Boss Racing blog

ROB’S BLOG – OCTOBER 2020
MSVR Brands Hatch GP, 10 October

It is totally outside our control and it’s been a constant factor in the 2020 club racing season. No, I don’t mean that. I’m talking about the weather. Because this year it seems to be raining every time we race. That was certainly true of the two meetings we attended in mid-October.

It was a real treat for Boss Racing-supported drivers to race on the wonderful Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit but the results of the two all-comers’ races were influenced by the weather.
We were there to support Tim Davis and Colin Watson in their Caterham C400s, Jonny Pittard in his supercharged Caterham CSR and Keith Vaughn Williams in his TVR Tuscan. In addition, Ben Simonds was running a Boss-built 2.4 Duratec in his CSR.

The opposition was a pretty formidable mixture of quick saloons and agile sports racers, like Nick Jenvey’s rapid Gunn TS6. Nick, manufacturer of the throttle bodies we use in our engines, was in a class of its own all day. In qualifying he was the only runner to lap at over 100mph – 102.54 to be precise.

Ben was third on the grid with Jonny in his 2.5 supercharged CSR fourth, Tim fifth and Colin seventh. Further back, Keith was 30th, his car equipped with a rebuilt fuel system.
Rain had been forecast at some point during the day and at the start of the first race it was a ‘will it, won’t it’ scenario. The slicks and wings cars went with slicks whereas we had an easier choice with our Kumhos effectively being an intermediate. Jonny however had brought a set of slicks so popped a couple of brave pills and bolted them on. And then, once the decisions had been made and the cars headed off for the collecting area it rained. Not proper rain mind you but juuuuust enough to make the track greasy; so much so that Keith spun on the warm up lap.

From the start Ben, Tim and Colin made the most of the conditions while the front row pair of the Nick Jenvey Gunn and Barwell Radical SR3 struggled to switch their tyres on. With the playing field now somewhat levelled the Boss supported cars muscled their way to the front, Colin giving the Gunn a love tap on the way through and at the end of the second lap Ben, Colin and Tim were 1st, 2nd and 4th. Nick Jenvey eventually found enough pace to get back ahead ,managed to pull away leaving the Boss Racing trio to fight for second place as they still had the measure of the slick shod SR3. Jonny’s lack of downforce meant he also couldn’t bring his slicks up to temperature which blunted his performance and he slowly dropped away.

Chasing hard, Ben out-braked himself and spun out of the race at Paddock leaving Tim and Colin to dispute second place. On the last lap, however, Tim’s front drive pulley broke leaving him without electrical power Colin to take a good second place.

Jonny finished eighth, while Keith, who started at the tail of the field and quickly gobbled up some of her slower runners, pulled into the pits on lap 8 with his oil warning light glowing. Tim may have posted a DNF but he recorded fastest lap in his class.

The second allcomers’ race was the last on the day’s programme and it was nearly dusk when the field lined up for the start. Again we were at the mercy of the weather, waiting until the last moment to make a decision on tyres much to the displeasure of the officials who were pleading with us to go to the collecting area.

With all our drivers eyeing each other, trying to cover their team mates moves and not wanting to take a risk that would have left them struggling they all chose medium Kumhos rather than the softs. Would the softs have survived? In hindsight quite possibly but when your team mate is your biggest rival the safest option is to go with the same as them. Yes, it is that serious, even in an allcomers race.

What all these machinations did though was to hand the advantage to the cars on race tyres. Colin slipped down the field as cars on wets now came into their own, while at the back, Tim and Ben made rapid progress in the opposite direction. Tim gained 11 places on the opening lap. Jonny however, now on the same tyres as his team mates caught and passed Colin with doing the same a few laps later. Jonny and Ben’s scrap for the ‘Caterham’ lead ended a couple of laps later at Surtees with Jonny having to take to the grass to avoid Ben’s very sideways CSR. Colin again seemed to have the Boss Racing honours in his grasp again but it was not to be.

Keith crowned a dismal day by crashing on the slippery track, damaging his car too badly to continue and on the ninth lap Colin went off at Clearways and his car became bogged down in the gravel. The race was red flagged leaving Ben, Tim and Jonny in eighth, ninth and tenth places. Ben put up the fastest lap in his class.

