed quite hard and was not supprised to find I has some understeer (Rock is famous for it in the dusty bowl) but we had oversteer too. Fun but not quick. The circuit was very dirty and with loads of crud offline, Qualy was wild; but I managed second in class and 10th overall out of 30 cars. I was pleased but time to find out why we were so loose. Kev Gore had a mare of a day, with his beautiful Sp6 Tuscan hitting the wall on its third lap. Whilst building speed in Qualy, he hit some oil at Turn 1 at well over 100mph before the oil flags were deployed. A tough break and he took it better than I would have, but he’ll be back for Brands. He has 5 weeks to replace the rear wishbones, wheel and re-glass the back end.

Inspection of our car showed the splitter was positioned wrongly, our fault at Cadwell, which explained the excessive understeer but we had a supprise at the rear. The rears had been destroyed by our loose-handling car. To be fair they were old and we knew that Rock is hard on tyres so we decided to wait until Brands to replace. To make matters worse, we had picked up some debris offline which had cut huge blocks from our tyres. Dunlop were onsite, but didn’t have our size, so would have to run on out intermediates as the slicks were just too dangerous. 225 D02s it had to be. Narrow trackday rubber, the car was running completely road legal!

With nothing more to do it was over to the TVRCC Hog Roast. With Andy Holdens Sagaris GT (less its defunct Chevy V8) and Grant Crouch’s Road legal Tuscan racer as a back drop, we had a rare natter with the other Racers and enthusiasts before heading back to the Hotel for a snifter and a warm bed. A far cry from Cadwell!
Back to the track for scrutineering then a bacon butty or two before Race 1.

The racing was close all round with the Griff making the Turn 2 hairpin in 5th or so. On braking the car was hugely loose at the back now and I nearly lost everything at Turn 3 with Hui “Humacher” Marshall just managing to miss my tank slapper Griff. Collecting it up I proceeded to steadily drop down the order, finishing in a supprising 3rd in class 13th Overal. It was back to the paddock for more investigation.When removing the wheel, the whole rear suspension arm was coated in engine oil, so much so that the rear wheel left a circle on the tarmac when led down. Not good but obviously the cause of our problem.

We suspected a leaking sump gasket. My drysump car uses a sealant type gasket and it seamed to be leaking on the drivers side. There was no time to replace it so we patched it up where we could, cleaned the car off and re-torqued everything down. Oh…and topped up the oil. Out for race2.

Again we had a good start but backed off as Owen sliced to our side. He left me loads of room, but getting off the throttle cost me several car lengths at Turn 2. We were still up at the front though. Running fairly well for the first few laps on our tiny road tyres, I felt we had a chance. We had put some extra wing on the back to counter the now perfect splitter, but Tom Stewart, Graham Walden and Mick Holden all pulled away from the start. I think we could have been 2 seconds a lap faster on Slicks but I just had to make the best of it. Just before the end, the front runners came through. Sammy was ahead of the tussling Deano and Danny but the distraction cost me a couple of seconds giving Phil Dickenson a  window to catch me in his RV8 Tuscan. He pushed hard, making the most of his superior rubber and picked me off in the infield. I managed to hold on for a couple of laps, but the car had no grip so I finished 2 seconds behind him. I’m never pleased when not on the Podium, but I have to say I was pleased with 5th in class and 10th Overal.

We’ve had some issues this year to say the least, but the cars in one piece and we are running 2nd in Class and 6th Overal in the Championship at I write, but Mickey is running well now and Graham Walden and Kev Gore are now out. So it could all change.

But as I said further up…not bad for a road legal car!

A quick PS here to mention some of the other drivers.

Sam “Sammy” Head in Class A is just pipped for my Driver of the Meet. He stuck it on Pole and won both races by a comfortable margin. When he passed me in both races, he was several seconds clear, under no real pressure and I am quite sure that he had the race well under control with time in his pocket. With some serious opposition at what is likely to be the biggest round of the 2009 season, Sammy was double winner for the 20th Anniversary of TVR racing. Well done mate.
Also showing great form were Deano and Danny who had a real dust up for the whole race as did Graham and Tom Stewart in Group B. Mickey Holden produced a very strong drive in his first rounds in his upgraded car.

But just taking it from Sammy as my Driver of the Meet is “Timbo” Davis in C. He had a stellar weekend in his £3k Tasmin on well shagged rubber lapping only one second behind John Simpson in his fresh 3000M with on new slicks. Tim had issues with his car with engine mounts melting and the engine moving around, yet still managed to stay within 1 mph of Simpso. Top Man!!