Round 3 of the MSV Trackday Championship 2021 season headed further South to Castle Combe in Wiltshire. As in all the TDC this year, I was racing on myself, and for another weekend in a row, I am also doing the Focus Cup, which has testing on Friday, and the Quali + 2 Races on the same day.
Unlike all the other tracks so far, I have very little experience of Combe, having only done a trackday where the Ibiza lasted 1 lap before the engine popped, then we took over the Performance German Day Show back in 2019, where I did a bit of driving in quite a few machines, so I know where the track goes, but that is about it!

Below is the layout of the Castle Combe Circuit:

Just like Silverstone, there was not much of a gap between the Focus and Golf sessions, so I needed to be in and out quickly! Hopefully no repeats of last time when I almost missed the start of the race!

Focus Cup Qualifying

Friday was different to usual, as instead of a sessioned test day with specific slots, we were booked onto an Open Pitlane Trackday, which meant no overtaking in braking zones, and only on the Right. Getting a clean lap was going to be a problem.
Weirdly, we had a little rain in the morning, so I decided to sit it out. The conditions were not going to reflect Saturday, so I didn't see the point in taking life out of the tyres and risk damaging the car until conditions were more like we expected during qualifying and the race. Towards the afternoon it got quieter on track, and was much hotter and drier. I put in a few decent sessions, and on comparing my times with a few other drivers, there was only a few tenths between us all. It was going to be an interesting qualifying for us!
Into Qualifying, as expected it was red hot early on, and the cars were suffering. Coolant temperatures needed to be managed, so getting a tow through the fast sections was not a good idea, and the tyres only liked 1 flying lap before they felt like toffee. it was not looking good for the race!
I had estimated Pole would be a mid 1:21, but not wanting to get caught out like I did at Silverstone, I pitted partway through the session to see where I was. At the time I had done a 1:23.037. I knew it was not going to be anywhere near enough, but I saw Simon Rudd had done a 1:21.075, a mega lap early on in the session. I had a feeling I could not get close to that, but Rob Gaffney's 1:21.862 seemed more achievable for 2nd place.

After a slow outlap, I did a 1.21.839 pretty comfortably, and lost a bit of time on the next lap, but still did a 1:21.885, so I figured that was as good as it would get without taking too many risks. When I came back in with the session finished, I was P3, after Gary Mitchell did an amazing 1:21.665. With 0.4s separating P2 to P5, it was going to be very close. We expected Simon to disappear into the sunset as he clearly found his rhythm around this track early on.

I just needed a monster start from P3 to get my nose in front early on, try and stay in the clean air to keep those temperatures down, and bag some points!

TDC Qualifying

Straight into the Golf from the Focus, it would be the first time I had ever driven the Golf around here, so learning the car on this track whilst sharing it with 42 other cars was going to be a challenge for sure. The car felt good, but maybe a little stiff. I put in my 3 mandatory laps without pushing too hard, then came into the pits to check pressures and soften everything up. My first flying lap had put us in P2 behind Colin and Sam in the Integra.
Not bad considering we were now carrying an extra 20Kg of ballast mandated by MSV to try to bring our times closer to the rest of the field.

I went back out and instantly the car felt much more stable in the bumpy braking zones and through the dip at Folly. I had traffic for a couple of laps, then was able to put in a 1:17.406, putting me on Pole. I knew the car had more so I went again, doing a 1:16.959 despite having to overtake 3 or 4 cars over the lap. I was up by 0.5s on the next lap, but aborted after getting more traffic, and decided to call it and save the car for the race. Another Pole Position for the Golf. A 100% success rate this season so far in the TDC.

I am not sure if Colin came in too early to hand it over to Sam, as they pitted at the same time as me, early on in the session, but it meant there was not a late challenge for the pole in that session.

