This weekend was the final chance to win my second championship title. I had already won my class and was crowned the best Jaguar saloon driver for 2011 but that’s not the same as being overall champion.

My main rival is also one of my good racing mates, Chris Palmer. He has won the XJ-S Championship, before saloons and XJ-S’s merged this year, twice before in 2008 and 2009 and was likely to be the top XJ-S driver after this weekend having led from early in the season. He was ahead of me by 4 points in the overall standings after my lead, which had lasted for three months was lost when I only scored half points in two events due to low entries.

I had to max out in both races beating my main class rival Rich Dorlin (last years champion), his dad Pete also an ex champion saloon racer and two other guys both top notch drivers. I was hoping for Chris to drop a few points.

Qualifying went perfectly with me sitting 6^th on the 28-car grid, first of the saloons. Palmer was 4^th but 2^nd in class; he dropped a point on me cutting his advantage to just 3 points. If it finished like that I would only be one point adrift and if I got fastest lap in class we would be level for the final race on Sunday.

The start was good, Rich was right behind me on the grid and that’s where he stayed as we went onto the back straight. However Palmer passed Ramm, his main class rival, which was bad news for me. Then a few laps later Ramm re-passed him, which was good for me except that shortly after Rich out braked me going into the Esses, his car is around 50kg lighter and has about 30 more bhp so it was always a hard task to keep him behind me but I do know how to make a big old tank even bigger on track!

However when he missed a gear exiting the corner I was so close I could not avoid shunting into the back of his car, place made up! I had lost a light, half my front bumper and was a bit worried about the coolant warning light but faint hearts never won a championship!

Soon after that Palmer got back in front of Ramm, bad news again for me which got worse when about three laps from the end Rich did me again at the Esses only this time didn’t miss a gear exiting the corner. We crossed the line a second apart and he pipped me to fastest lap by one-tenth…aaargh! Worse still Palmer got fastest lap in his class also by one tenth.

That meant that with the final race the next day his lead was up to 6 points.

I needed a miracle and a small mechanical problem (or maybe a little puncture) to befall Chris and I would need to win to have any hope.

The start was a nightmare. Surrounded by quick V12 XJ-S’s I got baulked and left out to dry on the outside of the first hairpin as Rich held the inside line. With two V12’s, very quick in a straight line, between us I had to get past them before having a go at Rich. Meanwhile I could see Palmer clear of Ramm and, try and try as he might he could not get past. Towards the end my slim hopes faded completely when Ramm’s engine blew forcing him to park in the outfield.

All I had left was pride and the chance to get a season ending win. After a bit of paint scraping and after dropping a place to Pearce’s Mk2 and getting it back again a lap later, I was finally on Rich’s tail. With just two laps left though it was an impossible task and we crossed the line a second apart. I did get fastest lap by some three tenths though and so ended my championship season.

I am class B winner and overall top scorer in Jaguar saloons but I wont be carrying number one next season.

The car is looking a bit sorry too but with the Birkett 6 hour relay ahead this weekend a bit of sticking plaster and tlc will have to do. Chris is in our team, The Six Potters, and we will be hoping to emulate our win from two years ago, albeit with several new team members.

Its been a great year for me and I’m hoping to be able to announce at least one new sponsor soon for next which I am quite excited about and I’m looking to raise funds to race in the GT Cup as well next season.

If you have a few grand burning a hole in your bank balance you could do a lot worse than investing it in my racing next season. Keep an eye on next week’s blog for the Birkett report.

 

Luv Gail

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