At the start of the year, I had gone out to try and win this year’s championship. I knew that I was quick enough and capable of doing so, but also knew that it would be tough with such a long season. Consistency would be key.

The opening round at Croft was both encouraging and crushing at the same time - my exclusion from the P3 finish and points dropped for having to start at the back of the grid handicapped the rest of my season and ultimately probably cost me a P3 championship finish. But it also showed that I was capable of winning races.

What became apparent during the course of the season, as discussed in previous postings, was that my engine was in dire need of a rebuild. The ability to slingshot past the car in front is crucial in Caterham racing and to do that you need power. It also compromised my ability to put in a good, single, fast lap in qualifying sessions meaning I started quite a few races from the upper midfield, rather than the front. This makes it a real battle to score high points consistently.

So, having had about 90 hours of stressed use, the whole engine is going to be removed, stripped and rebuilt in time for next season. Stronger, forged pistons will also be added so as to minimise power lost through compression leakage. This, coupled with the wider track suspension, new Bilstein dampers and springs and quicker steering rack should make Car 54 extremely competitive next year - and hopefully a car with the potential to win the championship.

Sadly, the win didn’t happen this year - although I reached the lower steps of the podium on several occasions. I scored 153 points out of a maximum 240. Next season is scheduled to start in April and Car 54 will be back, upgraded and finely fettled to A-spec, to start its challenge on the 2009 Roadsport title…

Brands Hatch had seemed an age in coming. The well-attended Formula Ford Festival is always a great event at which to end the season and this year was to be no different. With 4 rungs of the Caterham motorsport ladder, sports prototypes, Formula 3 and, of course, Formula Fords all competing over the 3 day meeting, the racing promised to be fast and furious.

Testing on the Wednesday was extremely wet with a dry line emerging only in the last session of the day. As expected, Car 54 was fast on the tight, short Indy circuit at this most famous of all UK venues. I was confident that the laptimes I was putting in would be sufficient to put my weary car near the front of the grid - crucial on such a tight track where overtaking is very difficult.

For the first time this season, we weren’t faced with monsoonal conditions at any point over the weekend - instead enjoying clear, blue autumnal skies throughout. However, disaster struck in qualifying (not for the first time this season). A coolant leak through and failing rear brakes were compounded by a timing transponder failure - meaning Car 54 did not post a single laptime in the session. Fortunately, the timekeeper spotted the failure and had the wherewithall to start timing manually, so that I wouldn’t have to start from the back of the grid.

I posted a 55s981 which was only good enough for P11/23 - hugely frustrating. On the upside, being widely accepted that the margin of error for manual timing is about 0.2s, my laptimes were probably competitive with the front runners, being 0.2s down on pole. I would, however, have to battle my way through a very closely matched pack to score maximum points.

Race 1

I got the perfect launch at the start of the first race - unfortunately, so did pretty much everyone in front of me and so I had only gained one place by Turn 1 - the fearsome Paddock Hill Bend. Forced wide through Paddock by cars on the inside, I managed to battle over to the defensive line into Druids, where the pack began to thin out through the funnel effect down towards Graham Hill Bend.

Realising I was being held up by an unusually slow Rob Vissers, I went for an audacious pass on both Amit Patel and Rob around the outside of Druids and, amazingly, managed to make it stick and jumped two places. Shortly afterwards, whilst tucked up behind Sid Woolett, Magd Mohaffel and Mark Blackburn came together around Paddock in front of us and flung each other into the gravel and out of the race. Another two places gained - I was now in P6…

Sid is a very canny racer for all his modesty and, although slower through most of the bends than I was, his defensive positioning was perfect allowing no way through. Knowing that I would probably get through sooner or later, Sid made an excellent tactical decision (from his point of view) to back me up into the chasing Amit. I soon had my mirrors full of Amit’s black and yellow nosecone and lost time defending my position Sid used this opportunity to pull away.

I defended from Amit for lap after lap, until he eventually got through out of Paddock Hill after he took a slower line in and got the faster exit. An epic battle then ensued between the three of us, Amit getting the better of Sid on the penultimate lap. I picked up Sid’s tow on the charge to the line on the final lap and drew alongside as we crossed the line. Sid had pipped me by .059s - about 2 feet… I finished the race in P7/23 and only 8s312 behind the winner, Mark Figes.

