The Friday test day threw up a few problems for the car seemed to be down on power and there was no obvious reason for it. We plugged away at the problem and eventually found that we were operating on 85% throttle so with a 30 second adjustment, we were back to full power. Throughout the sessions we were also well aware of a rear end grip problem, she just wanted to break away under the slightest of pressure, something we had not experienced before with the car and something of a brain teaser. We tried several adjustments here and there but nothing really helped so in the end we had to settle for a fairly under steering car in order to give us as much rear grip as possible and just hope for the best.

 Saturday was race day and qualifying would test our set up solution. Even with new rubber, the car was no better then on the test day, this was disappointing but not a complete surprise. Jan started the session and as agreed did his three laps minimum and handed the car over to Rod who was to do much the same. The idea behind this was to give Jay the most time in the car for if anyone could squeeze a decent lap time out of her, he could. He did his level best and took us down to the low 50's but that was all the car would yield without a real risk of an "off". Our competitors in class 2 got down to the mid 49's, some 5/7 tenths quicker so we knew that the car set up was the problem as opposed to the drivers, for Jay is quite capable of being much quicker and both Jan and Rod have clocked up mid 49's in the past where as on this occasion low 51's was as good as it got.

 The 3 hour race was started by Jan and as per normal he was soon up with our class 2 competitors and placed us 2^nd in class. The race was however plagued by safety car periods so any gains made were soon eaten up, Jan came in for a fuel and driver change after about an hour and Rod took over. One lap into Rod's stint, and another safety car, and as luck would have it our main competitors had yet to make their first stop, so took full advantage of the time to be saved. The race resumed some time later and towards the end of the stint, the tyres were going off badly having now covered about 2 hours and getting close to useless, Rod could no longer hold off the Virgin 911 car so conceded 1^st place, which he had inherited from the no 50,  Dom Evens car after his brakes failed and forced an "off" at paddock. Rod continued but it was soon obvious that lap times were dropping and the 911 Virgin car was escaping into the lead, Rod pitted for fuel and new tyres and handed over to Jay Shepherd. Within a few laps, yet another safety car, Jay now had the 911 Virgin car just behind him but in real terms a lap ahead. Once the safety car was called in, Jay set about the task of un lapping himself and what followed was one of the most exciting 50 odd minutes of racing that class 2 had seen in a long time. Lap by lap and second by sec, Jay hunted down the Virgin car and with only 13/14 minutes to go he got it, battled for a couple of laps and then delivered the killer blow, we had done it and we were back in 1^st place, not a second too soon as it turned out for with 10 mins to go, out came the red flag and the race was brought to a premature halt. Had we taken first place at least one lap before the red ??? The rules on red flags dictate that the race finish positions will be defined as the position 1 lap before the red flag, but we were clear, just, so with a great cheer for a great drive we started to celebrate the win.

 However, rumours of pit stop, time problems started to circulate and our car was under investigation, this turned out to be a bitter pill as we had indeed run short of the mandatory pit stop times and therefore had to accept a penalty that pushed us back into 2^nd place and gifted the win back to the Virgin car. This was a fair and correct decision and we have only ourselves to blame, so the timing duties will now be strictly adhered to so that we don't suffer this type of penalty again.

 Silverstone next, we still have the championship and class lead but are only clear by 15 points and there is a real risk that the double points joker card yet to be played by the Virgin 911 car could see us back to 2^nd place. We will do our best to pick up the extra quickest laps points in both the race and qualifying sessions during the next few rounds as it really could come down to one or two points in the end, fingers crossed !!!

Pole Position and a Class win at SPA

  Another excellent result for the Hawthorns team supported by their preparation team, Neil Garner Performance Engineering. With Jay Shepherd as a permanent third driver, the team has up'd the anti in terms of qualifying times and the ability to get close to class two fastest lap times. We achieved a class two pole in qualifying, our first, thanks to Jay, but were a tad short on securing the fastest class two lap during the race, next time !!

 Jan Person started the race and as usual, began to climb up the order. This was a difficult task as everything in front was a class one car and as Jay had secured a 12^th place grid spot, the main task was to maintain that position for as long as we could. Jan was popping in some truly great lap times, 2.41/2.42's and on a couple of laps a 2.40, so he was really setting up a good lead over our class two competition. After one hour of consistent hard laps, Jan pulled in for fuel, it was to early for a driver change so off he went for another 15 mins or so, and again kept the pace we needed.

 Rod took over at 1 hr 15 or thereabouts, and with another splash of fuel continued for the next 45 mins until the rear left tyre decided to call it a day. Unfortunately this happened on the high speed straight after Eu Rouge so at a painfully slow pace of  20mph, he carefully nursed the car back to the pits, some say it was his fastest lap but team manager, and Rod's wife, Diane, defended his performance by stating that most of his laps were a bit quicker !!!!!

The tyre was changed and quick repairs made to the body work and wheel arch which had suffered badly from the effects of the bust tyre, in time we would end up losing half the rear bumper and the whole of the left rear light unit  but thanks to the intervention of Britcar boss James Tucker, we were not black flagged  as he pointed out to the clerk of the course that we still had 2 rear lights for we had a top rear screen brake light  that was working perfectly, clever people those Porsche designers !!

 Jay took over after the tyre incident and immediately got us back on race pace, he put in a few storming laps in the low 2.38's in reaction to a very fast  2.37 lap time posted by our nearest class two competition, we then told Jay not to worry too much as the chasing car was a lap down on us, still, they got the message that we could up our game when required.  Thus far, the race had been dry from the start but there was as always at Spa, the threat of rain, and not long after the start of Jay's stint, down it came. The vast majority of other teams called for wet tyres but Jay decided that he could keep a decent pace on slicks as he was sure that the rain would stop and that given 15/20mins the track would start to dry out again. HE WAS PROVED RIGHT !! great call, having said that, he was masterful in the wet conditions and on slicks, quite brilliant in fact. The track started to dry and Jay was soon back on race pace but we were running very low on fuel. A splash and dash was called for by Neil Garner and as Jay had again built up a significant lead, we were able to pit, fuel and get back out in front of all the other class two competitors. Jay continued to the chequered flag, maintained a full lap advantage, and secured a first in class race win.