Brands Race Report
26th June 2004
Qualified 17th with lap time 1:00.89
Heat 1 and Pete Morgan catches and passes Ian Laughton on last lap, but Laughton takes position back for win. Stuart Nind is third.
Heat 2 and I'm beside Mark Rodway, who is on pole. Jonathan Howes and Phil Knibb are on the second row. I take the lead at the start, and soon establish a comfortable lead. Darren Wilson is beached in the gravel down Paddock Hill on lap 4, but it's not until the start of lap 8 that the red flags come out.
Restart of Heat 2, I retain lead but have to defend from fast starting Tony Taylor into Druids. At the end of lap 2 I go wide in Clark Curve which gives Taylor an advantage down the straight. I defend into Paddock Hill but he slingshots past. I follow Taylor for lap 3 then over start/finish into 4 I miss gear and lose ground. Howes gets past and Matt Fincham gets alongside, but I hold inside into Druids to hold place. Howes gets inside Taylor into Surtees.
Lap 5: Taylor passes Howes in Druids and in the bundle Leigh Dillistone gets inside line on me and passes. Lap 6 Fincham attacks again, but I again defend successfully at Druids. No change for following 2 laps to race end.
Final start I jump past Dillistone, inside Stuart Nind, light contact, but up front mayhem. I nearly stop avoiding the accident, rejoin back where I started behind Dillistone. it's all academic as within a couple of laps the red flags are out again.
On the restart Dillistone jumps right to block me so I go the other way, outside Matt Urlwin, past the field outside then inside Kevin Hatch. I follow Nind and Laughton. On lap 3 there are cars wide at Graham Hill Bend. Lap 4 Simon Howard passes up Brabham Straight, fuel starvation robbing the car of power. I hold out until lap 8, when Al Boulton cruises past at the same place, followed by Robert Foreman. Lap 9 and Brabham again, this time Malcolm Russell and Kevin Hatch.
Lap 10 I miss a gear out of Druids letting David Lewis past, into lap 11 and Howes and Urlwin are able to pass up Brabham Straight. To round off the day, into the last corner of the last lap, I run wide and fight my way out of the gravel, watching Terry Roughton, Matt Rozier, Simon Holloway and Matthew Perks pass by. I finish 24th ahead of Andrew Muggeridge. At the sharp end Craig Shepherd pips Paul Taylor, Martin Boon is third.