To watch the full highlights follow these links,

Race 1 – Brands Hatch MSVR October 2020

Race2 – Brands Hatch MSVR October 2020

Yet another meeting of weather chaos. Would the next round at Castle Combe be any different

ROB’S BLOG – OCTOBER 2020 Donington

Classic and Sports Car Club’s Autumn Race Meeting, 26/27 September

At Donington, the faster cars were lapping 2 seconds a lap quicker than before as competitors battled to improve on the record set last year by Boss Racing’s clients. But that’s fine. As far as I’m concerned, unbridled competition is the sincerest form of respect.

We were supporting Colin Watson in our No 92 Caterham C400 2400, Tim Davis in his similar car, Hugh Coulter (C400 2000), Richard Carter (R300 2000) and Peter French (Superlight R400 1800). In addition, we had rebuilt the engine of Ben Simmonds’ CSR 2300 and carried out some work on the Bates/Bates Westfield SE 2000. They were among the nearly 500 entrants for the two-day meeting. The Classic Sports Car Club continues to go from strength to strength.

Two test days helped us set the cars up. The first, a tyre test a week before the Donnington meeting with the help Avon Tyre’s Phil Carder and race driver Ben Clucas enabled us to get our heads round the performance/longevity conundrum of the new ZZR tyres. It also gave us a chance to sort out an electrical problem on Tim’s car, although that also meant a rolling road session and a hurried dash to the circuit for qualifying. Hugh and Richard both took advantage of the test session the day before the meeting. 

With 43 entrants the track was pretty busy during qualifying. Tim suffered a punctured front tyre within a couple of laps of the session starting, which meant he had to limp into the pits to change it. He still managed to set sixth fastest time with Ben Simmonds second. Colin lined up eighth, Hugh was 10th and Richard just behind him in 11th. Peter was 41st, two slots behind Bates/Bates (Bates2?)

Ben romped into a lead which grew to 3 seconds by the end of the first lap. But by the end of the fourth he was slipping down the field with fading brakes. He eventually retired on the 18th of the 32 laps. Tim, meanwhile, was back in fifth spot as Rich Webb took the lead in his rapid Caterham whose turbo-charged Suzuki Hayabusa engine is reputed to develop over 400hp.

Tim then began a charge which signalled the start of a close battle between him and Webb that lasted the rest of the race. On the pit wall we were cheering Tim as he snatched the lead just before making his pit-stop.

John Cutmore then took over in one of the two very quick works-entered Spire RB7s. When Cutmore eventually pitted, Tim in his distinctive black and day-glow orange Seven traded the lead with Webb as the pair carved their way through the back-markers. 

At the flag a delighted Tim was just over 0.2 seconds ahead but his joy at winning his first race of the season was to be short-lived. Officials announced that he’d incurred a 30-second penalty for a pit-stop infringement. I have to admit this was due to a small miscalculation by his pit crew which dropped him behind Webb in the final order. Lewis Hamilton wasn’t the only driver to suffer a race-losing penalty that week-end for what was a relatively minor infraction. There are three lines on the Donington pit entry each 20 feet apart and when our data guru was calculating our pitstop windows with Google Earth he used the wrong one. Twenty feet was enough to put us over, such are the margins.

Colin’s pit-stop was longer than it should have been. This dropped him down the order so he did well to finish sixth and second in class. Further back, Hugh and Richard resumed their customary battle for class honours. This ended prematurely when Hugh tangled with a back marker and found himself in the gravel with damaged front suspension. Richard finished at the head of his class despite a 30-second pit-stop penalty. Peter failed finish.

For us, the interval between the end of the race and the start of the second Mag Sevens event meant a race to repair Hugh’s car and get him on the grid. Rich Webb and Tim Davis lined up first and second and when the lights went out they resumed their first race duel. 

This time our anxiety to avoid any further pit stop problem probably made us over-cautious. As a result, Tim’s stop was five seconds longer than it should have been and he was unable to make up the deficiency. This put him just over four seconds behind Webb at the flag. But for the slower pit stop the result could have been a different story. There was some compensation with a class win and fastest race lap.

Colin had a better race, finishing third overall and second in his class. Hugh also won his class and set fastest lap but Richard Carter’s car suffered crank sensor failure, stopping him on the track and putting him out of the race. Ben Simmonds was 14th and Peter French 30th.  

It was a good week-end with good results for Boss Racing’s clients but it’s clear that competition in the Mag Sevens series is hotting up with new power plants and rapid Seven look-alikes from a specialist race car manufacturer. 