Race 2

I started race 2 from P7 and got another flyer, taking Sid before the entry to Turn 1. We went four abreast into the Druids Hairpin and the field began to thin out. Andrew Atherton, in a career high position at this, his local track, managed to pull off a fairly suicidal pass on me around the outside of Paddock Hill bend. Unfortunately, Andrew was quite slow around the rest of the track and proceeded to hold me up allowing a charging Paul Fleury to sneak up and steal a position off me.

Together, we battled to find a way past Andrew, who to his credit did a very good job of holding the defensive line. This led to a couple of comings together between Paul and me as Paul had to throw out the anchors hard whilst I was about 2 inches off his back bumper; although fortunately the damage was minimal.

My Scuderia TT teammate, Paul Lund had crept up to the back of me and we diced with each other for several laps before he dropped away. Richard Carter span out from P2 and was thrown in the mix. The last few laps were a frantic mix of attacking Paul Fleury and defending from both Paul Lund and Richard Carter. At the end of the 20 minute race, I crossed the line in P6/23 and only 6s146 off the lead.

Although disappointing that I hadn’t got on the podium at this final meeting, it had been a reasonable weekend, with 27 out of a possible 40 championship points.

The last time I raced at Donington, we were restarted twice following successive multiple collisions at Turn 1 - the tricky Redgate corner. Half the grid didn’t finish that race. Needing to capitalise on the championship momentum I gained at Silverstone, it was imperative that I didn’t allow history to repeat itself. Donington is a very high speed, power circuit that suits a very stiff car set-up so as to maximise the speed carried through bends like The Old Hairpin and Coppice. However, we were racing on the rarely used full GP circuit configuration that uses the infamous Melbourne Loop - a dusty chicane in and hard braking steep downhill to an off camber 180 degree switchback before powering back up the hill and sweeping around the 180 degree off camber Goddards and onto the start-finish straight. This makes Donington a very different - and challenging - circuit, as no one set-up is favoured here. If you stiffen the car to maximise your speed through the fast corners you compromise your traction out of the hairpins.

We were lucky enough to have our weekend shared by the inaugural race of the new Superleague Formula series - 750bhp single seater racing not far off Formula 1 spec.

Attracting football club supporters from all round the world (the USP of the series is that all the teams are football clubs such as AC Milan and Liverpool) large crowds were guaranteed. It’s entered a tough marketplace though - going directly head to head with F1, GP2, A1 GP, F3 and various other high-horsepower, single-seater series. With rumours around the paddock that the series had run out of money before it had even begun, it will be interesting to see if it survives on such a crowded calendar.

Free practice in the morning had gone very well and I was delighted with the way the car was handling. The inclusion of the Melbourne Loop also meant that the effect of the power advantage of other cars (see Silverstone post below) was minimised. Having put down a 1m55s635 in the first session, I was hopeful of replicating this in qualifying and challenging for the front row. As it went, thanks to certain cars that really should know better and treating the quali session as a race rather than qualifying, I found myself blocked at every key corner, compromising whatever hot lap I was on. I couldn’t drop off them too far for a clear run as there was traffic behind which would have had compromised the lap anyway, so I endured an incredibly frustrating 20 minutes trying to find a clear way round the circuit and book a quick lap. When the grid was posted, I was furious to see I was P14 / 30 with a 1m56s531 - a full second off my practice times. Not for the first time this season, a compromised qualifying left me with it all to do in the race. I targeted an optimistic P6 finish in the first race to give me a chance of a podium for the second race.

