We travelled down Thursday, we had a good run from Sussex to Dijon, watched the fuel gauge drop and the temperature rise, to 35 degrees!. the Auto route cost £20 and was like a billiard table and traffic free the whole way, money well spent in our opinion. The only hitch was the appalling lack of direction in Dijon, fortunately a local came up to us at a petrol station and directed us, we'd just missed the turning and where actually on the ring road, although you wouldn’t believe it, we took a well advised short cut and arrived at a packed circuit at 6pm, unloaded the car and headed to the hotel to cool off.

Friday, another scorcher, so after a refreshing dip in the pool and breakfast we made our way via Prenois to the circuit, spent a few hours in final preparation for qualifying, it was around 33-34 degrees and we went out at 16:45, from my seat the temperatures seemed to be reeking havoc, was this going to be a reliability race? people where in and out the pits like yo-yos, I ran a little warm but the new radiator kept things around 85 degrees. I came in after 8 laps as I heard some untoward transmission noises, I figured we have spares and times, lets be a little cautious and make sure we get a good race. the pit lane was very busy, steam and hot water everywhere, Mr&Mrs Kennedy had misfires in the Falcon, over boiling Alfa GTA's, there where cars doing 3 laps to get on the grid and stopping, red hot, others setting low rev limits to curb overheating. Apparently the circuit was slow due to the heat, track temps hit 60 degrees according to one team with fancy gizmos, we just count the beads of sweat and guesstimate. The only thing to do thereafter was return to the hotel pool, and practice our synchronised swimming and enjoy a cold beer !

Saturday . . . hot again . .we got the car up on stands and drained the gearbox oil, all looked good, we refilled it with fresh, slightly heavier grade oil and ran the car in the air . . .all seemed fine, we think the oil got so hot it turned to water and being a new box it just jangled in an unfamiliar way. the minor vibration seemed to be nothing more than the exhaust hitting the floor pan. feeling a little happier I just did the usual pre race checks, and got the car fuelled up.

We then wandered out the back of the circuit to watch some fantastic racing, 70’s F1 cars, pre-war Lagondas and Bentleys . .sideways ! and maybe I’d learn some racing lines, with the exception of the very fast start finish straight Dijon is continuous ups, downs, lefts and rights all combined. Dijon also has to be one of few places in the world where I've found beer cheaper than water, and in that heat you need both if you have a thirst to quench.

Sunday, an early start, 8:45 race, but the main benefit of this was the temps where cooler, only 27-28 degrees when we went out, this made things a lot more comfortable. We's qualified 17th of 26 runners and where reasonably happy as its a new circuit, and a long race, I was surrounded by Lotus Cortinas and a 911, the front row was 911's, 2nd, row down to 9th where LC's, minis, and Alfa GTA's, a few yank V8's where scattered liberally as well as a Sunbeam, Mercedes, Vauxhall, and a few others.

This was a rolling start, and my second, I got it right, a first, although it became rapidly apparent I'm no match for many on the long straight, the grid in front and one or two behind simply pulled away from me . . . . and then all smoked tyres, ran wide etc at the first corner .. .why ? theres 59 minutes and 30 seconds to go yet!

having dropped a couple of places I settled into my own rhythm and came to the conclusion I was quicker than 6 or so ahead round the bends, but was loosing out on the straight, first to go was the Vauxhall, it was all over the place trying to hold me off and I was clearly quicker everywhere, when I got a full length in front at Virage de la combe, I got nurffed, a slight touch (or a clever sinister one) as the camber, and hill makes the rear end light, I held on to it with a little opposite lock and drove off into the distance. ( there was no contact when I lapped him later!) next up came a threesome, no not that sort, 2 LC's and a 911, again, I passed an LC on the run to parabolique, lost it on the straight, after 3 laps I got enough to hold on to it, but spun on oil at double droite de villeroy, and the bloody vauxhaul went past again, 2 laps later I was back in front of the Vauxhall and LC, and got the 911 as well . . . very pleased with myself, but the other LC had gone, in the pits I guessed.

I had planned to come in for my stop later rather than earlier, and it worked, the track was empty so I lapped for ten minutes alone before pitting . . .in a fashion! one of the front running 911's and a Galaxy had dropped their guts, marshalls flagging was sketchy to say the least, I and quite a few others where not warned and overshot the pitlane, I reversed the 10 feet or so and thereafter made a trouble free stop, some others overshot further and where forced to do another lap.

I came out of the pits, to an empty track, I think I was lapped by the leaders when I stopped as I never saw any of them all race, this worked well as I had a free run for about 10 minutes to concentrate on my lines and watch out for oil ( plenty of it!!!). I then lapped a few other cars, and caught and passed a few sick ones, then on the second last lap I moved aside for the leading 911, I could have held my line for another corner but I knew we where on the last lap or two and didn’t want anything silly to happen, the only mistake there was that unknown to me there was an LC bearing down on me, the 2nd driver was obviously much quicker than the first. I just tried hanging on to the 911 for the last lap and a half (futile I know) and kept it tidy, finished 2 seconds ahead of the LC and 9 behind the winning 911 (and 2 laps!).

the car ran like a dream all race, ticked over during the stop, didnt overheat, the brakes where great and the result wasnt bad either. we had to wait nearly 2 hours to get them mind, but, we finished 11th overall and I beat 3 LC's and a 911 in a straight race (the coreected results for Top Hat are here (DIJON RACE RESULTS). we where pleased, and it just proved our point, you can do it yourself, the hard work and perseverance is starting to pay off, disappointments of recent races are quickly forgotten. the icing on the cake was an invite for Drinks with the Lanfrachis and a pat on the back for my driving on the day.

my tails up !