Slightly delayed report because I was eclipse watching in Cornwall all last
weekend.

The third event in the Caterham Scholarship was held at Curborough the
weekend before last (7th August). Curborough is a twisty little track -
second and third gear the whole way (well OK - first off the start and
maybe snatch fourth just before the finish line for any pedants reading this).

The course is shaped rather like the number 9. You start at the "tail" of
the nine, turning left when you reach the "loop". This is Paddock bend, and
is seriously tricky - you're accelerating while turning round a corner
which gets progressively tighter. Next up is Woodside, a right hander,
followed by the "Molehill" a slow right, left, right. A short straight is
followed by Fradley hairpin (a very wide, open, hairpin) and Shenstone
straight. As we were doing the "long" course, at the end of Shenstone we
turned right around Flagpole hairpin and did the "loop" of the nine once more.

The day started very wet (although not actually raining), and the first
practice run was more like paddling than racing. The course did start to
dry out about halfway through practice, however, and times improved. Second
practice was not completely dry, but was pretty close. Times were down to
about 2 or 3 seconds slower than completely dry. At the end of practice, I
was lying third. Not bad, given that I was running very early in the order
and the track was drying out all the time. The "usual suspects" (Alistair
and Jason) were ahead of me.

Unfortunately, the heavens opened during lunch, and the rain continued
during the first few timed runs. This did, at least, mean that the track
didn't dry out too much during the runs, so the fact that I was running
close to the start didn't matter too much. At the end of the first runs, I
was lying third (this time behind Jason and Paul Clugston).

The second timed run was still fairly wet, but nowhere near as bad as the
first. It was clear, therefore, that the first run was largely pointless as
everyone would improve their time.

At every event so far, I've been in a very strong position early on and
made a hash of it on the last run. Well guess what - I did it again!

The run was going really well - I was comfortably the fastest of anyone who
had gone before at the split, and then I locked up the second time around
Fradley hairpin. I released the brake as fast as I could, but because I was
braking around the outside of the bend, I ended up on the grass. I kept it
going and actually posted a reasonable time (which would have placed me
midfield) but because I had all four wheels off the circuit the time was
scratched :-(

Net result, 24th position and one championship point :-(

Bizarrely, I'm still lying 6th in the championship, even after a total
disaster, because the results at Curborough were so topsy-turvy. An awful
lot of the front runners had a nightmare time and picked up very few
points. There's now a big gap between me and fifth place though :-(

I'm actually pretty upbeat about the whole thing. I was annoyed at myself
after Harewood and Castle Combe because the mistakes that I made were
really stupid ones and I should have known better. The mistake at
Curborough, on the other hand, was not a "stupid" mistake - simply a result
of pushing slightly too hard in changeable conditions. The irony is that
it's cost me much more heavily than my previous, more amateurish, mistakes...

Ho hum - such is motor racing, I guess!

Paul Butcher