Moran 1 & 2

The last few years at Loton's Easter meeting has not been too good for Dad & I. Back in 2002 I stepped into the Pilbeam MP88 2.5V6. I had previously driven a road going Caterham so this was a HUGE culture shock. Obviously 2002 was a big learning year. 2003 soon came round and I eventually got to grips with the car and managed to bag 'No 10' at the end of the year. In 2004 we decided that the 2.5 V6 simply didn't have the grunt as a young upstart - Adam Fleetwood had taken the '03 title using a more powerful 3.3 NME lump. We opted for the Judd KV4. Wow! This had some punch! We spent 2004 trying to dial in the engine/chassis but it didn't seem to have the traction we needed, whether this was down to the power or the chassis we never found out. When we ended up 2nd & 9th in the Championship but thought it maybe time for a change. Dad found an un-used Ralt tub, same as the one which the Gould GR55 is based but has the higher cockpit. After a chat with David & Sean Gould we came to an agreement on gearbox, suspension etc and at the start of 2005 wheeled out the GR61X. This with the 3.5 NME engine was at least going to be in the same ballpark as the winning car from the previous couple of years. All we had to do now was learn to drive the thing. Quickly! 2005 we netted 3rd and 5th overall. Dad having the upper hand each year. Now to 2006. This is the first year that we have both been comfortable and confident in the car having spent the later part of 2005 swapping some fairly descent results with each other. We arrived at Loton after a hectic few weeks at work and hoped for a relaxing weekend spent in good company with some good competition thrown in! First practice I set off on a damp track only to be flagged at the first corner. One Mr Ranson, had fallen foul to the conditions and had an un-characteristic spin at Triangle. My car felt good off the line and took second gear well considering the damp track. Maybe it wasn't that slippery after all. How wrong was I? Exiting Hall corner (1st corner on the hill) I hit the loud pedal and found myself pointing back towards the start. What an arse! Due to some front end damage we quickly swapped to the spare nose & wing for Dad to take his run. He got as far as Cedar straight when out came the red flags. The car up in front of Dad was Mike Dean who had recorded a time. Down in the paddock we were anxious to find out what had happened. Unfortunately Deano had lost the Gould over the finish at high speed. Thankfully the car took the impact and only Deano's pride (and pocket!) were damaged.

We spent most of Sunday evening with the Merrick team repairing their car. I know that Chris would like to thank all of those who helped in getting the car back together and also to the marshals again for assisting him out of the car. Whilst everyone was helping Chris, poor Martin Groves and Paul Ranson were trying to replace a couple of gears in there car ready for Monday competition. Eventually it got too dark for them to work and the rest needed to be done on Monday morning. During the engine pre-heating and general competition preparation something took a dislike to the Groves/Ranson car and the ECU went pop. As the Mike Dean car was still in lots of bits (although mostly in Newbury back at Gould) there was a spare ECU. A quick dash by Sean Gould from Newbury upto Loton meant that the Groves car could be up and running again. Unfortunately (not for me!!) he didn't get there in time for the first qualifying and run off. This left the door wide open. Deano had jumped onto Simon Durling's car meaning he was in un-familiar surroundings and the new engine etc in the Willem Toet car was still under a fairly large development curve (though this does look stupidly quick in a straight line). I was first to run and knew that I needed to bag some solid points. I managed a PB on the first run off of the year I couldn't believe it! I managed to hold onto the lead and grabbed a win. Dad was second with Simon Durling third. How different it was from last year!

Onto the afternoon runs. With the Groves/Ranson car back in action it did't take long for 2005 Champion, Martin Groves to get back into the 'groove'. Fastest qualifier for round two. Bugger! I thought he may have just wanted to take the afternoon off and help the kids eat their bucket of eater eggs! Deano, Paul Ranson & I were the only double drives and so waited for the all clear for the 2nd run off. Clouds were looming and we wanted to get on with it so everyone can get a dry run. Deano left the line, only for the clocks to fail and so was issued a re-run. I was next. A fairly solid run. 46.6 secs on our data logger. Not bad but not quick enough I feared. I parked up in the holding paddock only to be sent back to the start for a re-run. No time recorded. I was not sure if this was a good or bad thing. Having to do one run in run off conditions is enough. You have one shot on the limit and if you step over this limit it could be disastrous. On the other hand another run straight away is good. You know exactly what the track conditions are and it is also fresh in you mind where you can push a bit harder. I therefore thought, yes, this is a good thing! I left the line in pursuit of win number 2. It was not to be. I'm not sure if I was over driving the car or maybe had a touch too much heat in the rear tyres. The back of the car felt very 'loose'. I crossed the finish line with the data logger reading 46.7. Slower! I was in a risky position. The time was a good one but may have only been good enough for around 5th or 6th. Hillclimbing is so close sometimes that 1/10th of a second can cover half a dozen drivers. The last 2 cars to go and I was still quickest. Dad was next up. Excellent run on a 46.26 but would it be good enough? Groves was last to go. An unbelievable split time at Triangle and everyone thought he'd got it in the bag. Onto Cedar Straight and Groves ran wide losing momentum & time (though not quite enough!) giving him 2nd spot behind Father. This was our best ever start to a season with Dad leaving with 19 points and me leaving with 18. 1st & 2nd in the Championship. We were absolutely over the moon! It would be good to carry this on but I am sure normal service will resume very shortly.