The Pole lap is shown below:

Focus Cup Race 1

Starting P3, I was confident that I could move forward if I had a great start. I did, and by Quarry, I was fighting Simon Rudd for the lead, and had passed Gary after he missed 3rd gear and dropped back.
I led for the first 2 laps, and was happily keeping Simon behind. There are a few decent overtaking points at Combe, but if you place you car well, it can make it very difficult to make the move stick, especially in something that does not have loads of power, and momentum is key.
However, I was not going to have it so easy, and disaster struck as we were going through Folly heading towards the line, my coolant temperatures had risen to 111c, putting the car into limp mode until they dropped. This dropped me back to 4th behind Rob Gaffney and Gary Mitchell.
A lap later was almost the biggest crash of my life. Gary had a poor exit on the last corner, and I had the run on him. He squeezed me out wide, but did not see Charlie Barre on the other side of me. I moved as much as I could, but didn't want to shove Charlie onto the grass at over 100mph, so had to hold firm and Gary kept coming. Eventually we all touched and it was almost a big pile up, We carried on but had lost momentum, me coming off worst. Lewis Ryan had sat behind us three and capitalised on it into Quarry, diving down the inside, the pushing me onto the grass at the exit. A little naughty (but he did apologise after so no hard feelings). I had dropped from 1st to 6th in less than 3 laps, what a nightmare!
Charlie Barre was on for a comfortable 3rd place before he suffered a turbo failure, promoting Lewis to the podium places. That put me 5th, meaning I would start the next race in 2nd on the grid. Surely I could make it stick from there?

The lap chart tells it all, I went from 0.317s in the lead to 11.376s off the lead. Fingers crossed for a better race 2!

Everyone's lap times had improved from Qualifying except Simon's, so I think the extra pressure of chasing of being chased gave us that bit more bravery. There was a lot of time to be gained around Avon Rise into Quarry. I went from braking before tuning left to keeping it flat all the way left, which made the braking a little tricky before swinging it right!

TDC Race

I was hoping for a better race in the Golf, and I was not as concerned about the temperatures as we have not had many issues with this engine setup since we improved the airflow into and out of the radiator.

Starting P1 is always going to be the best place, but I had RWD car to my left, and a few behind as well, but some FWD machinery hopefully ready to block the others from charging ahead!

You can watch the full video below, or read the race summary further down the page:

I didn't make the best of starts as the car started to creep slightly when biting the clutch. Chris in the Caterham made his usual cracking start and jumped ahead, leaving me to chase towards the first corner. John Lyne in the E36 made a mega start from row 4 and almost made it around the outside of me at Quarry,
I managed to stay ahead then reeled the Caterham in a little. As expected he was mega quick through the chicanes and able to carry the speed onto the long 'straights', making a pass difficult.
With a slightly better exit out of Folly, by Avon Rise I forced Chris to go defensive, which allowed me past at the exit of Quarry and into the chicane. Into the next chicane I didn't carry enough speed and left it in 4th gear, so my exit was compromised and let Chris close the gap.
I kept Chris behind for 5 laps until all my hard work was wasted. Two cars had come together at Tower, causing significant damage to the barrier. Race Control decided to Red Flag the race. This meant another standing start, so another chance for Chris to get his nose in front!
After over 30 minutes of sitting on the grid baking, with no water, we were back on the grid to do another Green Flag lap and standing start. This time I had Rob Ellick from TSR Performance in the Golf directly behind me, and three RWDs to my left, all lined up smelling blood!

