Last weekend was the fifth round of the Scholarship, a sprint at
Goodwood. I had spent a day testing here a week and a half ago, so was
reasonably confident of doing well.

Goodwood is an *extremely* fast circuit. I thought that Castle Combe was
fast, but it's a gentle stroll by comparison. There isn't a single
"straightforward" corner - every one has something unusual about it.
This is large wedding tackle circuit if ever there was one. After the
start is a long straight, followed by Madgewick, a double apex right
hander with a bump mid corner (flat in a Scholarship car, although
faster cars will have to brake here). Next is Fordwater, barely more
than a kink and easy flat. Next is "No Name" a very fast right hander
which would be easy flat, except that it's just before St. Mary's (an
adverse camber left hander) for which you need to be able to get over to
the right hand of the circuit. A short straight is followed by Lavant, a
double apex right hander which is particularly important as it leads on
to the longest straight of the course. Next is Woodcote, which really
sorts the men from the boys. By far the most difficult corner I've come
across, it involves a left right kink (which you straight line), a right
hand bend with a "false" apex which you ignore, followed by another bend
with the "real" apex. The accepted technique is to brake insanely late
and then trail brake all the way to the apex (exit speed is not
important as a chicane and the finish are very soon after the corner).
This was the corner I was least happy with after testing. I knew that I
wasn't braking late enough, but was completely unable to summon the
courage to brake later!

I took my first (timed) practice lap relatively easy and got a time in
the 1:49s. Not fantastic, but OK. My second (untimed) lap was,
unfortunately, baulked by a spinner and a particularly slow Escort
RS2000 which meant that I couldn't really get any extra practice at
either Lavant or Woodcote (a pity, because these are the two most
important corners on the circuit).

During lunch, I had a nasty scare. The eligibility scrutineer came round
checking engine seals, and one of the two seals was missing from my
engine! Incredibly, it was found resting on the steering rack - it must
have fallen off during the final practice lap! Luckily, my assertions
that I hadn't done anything untoward to the engine were believed and I
was allowed to drive with an unsealed engine. I can remember thinking
that the seals were rather flimsy when I first saw them. This, I guess,
is proof.

The first timed lap was a real white knuckle ride. For some reason, the
back end of the car was *really* loose. I had to catch oversteer around
Madgwick and St Marys, both places where I'd never experienced anything
like this before. The lap *felt* fast, but turned out to be only a
second or so faster than practice. Checking tyre pressures afterwards, I
discovered that my rear tyres were 4 pounds over pressure. I guess that
this was a result of checking the pressure in the shade and then
queuing up in bright sunshine. I ended up in seventh place, very
disappointing.

For the final timed run, I knew that I had to pull something special out
of the bag. Unfortunately, with a baulked second practice lap and a
badly handling car for the first timed run, I hadn't really had a chance
to build up to a fast time (something that's essential at Goodwood). I
had fixed the tyre pressures after the first run, and the car was
handling much better. I was considerably faster just about everywhere,
and braked much later for Woodcote (although still not late enough). I
improved by over a second, but this still was not good enough for
anything better than fifth :-(

The annoying thing is that I know that I had an awful lot left. I
basically didn't go fast enough soon enough, leaving me with too much of
an improvement to make for my final run. Even on the final run, I was
nowhere near the limit through either Lavant or Woodcote :-(

The revelation of the day was Graeme Smith. Graeme has always been there
or thereabouts at each of the events this year, but at Goodwood he was
untouchable (2 seconds faster than anyone else in practice, a lead that
he was never to lose). Jason's winning streak is finally broken! (don't
get too excited - Jason was a comfortable second to extend his
championship lead even further).

Strangely, despite a poor performance, Goodwood has actually improved my
championship position. Jason and Colin (currently lying first and
second) have moved further ahead of me, but I've closed the gap to
Timothy and Dean (third and fourth respectively) who both had an even
worse time than I did. Graeme is now only three points behind me though!

The championship is looking rather interesting from my point of view. First
and second look to be pretty much tied up by Jason and Colin respectively,
but there's a close four way battle for third place in progress between
Timothy, Dean, Graeme and myself.

On to Wiscombe next weekend!