So this is how we finished. It was not going to last, myself and Mauger were called to the Stewards office for a telling off.
Michael had put in a mega second stint after the safety car, and ended up P1 in Class, back where the Golf belongs! He was on the naughty list as well, so we needed to see how it all played out.

I got my telling off first. It was clear from the footage that I had gone through the red light, however it changed just as I arrived, so instead of the standard disqualification and 4 points, mitigating circumstances reduced it to 35s (putting me back to P4) and 3 points. I could live with that.
Mauger was given 10s but that didn't drop him from 2nd since I was miles away with my penalty.
Michael was hit with the same, however the guys ahead were close behind and had followed the rules, so it dropped him to P3. Still, a podium was a great achievement! It could have been worse, Chris Freeman had realised his error, gave the places back and STILL was hit with the penalty!

So we left the track to grab some food a little despondent. Dylan was already on his way to the track when Ryan called to say the #6 was terminal, so he decided to still come for some delicious Mexican food, able to go for the spicy stuff now there was no danger of being strapped in the car at an inconvenient time! While I was driving to the restaurant, I had a call from one of the stewards asking me to go to race control. I said I was out so they were going to call me back. They didn't and I found out my fate the following day.
Someone had thought my penalty was too lenient, so appealed it. The MSUK Stewards agreed and upgraded it to 1 lap, which dropped me to 17th overall and 9th in class. Luckily this was not a championship race!

No one really touched my pace all the way through, and I lost all the time plus more in the pitstop. Without all that hassle, it would have been an easy win. You can see how much I was pushing towards the end!

Michael's laps were very competitive for Class B, with only the non-finishing Ginetta and Freeman in the Golf significantly faster.

You can see my domination at the start and Michael's quick rise through the field on the lap chart.

TSL allows us to see some more statistics about the race as well, I held the fastest lap all the way through, and we spent a third of the race under safety car!

Class B was a much tighter battle looking at the stats.

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

I'd held the Lap Record in Class B from last year, a 2:08.81, Freeman stole it with a 2:08.21. During the race the Ginetta also shaved a chunk off it, a 2:08.4.
Despite my poor results, I was happy to beat the 2:03.05 set by Bradley Burns in the Area Golf last season.

That was it for Saturday, and unfortunately for Ryan and Dylan, the #6 TT was not going to be racing again this weekend, the first time we had had to withdraw from a race in a long time. We did have the guys poised to bring the spare engine down and throw it in, however without a definitive cause and fix sorted yet, we did not want to thrown away another brand new engine.
For some reason this new engine, bought from a guy who'd cancelled a CUAA Crafter Project, had been low on compression since the day it was installed. We thought it might have just needed some bedding in, but it never improved. A post mortem will be done shortly.

ClubEnduro Qualifying

I knew Qualifying on Sunday would not be as easy as yesterday, with a few more competitors arriving. It was even warmer than it had been all weekend, which would slow the times down a fair bit, especially the consistency. These Yokohama A052s are amazing, but are sensitive to overheating.
I had the same strategy as Roadsports, push hard on the first lap with clean air and get a banker lap in. What I didn't do was warm my rear tyres as much, so I had my second rallycross moment at Turn 1 again! This meant the lap was ruined and I needed to go again, issue was I would now get traffic somewhere around the lap, so I was on the back foot. Completely self inflicted!
The guys had come on the Radio to say the bar for Pole was a 2:01.5 by the MX5. This was 0.5s quicker than I'd been all weekend, on a track that was definitely slower. I was losing 0.4s just into Turn 1 compared to the days before, such was the grip available. The more annoying thing was I had given the MX5 a tow all the way round when he did that lap! My goal was the front row, with 2:02.512 set by the Bialan and Mason Cupra who'd won the Roadsports race the day before.
I came into the pits, swapped the tyres for another set we needed to scrub in, and set about preparing for a lap. I managed a 2:02.594 which put me 3rd, then spent the rest of the session chasing a time that was not to be. I settled for 3rd and hoped for a good start!
The #4 BMW, my main rival currently in the championship after our disaster at Croft, was P4.

I think if my first lap didn't start with me on the grass, the results might have been different, however I think conditions on the day meant a 2:01 was not happening in the TT for sure.

It was early on when the MX5 set the benchmark, then we all wasted fuel and tyres trying to beat it!

Qualifying Lap

My fastest Quali lap is shown below:

ClubEnduro Race

The whole race was Live Streamed by the guys at AlphaLive which you can see below:

Proof that Power to Weight is a great leveller, there was a mix of cars in the front few rows. Missing was the #6 TT. Still gutted for them!
As I'd won the last round, and the E46 had won Round 1 and sat out for Brands meant we both had 30s success penalties in our stops. The MX5 and Bialan/Mason Cupra had none, as did the other 2 Cupras on the 3rd row. I said to the guys on the Radio at the start, I think our main competitor today would be the Bialan/Mason pairing, as they had no penalty and were both similar pace to each other. Some of the pairings had difference abilities, so as long as I could keep touch with the faster drivers, I should have been good in the second phase of the race.

