Brands Hatch Sports 2000 festival 13/14th July 2002

Once again a hot and sunny weekend. We practised on Friday with both the Pinto and the Duratec.
The Pinto car seemed to fly, no problems and a 50.12 lap made us look forward to Saturday Qualifying.

Saturday dawned and in qualifying I put on two new front tyres and out he went, Nik found a 50.2 and the tyre wall as the car broke away in Clearways, again I am sure because I messed up with not replacing all tyres at once as he suffered from over steer that was absent on Friday.

Fourth fastest overall gave us a front row spot in the qualifying heat, a good start and steady first ten laps in a strong second place was all that was aimed for, unfortunately Russell in his Van Diemen wanted a front row place, and on his third ambitious move on Nik, he made strong contact with our car, which put him out but also damaged the back of our car. The damage did not slow Nik and he was challenging Rodger for the lead when inexplicably he was shown the orange and black flag for dangerous bodywork. A gutted Nik pulled in on the penultimate lap and our day was well and truly spoilt, championship points needlessly thrown away.

Sunday meant we had to qualify through the last chance race, from eighteenth on the grid, his drive to second place meant Nik was then in twenty- sixth place on the grid for the final. A strong drive saw places gained on nearly every lap, and a final placing of fifth meant we at least gained some points to stay in the championship, and we achieved fastest lap again, which proves we have the speed if not the luck. A fellow racer commented on the fact that it seems to be target Nik this season, we hope it stops pretty soon. Nik would like to record his thanks to his fellow racers, at least all of the ones he passed gave him a fair fight and room when the moves were made.

After the Pinto race Nik drove the Duratec as I was feeling unwell on the Saturday pre qualifying. On Friday the car was awful, so surprising after a good Snetterton practise. We had dreadful under steer and so made changes for the qualifying, which then gave lots of over steer. The car qualified third but was slow and so more changes and the rear wing added, gave us hope for the final. Should have known better, still slow and only managed third place, but at least the engine ran well and now seems to be sorted on the cooling front. We will be making more changes before Donnington and the factory are building another works car to speed up the development. Ralf Firman, boss of Van Diemen, is determined to improve the performance to ensure the cars remain the most competitive available.

Our other Van Diemen Runners continue to have mixed fortunes; David Houghton had a great weekend with continuing improvement until an unavoidable head on crash with a spinning Neil Stevenson, left him shaken but unhurt. Neil was taken to hospital but luckily he escaped serious injury, which is more than can be said for his dads Lola. David's car stood up to the crash brilliantly and anyone who saw it should buy a Van Diemen for that reason alone.

Mike Turner had a great handling car with yet again engine problems, this time it overheated because the timing was out. Mike was much happier overall and we will soon see him at the front I am sure.

Graham Rowan has now moved to Chris Snowdens care and race prep. He is also getting faster but suffered from contact and broken bodywork, missing out on the final by one place.
It was a brilliant weekend, lots of new cars and drivers out for the first time and a great atmosphere, we certainly have an exceptional series to run in and we look forward to the next outing at Donnington in two weeks time.