Tim’s performance showed that Boss Racing still builds the fastest Sevens but we’re not resting on our laurels. I’m not going to say more at this stage but we’re thinking hard about further development options. The race is on!

Next round was home territory on the Brands GP circuit but this time with the MSVR All Comers series.

Robs Blog: Snetterton CSCC meeting 2020

With the season now underway the Boss Racing truck headed off to Snetterton at lunchtime on the Thursday in order to set up for testing Friday, preparing the cars Saturday and racing Sunday.

All went smoothly during testing for Richard Carter, Jonny Pittard, Hugh Coulter and Jeremy Adams so I headed back to base to see a couple of customers leaving the team to prepare the cars. The team went out for a meal and a couple of drinks before heading back to the circuit and bedding down for the night. Or at least some of the team did. It seems while the cat was away a couple of the mice decided to play and apparently our newly aquired disco ball was lighting up the paddock in to the early hours of the morning!

The two errant rodents finally surfaced by mid-afternoon and the cars were ready to go for qualifying on Sunday morning. The Team Leos cars of Stephen Nuttall and Christian Pittard were flying having tested at Snetterton after Thruxton but while Tim, Colin and Jonny were a few seconds off the pace with a faulty oil pressure sender, leaking water hose and sticky throttle respectively, we knew from pre season testing the kind of pace they were capable of. And of course, it was due to rain in the afternoon and that would play in to our hands…

Richard was first in what is now a super competitive Class F and Hugh 4th, the Redmans 3rd in Class E and Jeremy Adams 2nd in Class B only  0.3 seconds off the class pole. So all through the field we were feeling bullish and, of course, it was due to rain…..

I have been at plenty of wet race meetings. Spa is renowned for spells of heavy rain. I remember a meeting at Croft a couple of years ago where some of the drivers came in because the circuit was undriveable. But I have never seen rain quite like this. It started at lunchtime and carried on for ninety minutes flooding the paddock, infield and circuit. When it finally stopped course cars began circulating to see how much of the track could be distinguished from the grass while circuit staff called up tractors and pumps. We changed all the settings on the cars in the hope that we might get at least one race but, around 4.00pm the rain returned and just as hard. We knew it was all over before the announcement was made so having been at the track for four days we began the task of packing up while getting soaked.  As we drove home with dripping clothes and squelching boots we started planning for Donington in five weeks time. Surely that would be dry, wouldn’t it?

ROB’S BLOG – AUGUST 2020

Classic and Sports Car Club’s Thruxton Thriller meeting, 25/26 July

Pit lane entry strictly controlled, a requirement to wear face coverings and longer pit stops to enable cars to be thoroughly sanitised: welcome to British motor racing 2020-style.

Our first taste of the changes brought by the Covid 19 pandemic came at the CCSS’s Thruxton meeting, halfway through the season, but at least we were racing again. 

Other changes have been made to the format of some of the races. The all-comers’ events are no longer open to Caterhams or Caterham-style cars so to make up for this, the Gold Arts Magnificent Seven Series now offers two races per meeting. 

At Thruxton Boss Racing was supporting a number of cars and drivers, most of whom were familiar from previous seasons. Jonny Pittard had his supercharged 2.5 litre Caterham CSR, Tim Davis and Colin Watson were in their familiar 2.4 C400s while Richard Carter was at the wheel of his 2-litre R300 with Hugh Coulter in his C400. A newcomer this year was George Ralph making his race debut with his R400.

As usual there was a test day on the Friday preceding the meeting which enabled competitors to run their cars in a more relaxed atmosphere – or not if you were Tim Davis. He encountered problems with his car which ensured the Boss team had an active evening to get him on the grid for the next day’s racing.

We were also able to test new compound tyres which Avon had produced. As they enabled us to knock 2.5 secs off our lap times we decided that Jonathan, Tim and Colin would race them instead of the normal Kumho rubber. 

We also decided to save the Avons for the race which meant that the trio was generally slower than some of the other runners in qualifying. As a result, Colin lined up third on the grid for the first 40-minute race with Jonathan fourth. Tim was ninth, Hugh 11th and Richard 13th. George was a creditable 34th.

Because of the new pit-stop arrangements we decided to bring our cars in early to avoid the inevitable rush. But a safety car interlude meant we were unable to capitalise on any advantage the earlier stops might have given us.

