Turned up at Brands on Sunday, bright sunny morning - hell, we even got garages in the pit line. What luxury, the scrutineers come to you! This is the way to race - so much less effort involved than the usual thing of trying to find a space in the paddock and having to run all over the place to sign on, get scrutineered etc. I had come better prepared than usual - the battery had been fully charged and I had even brought a fully charged spare along with me. The schedule for the day showed the usual 15 minutes practice, then 2 races over 20 and 21 laps giving a total race mileage of 50 miles - hence BRSCC 50. They should have renamed it BRSCC 37 though! Apparently there were some complaints from drivers with cars who thought their petrol tanks too small to do the distance so both races were reduced to 15 laps each! I didn't complain that I was worried about battery capacity.

Having a garage also meant having power! I brought the battery charger with me to keep the battery charged up to full capacity and save having to change the battery. Without all the usual fussing about to do, it was a very leisurely morning - I had even stopped off at race control as I arrived at the circuit, to sign on, then drove to the infield and unloaded. The weather was getting brighter - the M25 had been wet in places on the way over, but clearly it was going to be hot today. I had a look around at the opposition - the only other car in my class was a VW Scirocco that ran in essentially road trim - it was even driven to the circuit. I was feeling pretty confident that I should beat that, a trophy or two might be in the offing.

Ten o'clock came and qualifying finally started - we were first out on track. I blasted out of the pit lane and had confirmed that full boost was back before I even reached the track, turned into Paddock and floored it. Up into 4th, up into 5th - oops, not there! Stuck in neutral round Druids, rolled down the hill and parked up at the bottom of the hill where the marshalls pushed me round the corner out of harm's way. So I watched qualifying from the comfort of the marshalls' post at Graham Hill bend. One guy had a V8 engined Mark I Escort that was sliding the rear round Druids - quite quick too, qualifying second fastest to Rod Birley's WRC Escort. At the more important end of the grid, Phil was pedalling Pandamonium round in 66 seconds, about a second adrift of the Scirocco - it looked like they might have a close race. I did a 62 lap in the Sud earlier this year and was confident that the Y10 would beat that, so the Scirocco should hold no fears, so long as we could race.

Towed back to the pits - it was clear even to me that something was wrong with the gear linkage, the lever moved an awful long way forwards. It was a "helper-free" day for me too, my usual guys had other commitments. Enter Team Pandamonium! The Panda was running fine, wouldn't rev past 6500 (but they knew that) and was within a second of the Scirocco's times so Phil figured at least he'd have someone to play with

Just for once, I was spot on, the gear linkage where it bolts to the gearbox had come undone, a bolt had fallen out. The Panda guys came to the rescue and soon I had gears again. Big thanks there to Peter for crawling under the car and fixing things. A quick grovel to the Clerk of the Course saw me going out for 3 untimed laps with the Fiestas. That was great fun - as the laps were untimed, I wasn't really trying - lifting off early for corners, that sort of thing - but it was the first chance on a race track I'd had to try the power. She was a little unruly - OK, that is an understatement! Booting her in 3rd while exiting Clearways produced enough torque steer for me to fight her all the way down the straight into Paddock, through 4th and 5th gears too. I must have looked a sight weaving down the straight - but totally anhililated the Fiestas! The only one that got past me was on the last lap when I let him do so as I was coming in - and despite the lack of effort, the missed gears up to Druids and being generally too busy laughing to concentrate, still did a 61 lap. Not that fast, but faster than I've done before, with so much more to come - and more importantly 4 seconds clear of the Scirocco. That trophy and 1^st place were calling louder!

Came into the pits after my alloted 3 laps only for someone to sugggest that maybe I hadn't done enough laps, maybe that I had counted the out lap which started after the start/finish line. I was pretty sure I had, but in the heat of driving its easy to lose count, so I went back out to do one more. Disaster struck - exiting Clearways suddenly the engine wouldn't go past 4500rpm - coming down the straight I realised I was leaving a trail of pure white smoke! I sat on the inside of the circuit hoping to limp back to the pits, but as I exited Druids, I changed my mind and cut the engine, rolling down the hill to meet the same marshalls who had parked me up earlier - I was just about on first-name terms with them now.

The tow-truck driver too! Back in the pits the Panda guys came to help again. Everything looked fine - oil nice and clean, water nice and clean, no visible leaks anywhere. Best guess is either head gasket has gone by a water way or I've blown the turbo! So that was the end of the day for me and the Y10 - I had hoped to go home with a couple of trophies but in the end all I took home was a broken Y10.

Time and budget pressures mean that I'll most likely be doing the next Le Mans Auto-Italia championship race at Donington in the Sud now, battling for 6th place with Julian Brown's X1/9 and the Panda - I'm expecting at least 8 of us in Class B if everyone turns up who has said they will.