I had a decent start, as did the MX5 ahead, with Bialan dropping back to 3rd and battling away with Ostwick in the M3. I left them to it and concentrated on keeping pace with the Mazda, which pulled a gap then it fluctuated between 1.5 and 2s for quite a while. Eventually we caught up with the Class D cars and this is when all hell broke loose. On the entry to Hamilton I was on the tail of Henderson who'd been blocked, I went left hoping a gap would open up, and it closed, Joel gambled on going right and the door was open, them promptly shut into Oggies, allowing me to get alongside. I am pretty sure he knew I was there, but still shoved me completely onto the grass and into 3rd place.
This had thrown a load of grass clippings into my grille, so now I was battling coolant temperatures as well as trying to reclaim the place! Two laps later I got my chance and made the move back for 2nd, this one much cleaner!
All this had let the Mazda get away and the Bialan and Mauger Cupras catch up. Mauger was giving Ostwick a hard time, eventually getting him.
A couple of laps later, the MX5 seemed to be struggling and was going pretty slowly. I inherited the lead, eliminating the 3 second gap he'd pulled while we were all squabbling, He managed to carry on, down in 3rd position.
We'd always planned to pit early, but I didn't expect to be waiting for the window to open due to an issue. As soon as it was available, I was in for some new front tyres, 50L of fuel and a full front end clean up!

The guys did a great job and I was back out, all the way down in 21st position, with the leaders a few corners back, so I was just short of 2 laps behind. I needed to keep them behind in case of a safety car, as it would win me a lap all being well.
I was now on the radio asking the guys about laptimes from the other teams, making sure I was not losing too much. As we would be encountering traffic at different parts of the lap, it was always going to fluctuate, I just didn't want to be maintaining a pace that would allow them to close the gap.
As I was circulating the infield, I'd seen the MX5 at the side of the track. Whatever had caused them issues early on in the race had not gone away. Such as shame as it was flying!
45 minutes in, I was up to 16th and as most of my rivals had stayed out, it was still hard to say if the strategy was paying off. There was still a long way to go!
We were just over halfway through the race and my strategy started to pay off, an E46 was broken down near the bridge, and looked to need some extinguishers, so it was pretty serious. This brought out the Safety Car and therefore the pitlane would be closed.
As expected, once the BMW was recovered, we were waved around so the Safety Car could pick up the leader, which at the time was Ostwick in the Green E46. The issue for me was I was behind several Class D cars, so while the lead pack were at full pace, we were still trundling along, probably as fast as the safety car was previously. Highly frustrating, but I didn't want to gamble like some had the previous day, with a 10s penalty that could have decided the race.
After what seemed to be all the pit stops were over, I was showing in second position, with the #25 Cupra of Darren Ball showing ahead of me with a pitstop completed. I didn't know how that could have happened as he was a few cars in front of me (until he span at Nelson) and was still showing a lap ahead. I knew something was wrong but just kept my head down until Tom said he'd come in super late, right near the end of the pit window. So now I was leading the race once again!
While all this was happening, I saw a Black Flag and Stop/Go Penalty board for the #4 BMW. They had sped in the pitlane. I drove past it for 3 or 4 laps then it changed to just a Black Flag. Clearly they had ignored the warning and it would mean the driver would be disqualified.
Eventually they came into the pits, swapped back to Joel and came out on track, seeming to break down several times as they did so. Not sure what was going on there. I just hoped there would not be a safety car, as that would erode my 30s lead.
After that, there was not much left to do other than keep the car on the black stuff and stroke it home. We needed this after the disaster on Saturday.

2hrs of racing, lots of sweat lost (it must have been over 50c inside the car!) and a great strategy later, we were on the top step again!

I knew when Mason got in the Cupra he was going to be pushing hard, so we both did our best laps in the latter stages. In the end the gap was pretty much what it was when they left the pits. I had a bit more pace in the car, and was gutted not to push that little bit more to nick the fastest lap!

The lapchart tells it all. I nearly fell off it after pitting so early!

Only 1 safety car period was pretty good considering all the issues people had, thanks for the Orange Army for sorting most out while the racing continued!

Fastest Laps

Our fastest race laps are below:

I think I could have beaten the 2023 Lap Record set by Will Stacey in the Elise, but on the few good laps I did towards the end, I was held up in the last few corners. Really I needed to just keep it clean and neat so that was not on my mind! The 2:02.76 race lap record was still nowhere near the 2:00.91 Will did and Brad's 2:01.91 in CE Quali the previous year.
The Class B record was also untouched from 2020!

I am now on top of the Championship Positions for the first time this season. Let's hope it stays that way for the rest of it. Ryan and Dylan are further down that we would hope, but with 1 dropped score, they just can't afford any bad results now and need a bit of luck.

The next round for RoadSports is at Cadwell Park on Sunday the 21st July. I am sure overtaking will be hard work there! Then we have a RoadSports and ClubEnduro double header in August at Silverstone on the International Circuit.
Thanks to the team for all their hard work in the run up to this and over the weekend.

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Elsey Motorsport Photography and 750MC

All the details and dates for future races we are entering can be found on the Darkside Motorsport Page.