The safety car came out but didn’t pick up the leader but instead was ahead of Colin and he was forced to run at a slower pace while other runners made their pit stops. The result was that both Colin and Tim lost a lap. Jonny had stalled at the start – it had been a long time since anyone had tried a race start – dropping him down the field. This enabled John Cutmore in his 1600 Spire to build up an impressive lead. Colin, Tim and Jonny fought a race long battle as they made up places but at the finish they had to be content with eighth, ninth and tenth places.

Richard was 12th having incurred a 10-sec penalty for a pit stop which was too short, while Hugh retired after just eight laps. He experienced vibration with his car which couldn’t be cured even after several pitstops. George was delighted to be 24th and second in his class.

These results determined the starting order for the second, 30-minute race but in between came something with which we were familiar – rain, torrential rain. It was so heavy that for a while it seemed as if the organisers might be obliged to cancel some of the races. 

But the rain stopped as competitors were assembling for the second Mag Sevens race. The track surface was still very wet and this enabled Colin to demonstrate his mastery of such conditions. Arch rival Stephen Nuttall made a good start – a mite too good as things turned out – but Colin got his head down and reeled him in. He led for most of the race with Nuttall in close attendance but on the last lap Colin out braked himself, at the chicane allowing his rival to sneak past.

But as Nuttall had been awarded a 10-sec penalty for jumping the start Colin was the winner. Jonny meanwhile engaged in a race-long duel with his brother Christian but was denied a  podium position on the last lap, while Tim finished fifth. Richard and Hugh enjoyed better luck for this race, coming home eighth and tenth respectively, Hugh’s vibration having been cured by a new propshaft fitted betwen the races.

For highlights of the race see here: Thruxton highlights

It was a good start to the season but it might have been even better had it not been for the deployment of the safety car in the first race. But, hey, that’s motor racing and it’s good to be back on track.

Our next outing was the CSCC meeting at Snetterton on 15/16 August and we were looking forward to some warm, dry weather. How wrong we would be!

NEWS RELEASE

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE – BRITAIN’S FASTEST CATERHAM SEVENS

158 mph! The highest top speed we have ever seen in a Caterham

Caterham Sevens developed and prepared by Boss Racing of Longfield, Kent, dominated two of the most popular series for which these cars are eligible during the 2019 British club racing season.

Out of 19 Gold Arts Magnificent Sevens and All-Comers’ races organised by the Classic Sports Car Club, Boss Racing’s clients won 12 of them.

They also achieved a total of 28 podium positions, 11 poles and 12 fastest laps. This was despite wet weather which affected several meetings during the season and, on one occasion, resulted in a race being abandoned.

Among the year’s highlights were winning first, second and third places on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit and first, second and third in both races run on the Indy circuit. The team also visited Spa, Belgium and Dijon, France, where the cars raced wheel-to-wheel at over 150 mph in pouring rain to win both races entered, together with two second place finishes.
“These results show that we build Britain’s fastest Caterham Sevens,” says Robert Singleton, director of Boss Racing. “They’re also a tribute to the professionalism and hard work of our team and the skill and determination of our drivers. 2019 was truly a year to remember.”

The cars may not look very different to the first Lotus Sevens but these high-tech Caterham race cars are a world away from Colin Chapman’s original design. Three of the C400s run by Boss Racing are powered by engines of 2,400-2,500cc based on the Ford Duratec unit and developed and built in-house by Dave Singleton, a man with over 40 years’ experience whose skills are widely recognised.

These units produce between 300 and 370 bhp, ten times more than the original Seven back in 1957. New for this year is a 2.5 litre supercharged Duratec engine for one our customer CSRs giving it a power-to-weight ratio of over 700bhp per ton, which is superior to a Bugatti Veyron. Despite running at 370hp and a monstrous 265 ft.lb of torque it has proven to be super reliable and extremely driveable due to the linear nature of the power delivery – it has 250ft.lb of torque from 4500 to 8000rpm!

One of the features that allows the drivers to deal with such power is a Sadev sequential gearbox operated with an automated paddle shift gear change. Along with flat upshifts and clutchless downshifts, a big advantage in a traction limited car on road tyres is being able to keep both hands on the steering wheel at all times!

In the quest for traction the CSR caterham has an advantage with its inboard front suspension allows easy adjustments of droop to control the way the car squats, something that is tricky with a series 3 car with outboard suspension and a fixed length damper. So this year we have been working with Quantum Racing to design a damper with separate spring and ride height adjustment. The first set were used in the second half of the season picking up a number of wins are now available to purchase. Being able to adjust the amount of droop or even run with zero droop opens up a lot of options by controlling the way the front lifts under power and cornering.

