Circuit:	Castle Combe, Wilts
Date:	August 28th Bank Holiday Monday
Championship:	Caterham Academy Championship 2006

My first race !!!

The alarm was set for 5.00 a.m. to give plenty of time for the drive down to the lovely circuit of Castle Combe in Wiltshire. I arrived at about 6.30 and was surprised to find just how many Caterham drivers had arrived before me or driven down the day before. It was a struggle to find a place in the paddock, even that early in the day. The weather forecast for the bank holiday had been mixed but throughout the morning's race preparations, the clouds lifted and a beautiful sunny day beckoned !. As this was the first time I'd raced at the circuit, I had to endure a surfeit of driver's briefings (3 in total) all squeezed in between signing on, scrutineering, qualifying and the race itself.

Qualifying was a 15 minute "scramble" (remember this was the first time that any of the drivers had had to do a qualifying session, so there was much "where do we go now ?"). All went relatively well, apart from Philip Gidlow (car no. 99) having an "off" at Quarry. Luckily not too much damage to the car but he was to later learn that he had unfortunately broken his wrist. Lewis Hopkins (37) secured pole position, with Championship Leader from the sprints and hillclimb, Morgan Parry (46), just 0.12 secs behind. Peter Young (27) and local man, Matt Withers (67), made up the front four. Caterhams are the aerodynamic equivalent of a house brick and to get a decent time, a driver needs to get the benefit of a "tow" down the straights from others. I struggled with this concept but still managed a time just 1.7 seconds off pole (the first 8 cars were within 1.2 seconds of each other !) However, so competitive is Caterham racing that this still me meant starting back in 10th place !

The race itself was certainly very eventful. I had a very good start from the 5th row and had made up two places by the time I entered the first corner at Quarry but unfortunately, Morgan Parry paid the price for perhaps being a little too ambitious in trying to go round the outside of pole sitter Lewis Hopkins on cold tyres, at the very first corner on the first lap and he slid off towards a rather expensive meeting with the tyre barrier. Race over for Morgan and a Championship lead given up !

Two other cars immediately in front of me were starting to spin in reaction to Morgan's incident and I basically had no choice but to brake hard and dive down the outside of them to avoid a collision, allowing at least five cars to stream past me on the inside of the track, as I had been dramatically slowed by the mellee of spinning cars in front of me. Driving round them had probably cost me at least 5 or 6 seconds and I was cursing my bad luck at seeing the line of cars now in front of me. I realised I would have a real battle on my hands to get back into the race.

But one by one, I managed to catch and pass a few cars and was also "assisted" to a couple of places by spinners and offs, including Matt Withers, who unfortunately for him, span out of the race coming out of the Bobbies chicane.

With about 5 laps to go, I came up behind Richard Edwards (48) (who had slipped past me at the first corner incident when I was trying to avoid the trouble) and then had a great battle with him to the end of the race, with each of us passing & then re-passing each other several times. As I came up to Quarry on the last lap, I managed to dive down the inside forcing Richard to take a slightly wider line and we then ran down to the Esses Chicane neck & neck, with me just managing to pass Richard on entry and take 5th place from him. I then defended as best as I could, with Richard continually snapping at my heels, all the way down through Tower and into the Bobbies Chicane but unfortunately ran slightly wide on the exit of the chicane, giving Richard just the room he needed to nip through to take my 5th place away from me !

Given my poor qualifying position and the fact I was really badly caught up in the first lap incident, I was quietly pleased to have fought back to a 6th place in my very first race. However post race scrutineering would later disqualify 2nd placed man Andrew Thomas (10), on a ride height issue, to give me a 5th place after all and just as importantly, my very first mention in Autosport magazine !