The undulating circuit at Anglesey was completely rebuilt two years ago - including a totally new circuit layout. Nestling on the cliffs above the Irish Sea, with spectacular views back to North Wales and Snowdon, it is without question the most picturesque circuit in the UK. However, being so exposed can mean that the paddock at meetings there sometimes resemble the aftermath of a Florida hurricane - team awnings bent and twisted beyond recognition by the wind and the cars they are meant to be sheltering bent out of shape after sliding off on the wet track and hitting the armco…

Last weekend, amazingly, saw dead calm and crisp, blue winter skies. A non-championship meeting, the ACC Winter Race Meeting saw an eclectic collection of Caterhams coming together to take each other on in various guises and specifications.

Car 54 is currently still in B-spec after the 08 championship season; although the windscreen and headlamps were removed for this meeting to assist the Caterham’s limited aero. It was also shod with Avon A37 slick rubber - to level the playing field, hopefully, with the faster-specc’d Caterhams on the grid.

Qualifying was delayed by over an hour due to sheet ice covering the track after a frosty night. Once the watery sun had melted the majority of the ice (coating the track with a thick layer of grease) we were let out. The track was so wet that I had to swap my slick tyres for some cut CR500 rubber just so I could stay on the track, but the suspension was left in the stiffer, slick tyre set up. This compromised my qualifying to some extent and Car 54 only managed a P5 / 15 on the grid with a 1m24s817, although beating some faster cars in the process.

I wasn’t overly concerned by this placing, as I knew that the sun and subsequent qualifying sessions would continue to dry the track and that by the time of our first race, it should be ready for slicks.

Time for the first race and although a dry line had emerged, it was still very slippery offline. A few throttle blips and some hard braking on the recon lap proved that passing on my tyres would be very difficult. At the lights, I got a flyer of a start and hit P2 by turn 5. I slotted in behind Jon Ramsey - a car in A-spec - and we quickly dropped the chasing pack. For the first half of the race I was content to sit behind Jon, throwing in a few feints to the inside to keep him honest. As the laps dropped off, I decided to push and try to pass him. Frustratingly, the track was still very wet offline and the car twitched nervously every time I thought about a move.

On the final lap, I got a run on him along the long back straight and made my move to slingshot past to take the lead. Turning into Rocket corner, Jon cleverly forced me to go defensive and Car 54 understeered wide on the grease, allowing Ramsey a sniff back up the inside. We raced down to the Corkscrew side by side. As we hit the braking point, I knew that if I outbraked him, I was likely to understeer straight into him and take us both off, so I didn’t contest the corner too fiercely, which allowed Ramsey through to take the win.

I finished the first race 0s803 behind former Porsche driver, Jon, but was pleased to get the fastest lap of the race with a 1m20s948.

Race 2 again had me starting in P5, but by now, the track had dried significantly offline - allowing me to get some real heat into the tyres and use them to their full potential. Another good start had me in P2 by turn 3 and I took the lead on the second lap. As the tyres came up to temperature, I found it fairly easy to keep Jon, in second place, at arm’s length; gradually pulling out a few more tenths with each passing lap until I built up a fairly substantial lead.

Everything was going well until it started to rain on the far end of the circuit. Jon, on cut CR500 tyres, gradually started to claw into my lead, although I was still confident that he would run out of time before overhauling me. As I exited the fast right hander onto the long straight, I touched my rear left wheel onto the exit kerb. What had been bone dry the lap before had suddenly become very damp and slippery indeed and the car was pitched into a terrifying snap spin at 115mph. The car pirouetted, out of control, on the wet grass for about 400 metres before coming to a halt - amazingly without hitting anything! Fortunately, I had managed to keep the car running and rejoined the track in P7.

With only a few laps remaining, I knew I’d have to charge hard to stand any chance of a podium finish. I was back up in P4 when my charge was cut short by the deployment of the red flags as a backmarker put it irretrievably in the wall through the Corkscrew. This meant I had finished in P5 on countback (the position I was in when the flags were deployed) - a fairly disappointing result, given that I had been on for what would have been a fairly emphatic win. A small consolation was the fact that I got the fastest lap of the race again, with a 1m17s595.

Fellow Scuderia TT driver, Paul Lund, managed a career first trip to the podium, with a great P2 finish in race 2 and narrowly missed out on another in race 1 after a late spin. Hopefully, Paul will build on this and have a great season in 2009.

Some hard lessons learned, then, in Anglesey - you can’t afford to break concentration even for a second, no matter how much of an advantage you may have. Next year’s A-spec championship visits Anglesey in June and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it.

Car 54 has been put to bed for the winter now. Next time it runs in anger it will be in the revised A-spec with wide track front suspension and quicker steering rack. The engine refresh will follow soon after in time for the new season. Spring testing can’t come soon enough…