Another kind of lift is aerodynamic and the Seven shape is notorious for both lift and drag. While this makes for great racing, with the cars able to follow in close formation, we are always looking for ways to improve within a strict set of rules that bans aerodynamic devices and any changes to the silhouette of the vehicle. There is however scope to reduce the parasitic drag of existing items so lights for example have been redesigned to reduce drag and as speeds rise small gains give greater rewards; if a 200hp car has a top speed of 130mph it will require 300hp to hit 150mph.

Robert Singleton says: “Our development programme will continue through the winter so next season promises even better results. We’ll be even faster.”

For further information contact Robert Singleton

End.

It’s amazing the part luck plays in motor racing. At Dijon we had a generous helping of good fortune but we must have used up our allocation for the end of season Donington Park meeting or the Halloween Horror, as I prefer to call it.

CLASSIC AND SPORTS CAR CLUB, DIJON, FRANCE 4-6 OCTOBER

Despite the wet conditions our drivers revelled in the flowing nature of the circuit where in 1979, Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux had their no-holds barred, wheel-banging duel for second place in the French Grand Prix that people still talk about 40 years later.

There was very little testing time available so all our drivers started their familiarisation by walking the circuit and came back with huge smiles on their faces. Although none of us had ever been there before we knew the circuit was fast and had geared the cars for 160mph top speeds – that surely was enough?

The weather was truly terrible as the cars assembled for qualifying for the first of the two open series races. Yet it seemed not to worry Tim Davis and Colin Watson whose times were comfortably faster than anybody else’s. In fact, Tim (Caterham C400 2400) was the only driver to lap below 1min 40 sec. Jonathan Pittard (supercharged Caterham CSR 2,500) lined up fourth with Richard Carter (Caterham R300 2000) seventh. Magnificent Sevens Series co-ordinator Peter French (Caterham Superlight 1800) 37th.

Much like qualifying the day before, the circuit was wet as the cars gathered in the assembly area. However, it had stopped raining and the track was slowly, slowly drying. There was no choice but to start the cars on wet tyres but would they last to the pit window? While a couple of the team kept watch in the assembly area the rest of us were pressurising, and stacking much of the 70 plus spare wheels and tyres we had taken with us ready for the pitstops.

In the race Colin took the lead from the start challenged by Jonny and Tim. These three made a terrific spectacle racing wheel to wheel at 150mph plus. This, it has to be remembered, was on a streaming wet track and in cars known to have the aerodynamics of a mechanic’s toolbox.

As the track continued to dry their pace increased and the team readied themselves for tyre changes on all four cars, no mean feat without centre-lock nuts and a sixty second window. But the heavens opened just before the pit window did and the pressure was taken off the pit crew and the pitstops all went smoothly.

The pressure now though was on the drivers. As the conditions worsened and with a constant stream of backmarkers to negotiate Tim, Colin and Jonny were walking the tightrope of having to push yet not make a mistake. It couldn’t last. Braking at the end of the start finish straight Tim made an uncharacteristic mistake spinning into the gravel. Colin and Jonny continued to battle but in the end Colin won by 15 secs. Richard was fourth in his class G car, missing out on a podium by just six seconds but he won his class while Peter French improved to 34th. Colin posted the fastest lap and, of course, won the Mag 7s section of the race.

The finishing order determined starting positions for the second race, which meant that Tim was at the back of the grid. From pole Colin didn’t make the best of starts and with Christian Pittard – now racing for Team Leos – having a jump start and Jonny managing somehow to put 370hp down smoothly he found himself third by the second corner. Colin was revelling in the conditions and calmly took the lead by the end of the lap and with a clear track looked to extend his lead. His escape didn’t last long though as the safety car was out within two laps. Not only that, Tim had fought his way up to fifth and with the safety car bunching the field it was all to play for.

The pitstops went by in a blur of spray but disaster struck again for Tim with a broken throttle linkage and while he managed to get back to the pits for repairs his race was effectively over. At the front however the race was far from over. A half spin by Colin allowed Jonny to squeeze through and there followed a fantastic few laps click on the picture below for the footage.

