As we'd been racing in Lydden on Saturday afternoon we arrived at Croix mid-evening on Saturday, dropped the car off at the track, found the hotel then headed into town with the rest of the drivers for beer and food. My concerns about never having seen Croix before were increased when I found out that a lot of the drivers had visited the track previously on track-days with their Elises.
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Despite being nervous about unknown territory we were in better state than some, 2 or 3 cars were suffering from the exertions of the race the previous day, including Dave Arrundale who's alternator had broken |
The timetable for the Sunday would be:-
This meant I was going to have 20 minutes to work out the track and my qualifying time would be used for my grid position in both the Kuhmo race and the SELOC race later on. Nothing like a bit of pressure on a new track!
As the signing on and scrutineering was so early I hadn't had a chance to even see the layout of the track, let alone walk it so the first few laps were....interesting! After a few laps I got into the swing of things, Croix is a collection of hairpins, one bend and a long straight so not too hard a track to get your head round. I was extremely pleased and amazed when the results came around afterward, 6th place, my best qualifying of the year on a track I'd never seen 20 minutes earlier. Now all I had to do was break my bad habits and stop losing 2 or 3 places off the line.
| The new oranged up altoHiway BMW takes to the track |  |
 | Trying to hang onto Andy Walsh and Ben Wilamanski during qualifying |
The Kuhmo series are running a race and the SELOC BMW Challenge is invited to run as a class within their series. The Kumho championship cars are highly modified BMWs producing up to 400BHP with carbon-fibre body-shells, racing brakes and extra furry dice these guys really do outperform our little sheds in almost every way. Running in the same race was going to be fun, we were expecting the faster Kuhmo cars to lap us 2 or 3 times in the space of the 15 lap race and we weren't wrong!
Starting 6th I once again made one of my top quality starts and dropped 2 or 3 places before the second corner! And almost like revenge I find Nigel Goater stuck on my tail, a perfect reversal of the previous day at Lydden where I chased him for most of the race. Nigel was trying everything to put me off and persuade me to make a mistake and unlike Nigel I did. At the end of the main straight I over poked the brake to swing the rear end round and found myself facing the wrong direction heading towards a grass verge, by the time I'd avoided the verge and got the car off the grass and onto the track Nigel was tripping off into the distance I'm sure with a smug smile on his face. 2-0 to Nigel.
| Nigel puts on the pressure |  |
 | Post race scrutineering |
| Helping Paul Skivens remove the gravel trap from his beemer after he forgot to use brakes into the hairpin |  |
There was long break before the SELOC BMW Challenge at the end of the day, eventually we're called up for the setup grid, I grabbed my helmet, jumped into the car, turned the key....nothing, dead. It looks like we have no power in the battery, after an unsuccessful attempt at bump starting the car I spot Jez Breaker still at the end of the paddock fixing something on his car and yell for jumpleads!
 | Panic in the pits, no power |
After some poking around the battery bay cursing my nice new racing battery with no easy mechanism for attaching the jump leads we get the car started and rush to the setup grid to take up our place.
| Waiting on the setup grid for the SELOC BMW Challenge |
| Leaving the grid on the green flag lap |  |
 | Jez ducks down the inside into the first corner |
Right, enough is enough, I was now determined not to drop another place, I was still sitting on Jez's bumper with Simon Foden was now attached to my rear bumper and Paul Skivvens just behind him, it was time to be defensive and for the next few laps I let Jez get further away while I made sure I left Simon no room to get past. After a few laps Paul Skivvens started to put Simon under more pressure which allowed me to get away and give myself a nice safe gap from the fighting Paul and Simon. By this point Jez was a fair way ahead, I made the decision to play it safe and hold position rather than trying to push it and putting the car off the track for the second time in a day. From then on it was a case of telling myself over and over again to take it careful until the chequered flag came out, only 7th but for me my best result so far all season which I was very pleased about.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the race Alan Wileman had run off with the win, his second of the day, Nigel Goater and Paul Golding had had a coming together.
 | ....and I went this way, and he went that way.... |
 | Paul Goldings damaged car |
 | Prizes for the best caption here, "I'm a little teapot" |
A great end to a fantastic weekends racing, especially the tussles with Nigel Goater at Lydden and during the Kuhmo race. I can't wait for Brands Hatch on the 25th July!
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