As expected Chris was gone, and John followed him. I had more hard work to do this time! I pressured John hard, and he made a bit of a mistake on the brakes into Bobbies, losing enough momentum for me to pass through Westway. He fought back and it was a Mexican Standoff at Folly. I won and then with my sights on Chris in front, I got my head down.
Only a few laps in there were double waved yellows at Old Paddock Bend, as Alf Hyde in the Clio was deep in the barrier. thankfully he was out of the car so I knew he was OK. It turned out his wheel bolts had sheared and sent him into the wall. Eventually the Safety car was deployed to allow the track to be cleared. This helped me close the gap to Chris, but also allowed everyone we had broken away from to catch up as well.
the race was restarted with 38:00 to go, and the pitlane opening for our mandatory stop at 30:00. I could see John Lyne in my mirror hanging really far back, waiting for the window to open. He dove into the pits, but I knew it was too early.
We had to complete another tediously slow lap behind the safety car, knowing that quite a few of our competitors were already in the pits and would most likely gain track position when we stopped.
I tried to dummy to throw Chris off my plan, but he went for the pits so I did as well. I managed to hit my timer bang on the line so knew I could rely on it for the stop. As expected everyone else dove in and the pits turned into chaos, with cars everywhere. I had to weave around cars and people, revving my engine as I have no horn. I might have shouted at a few people as well (sorry!), but came out straight behind Chris and with Colin in the Integra behind, so luckily had not lost any positions during the pits. I could see John further ahead when we caught the safety car train back up, but I had a strong feeling he would be penalised for his early stop and be behind us.
I was caught out by the safety car coming in as soon as we had caught up, so Chris had a bigger buffer than I would have liked on the restart. We were instantly into traffic though, and this is where he struggles as his car is hard to see in your mirrors, especially when he dives from left to right!
I gave him plenty of space in front in case of any contact, but then had a run into Avon Rise where we were side by side until a Porsche held me up, allowing Chris to stay ahead. Into Bobbies an MR2 span in front. Chris went left, onto the grass, I stayed in the middle to avoid and Colin went right, carrying all his speed and jumping us both. Chris had dropped from 1st to 3rd in about 20 meters! I then chased Colin for a few laps before disaster struck!
As I passed the start finish line and turned right, the car stumbled a couple of times. I thought it could have been fuel surge as the tank would have been pretty low, and the G forces around there pretty significant. However into Quarry on the downchange it did not feel right, and the car dropped into limp mode as I changed from 3rd to 4th on the exit. Chris almost rammed into the back of me before he moved ahead. I frantically tried to turn the engine off and back on, but it would not restart so I bump started it, but it was to no avail, as soon as I accelerated it dropped back into limp mode.
I was overtaken by a few more cars that unlapped themselves, just before the Safety Car boards were shown. A lifeline! I spent the next few laps desperately trying to reset the car, slosh some fuel around the tank and catch up with the pack, hoping that the race would finish like this, as I had no chance at full race pace.
It was not meant to be, and a few laps later the safety car was in and I trundled into the pits.

I was a little disappointed as I knew I had to pace for a podium position. But this is racing, it does not always go your way!

Despite a poor result, we had enough of a lead in the championship after out two perfect scores from the previous rounds to stay on top, albeit with much less wiggle room, and no margin for error now, With our one dropped round, we are in a 3 way fight with Chris (FTP Motorsport) and Colin and Sam (G&M Motorsport) for the Championship. The Honeybones (Apple Car Centre) are also not too far behind, and are currently 2nd without the dropped scores.

Focus Cup Race 2

The reverse grid converted my P5 to P2 for race two. I had my mind set on another good start, but keeping the lead this time!

Branko bogged down to my right, so I just needed to keep everyone else behind me for as long as possible, and hope they all battled each other enough to give me a break.
It worked out perfectly, and I was able to keep Gary Mitchell behind for 4 laps, before he was hit with the same issue I had in race one, and dropped back down the order. Lewis Ryan was able to capitalise and was putting a little pressure on me, but I maintained my pace, not pushing too hard to keep those coolant temperatures as low as possible without losing too much ground. It paid off as I was able to stay ahead at the chequered flag, with Lewis a solid 2nd and Simon Rudd moving from 6th to 3rd for his second podium of the day. Some valuable points for him.

You can see the gap was up and down by a few tenths, but comfortable to not have to push too hard. That was reflected in the fact that Simon's fastest lap was exactly a second quicker than mine, bagging him another 5 points for fastest lap.

The rest of us were pretty evenly matched on lap times, but the hot weather definitely slowed us and the cars down this race!

Amazon Prime were following us round to make a video series on the championship, take a look at the Round 3 Video here:

After 3 rounds and 6 races in the Championship, managed to stay ahead by 12 points. Next round is at Cadwell Park on the 10th July. If you want to join us, give the guys at the Focus Cup a shout!

No VLOG on the weekend as Ryan was in Wales in the Touareg. Not sure who had the most fun! haha

Thanks again to the Focus Cup Guys, and our Team this weekend, Paul, Toby, Mathisse and Oliver. Whilst the results were not everything we hoped for, they were not issues that could have been foreseen or prevented, so we can only hope we don't have anything else like it this year to maintain our consistency, which is what wins championships!

Photos by - Sarah Hall Motorsport and MSV.