Unfortunately delays with the conversion of the car meant that I wasn’t able to race it at the opening round of the championship on the Brands GP circuit, but two weeks later we had a non-championship race at Spa in Belgium that I had entered. I took delivery of the car the week before and gave careful consideration to withdrawing my Spa entry, but came to the conclusion that I should just treat it as a test session and if we had problems with the car then we could always spend the weekend drinking Belgian beer; as it happened we did that to excess anyway, but that’s another story!

I had travelled over to Spa on the Thursday with friend and mechanic Allan Sanderson ready for practice on the Friday morning. When we awoke in the morning it was pouring with rain and it didn’t stop for the next two days!

Thankfully we had managed to con our way the night before into one of the Formula 1 garages with friend and fellow Sports 2000 racer Glenn Dudley, so at least we had a dry workplace in which to work. I had decided that I would use the majority of the thirty minute session to run the engine and gearbox in, before having a bit of a go in the dying minutes of the session. As things turned out the car ran like clockwork and I felt at home with the new engine and gearbox very quickly. I finished the session with a best lap of 3 minutes 15 seconds for the 4.2 mile circuit. Qualifying took place at 6 o’clock in the evening and it was still raining hard when we went out. However this time we had had the benefit of having the additional downforce from the rear wing that Duratec cars are allowed to run.

I had concluded that pole for the Sports 2000 race would probably need me to get down to a three minute lap, as pole in the dry for a Pinto engined car had been around 2 minutes 45 seconds. As a consequence I settled into a reasonable pace and found that the car had really good grip in the wet, but I couldn’t get down below 3 minutes 5 seconds during the session. When I came in I was amazed to learn that at one point I had pole by 18 seconds, however I finished the session with pole by a margin of 10.8 seconds from a forty car field of Sports 2000 and Dutch Sports Racing cars!!!!

Race day on the Saturday was equally as wet as the Friday; however I almost didn’t make it to the race. Having formed up on the down hill grid I had put the car into gear and switched off the engine, but on the signal to start our engines the lever that I have to use to select neutral, before moving the gear lever, fell apart in my hand. So I dipped the clutch and started the engine; imagine my horror when I found that the car was in reverse! Fortunately I managed to grab hold of the cable end with my gloved hand and pull it far enough to be able to select neutral before starting the engine and leaving the grid for the warm up lap prior to the rolling start.

At the start I was able to make good use of my pole position and lead through Eau Rouge for the first time. When I looked in the mirror I had about a four car-length lead over the Mallock that had started from the front row. However as soon as we got onto the Kemmel straight he just pulled out from behind and drove past me, so much for his 50 BHP power advantage! Thankfully the superior handling and braking abilities of my car allowed me to challenge him hard through the next few corners and I was able to briefly take the lead again on the exit from Radillon, but I was overtaken again on the run down to the daunting double-apex Pouhen. However, as I had the inside line into the corner I decided to outbrake him and re-took the lead. When I looked in the mirror after exiting the corner he was already a long way behind. By the time that I completed the opening lap I had apparently extended my lead to five seconds. Over the next few laps I extended this further to around sixteen seconds and then sat on the gap and waited for someone to come to me. Thankfully no-one did and I managed to take a comfortable win at a very wet Spa Francorpchamps.

Unfortunately things didn’t go quite so well the following day. Conditions had changed dramatically, as it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. I managed to make a good start again and lead through Eau Rouge, but low and behold the Mallock just pulled out and drove past me up the hill to Les Combes. This time I knew that I had more of a fight on my hands as the superior power of the Mallock ought to put me at a significant disadvantage; however I was able to close up under braking and hold onto him through the corners. I was also a good bit braver through Eau Rouge, managing to take this daunting corner totally flat in fifth gear first time around and reel the Mallock back in. We managed to dice closely for two and a half laps, pulling away from the chasing pack, until overheating problems caused my early retirement. A water tube had vibrated itself out of a rubber hose and lost all the water!

Had it not been for this problem I think I had a good chance of winning the Sunday race too!