Round 8 of this year championship was held near Preston in the North of the UK. Rain had been forecast for the weekend, we were all hoping that the weather men would be wrong this time!
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Practice didn't go so well for me, some problems limited us to completing only 3 laps! Meaning that our first round of qualifying would really be my first proper run on the track. I played it safe and kept the car on its wheels. To my surprise we were only a second off taking TQ for the round, ending up 4th.
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Round 2 and our gremlins came back. Not even completing 1 lap this time. I had to get a run in the last round to be placed in a final! Luckily we did manage to complete the round with another very steady run and ended up placing 9th overall and just in the main final.
By the time the later finals came round the rain started to fall, but it was not enough to really upset the racing. I got a good start and started to move up through the field. By the time of the first fuel stop I was in 4th.
The track by now was very rutted and hard to drive. Keeping the car on line was very important. The car was performing nicely and I continued to move up. By the second stop I had made it into 2nd and felt confident with the car. Unfortunately we had a problem in refueling and I had to come in again the following lap for another fuel stop. As the final minutes of the final elapsed I had lost to much time to mount a serious challenge for the win and was under pressure from 3rd and 4th so I concentrated on keeping my second place and not try to make up the lost time. I just managed to stay in second by the end of the final.
The car performed well and the posted Preston set-up is a good starting point for bumpy grass tracks.