Once again Colin came out in the lead and with three minutes to go the race seemed in the bag. But no, once again the pendulum would swing as he lapped a BMW which clipped his back wheel, buckling the rim and taking the tyre off. Limping in to the pits we were by now beginning to pack away all spare wheels and equipment. A wheel was grabbed that was vaguely the right size and shape and gunned on but as Colin tore up the pit lane it seemed any chance of victory had gone. With Jonny now long gone in the lead he joined the circuit only to see red flags at the first marshals post.

With only one minute to go the race was ended but as the cars toured back to the pit lane and the drivers waited to go on to the podium the officials tried to work out who had won. The rules say that due to the red flag the results are taken from the end of the previous lap but no one knew if Colin was leading at that time or if he had left the pit lane before the red flags. After a further ten minutes of deliberation the win went to Colin, a cruel result for Jonny who was leading when the race was stopped. Richard was again fourth, winning his class with another great drive and closing on a podium position as the weather deteriorated.

So a great weekend in terms of results. The drivers left planning a return in the dry to what is a marvellous circuit and we left wondering if that top speed of 160mph would indeed have been enough? Jonny Pittards supercharged CSR hit 154mph in the wet and it was testament to the skill and bravery of the Boss drivers that all the cars were packed away in one piece.

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CLASSIC AND SPORTS CAR RACING CLUB’S NIGHT RACE MEETING, DONINGTON PARK 26-27 OCTOBER.

Anyone who has competed or spectated at motorsport will know that it is a cruel mistress but we arrived at Donington full of confidence. And of course umbrellas, yet again it was raining.
There was limited testing for our drivers but Richard Carter still suffered what we in the trade call terminal engine failure. The less knowledgeable call it a blow-up. This was also the weekend when we suffered no less than four alternator failures, cause unknown.

The weather was bright and dry for qualifying for the Mag Sevens race. Tim Davis posted third fastest time but his success penalty dropped him to 13th on the grid, while Colin Watson was trying different suspension settings and had his fastest lap time disallowed for infringing track limits. Jonathan Pittard’s supercharged CSR, always quick in the wet, had completed relatively few dry laps and ended up fifth.

Class rivals Hugh Coulter and Peter Hargroves were 13th and 21st respectively. Hugh was first in class while Peter was having his first outing since Thruxton. The Redman father and son team (Caterham 420R 2000) started a class-leading 35th.

After the rolling start Colin got blocked in at Redgate as Tim hauled himself from 13th to third on the opening lap. He was soon in the lead with Colin now in fourth and battling for third. Jonny though, was having a torrid time when his engine went into “limp mode” on the opening lap. He made six pit stops to clear it but eventually finished unclassified.
As Autosport reported, “Tim Davis slipstreamed his way to the front until his pitstop where he couldn’t get his Caterham C400 to restart.” In fact, his battery died as he was entering the pits for his mandatory stop on lap 7. We changed it and the alternator and got him out again, albeit eight laps down. Believe it or not his engine expired on the last lap. He, too, was unclassified.

Colin, battling with the lead pack had run wide at Coppice in the opening laps leaving himself beached in the gravel and out of the race.

Hugh and Peter had been fighting for class honours as usual but they had a coming together and Hugh failed to stop during the pit stop window. That meant a two-lap penalty which dropped him to 25th at the finish. The Redman team was classified 23rd despite a grassy excursion.

We had little time to prepare for the night race. But we managed to dig Colin’s car out of the gravel and get our spare number 93 ready for Tim to race. We were ready, with permission to go to the grid, with just five minutes in hand. Tim was in civvies all set to head for home, but he managed to get suited up and on to the grid.in time.
Instead of being on the pole position he had earned with his own car he was relegated to the back of the gird with Colin second. The Redman team, about to race after dark for the first time, was 23rd.

At the start, Tim made one his lightning getaways and was soon up to second. Colin though was punted in the back by another competitor while leading going through the Craner Curves and once again ended in the gravel. This time he managed to get back on the track but stopped soon afterwards with his lights dimming due to another flat battery.

We went through the now familiar routine of changing both battery and alternator but Colin was now 13 laps down. He battled on gamely but was unclassified at the finish. Meanwhile, Tim managed to salvage a decent result by finishing second to a very quick BMW M3. He set the fastest lap of the race in a time that would have been quick during daylight never mind after dark. The Redman team finished 15th having greatly enjoyed their first taste of night racing.

By Boss Racing’s standards the Donnington Park Halloween Horror was a disaster, at the end we simply stared at each other in disbelief but perhaps it’ll stop us getting complacent and determined to do even better in 2020.

Anyway, as I said before, that’s motor racing.