Race 1

As the lights went out, I got an absolute flyer, despite the lack of traction from the stiff suspension set-up, and had gained 4 or 5 places within yards. I tucked the car up nicely onto the defensive line as we flew towards Redgate, scene of the previous year’s mayhem, only to find a near stationary Rob Vissers green car right in front of me. Rob’s gearbox had failed and he couldn’t get going. I had to brake heavily almost to a standstill to get round him and all the cars I’d taken off the start flew past…

I picked up a place over Scott Illman down Craner Curves and my superior speed through this fast part of the circuit saw me quickly latch onto the tail of the cars in front. The race then quickly became a war of attrition as I slowly picked off cars one at a time. Andrew Ball made his car as wide as possible and managed to hold me off for most of the race. I diced and swapped places with the ever present Mark Blackburn, Amit Patel, Dean Wilkin and Steve Tucker, until Steve carried far too much speed into the esses at the start of the Melbourne Loop and stuck it in the gravel trap - showering us with a half ton of stones as we swept past, cracking my windscreen quite badly.

Dean’s car had suffered an earlier coming together with another driver and his front right wishbones were knocked slightly out, leaving him with unpredictable handling. His yellow car lurched from washed out understeer to snap oversteer in an instant and it looked a real handful. I knew it was only a matter of time before he’d give me a great opportunity to pass and it soon came on the exit of Redgate as he ran wide. Another place gained.

Going into the last lap, Mark ran wide on the tricky inverse camber at the Melbourne Hairpin and I nipped up the inside. Mark then compounded his problem by missing a gear on the run up the hill towards Goddards and I consolidated the place as the chequered flag was waved over the line. I’d clawed my way up to P7 / 30 and was only 15 seconds behind the leader. From 14th, this was a pretty pleasing effort and I looked forward to the race the next day.

Race 2

My stiff suspension set-up had worked a treat in the first race, although I was surprised that the traction out of the hairpins hadn’t been too badly effected by stiffness of the rear of the car. I decided to leave the set-up unchanged. As we sat in the Assembly Area waiting to be led out onto the grid, I was dismayed to see the rain start to fall, covering the track with grease. A lot of drivers were caught out on dry set ups by this sudden downpour, but I was particularly concerned as I favour a stiffer dry set-up than most and this could cost me dearly in the wet. Worst of all, my front tyre rotation was set for the dry. We run our asymmetric tyres backwards in the dry for extra grip; but on this rotation in the wet, it leaves the tyre unable to clear any water at all - instead drawing it into the centre of the tyre where the pressure builds and so pushes the car upwards, causing horrible understeer. Oh well - nothing I could do about it now…!

The lights went out and, as predicted, I struggled for traction off the line, but still managed to have a better start than most. We cautiously wound our way down the thrilling Craner Curves, where Sid Woolett lost control of his car and span on the tricky left hander at the bottom of the hill. This unsettled Andrew Ball in front of me and I got an excellent run on him through the Old Hairpin and took the place up the hill, moving across to defend my line under Starky’s Bridge. Next up was a very nervous looking Robin Ellis - his car very skittish under the slightest provocation. I picked him off with a brave last-of-the-late-brakers move into the esses at the start of the Melbourne Loop.

I found myself then behind who else but Mark Blackburn! Mark and I have enjoyed some great battles together this year and this race was no exception. I was much quicker than him around the fast sectors 1 and 2, but his softer set-up was much quicker around the Melbourne Loop and so we were pretty evenly matched. I could tell he was pushing pretty hard to stay in front as he had several moments into the slow speed corners. My car, however, felt great and very neutral in its handling, and I was confident I’d pressure him into a mistake sooner or later. We were both shocked, then, to find a charging Nigel Oven take advantage of our battle and sneak past us both from nowhere.

We diced for several laps, before Mark lost control at the same esses he had struggled with all race and span in front of Nigel and me. To avoid the collision I had to detour across the treacherous grass, whilst Nigel managed to keep it on the grey stuff and it was Nigel that raced away with much better traction and broke the all important tow effect. I did slowly reel him back in, but eventually ran out of time as the chequered flag came out. I’d finished in a hard earned P5 / 30, only 9 seconds behind P1, and with another handful of points in the bag.

Whilst disappointed not to have got on the podium here, I was still pretty pleased that the points I’d earned were very useful for the long haul of the championship, and I find myself now in 7th place going into the final 2 rounds at Brands Hatch next month. Only 15 points or so separates 3rd from 8th with 40 points up for grabs, so it really is all to play for.

Phil