Brands Hatch 20th April 2003

David Mountains car was still not finished for the start of the season at Brands Hatch so we loaned him our 2002 car for the weekend. Dave was short of practice time in the car but put up a respectable performance for his first outing, with a second place finish, albeit some way off Manderson in his Carbir.

The pro series for the Duratec powered cars was supported by cars from the pinto series and Nik used his 2002 car in this event to keep his seat time up before his races in the USA starting in May.

Nik managed to hang on to the back of Dave Mountain despite his lower powered car and finished third overall and first in class. Allen Timpany was out for the first race in a Duratec, Allen has been improving at every opportunity, and he ran a competitive fourth until his battery failed. The failure caused the car to misfire and his ultimate retirement.

The pinto race had several Van Diemen runners and our strongest performer on the day was Mike Turner. Mike was up to third and looking very strong when he picked up a puncture, this slowed him enough to stall his challenge and as the tyre totally deflated in the latter stages of the race he had to give way on the last lap, he finished a credible fourth.

David Houghton and I had a coming together early on which curtailed my race and delayed David, he was much improved on this opening showing, with lap times that will see him in the top ten on a regular basis.

Rupert Russell retired soon after he was involved in a collision, Rupert seems to be continuing his run of bad luck from last season and it must change soon, I believe he will be quick at Castle Combe, our next outing.

If I think back to the first outing last year, when we failed to finish the race, I take solace from the fact that we eventually won the championship. I am sure the Van Diemen runners will have better days than this one and the results to come will still prove the car is the one to have.