I still wanted a chance to try out the Y10 before taking her to a race, I was still worried that the brakes wouldn't bleed properly and wanted to get an idea of what she would be like to drive. The Auto-Italia day at Brooklands seemed like a good opportunity - those of you who were there will know that the Y10 went out on track and came back again after a few laps of the "go-kart" track under her own steam. She seemed pretty quick but with no other race cars out on track in my session, it was hard to accurately gauge performance. I was pleasantly surprised that although torque-steer got a bit exciting in second gear, in third it seemed absent, and once on boost the car pulled like a train. The brakes were as bad as I had expected, needing to be hit once to get some fluid into the system, then again to stop. This would have been OK if it had just needed the initial pump, but it needed one every time I wanted to slow down. Terry had the theory they just needed some use before they would bleed properly, later that week this would prove to be correct. A more interesting problem surfaced when I came off the track and back to the parking area - there was a lot of smoke coming from the bonnet! As I pulled to a halt and got out of the car I could see through the hole in the bonnet that the Y10 was on fire! To be fair they were only little flames, the non-malignant kind you get on a portable barbecue - but the initial worry of seeing my engine on fire was enough for me to dump the contents of the on-board extinguisher (missed the target due to being aimed where the carb used to be) and then Pandamonium's Phil Thompson came up trumps with a hand held extinguisher.

A closer look suggested that the lagging around the turbocharger had caught alight - judging by the flames I guessed that after a couple of head gasket failures, oil must have run onto the lagging at some point and now had heated up to the point of burning. I didn't go back out on track again in case we had another fire - I already had 2 extinguishers to replace. A passenger trip in Tony Soper's Alfa 164 later didn't feel like his car was any quicker at accelerating, but clearly the track did not suit his car.

Sterling work at Scheldt & Pettet saw the turbocharger lagging replaced, as were both driveshaft boots (the driveshaft angles are very unfriendly and it is not easy to keep the boots from leaking gearbox oil). And so to Cadwell Park with renewed optimism and a little nervousness - an awful long way to go to break the car again.

I raced at Cadwell back in 2000 season, but that was my first ever race. I gleaned absolutely no track knowledge from that day, so it seemed a good idea to book a test session for the Saturday. This would serve the dual purpose of raising my confidence on the track and also a chance to see how the car behaved. It would also save me an early Sunday start - although we then found we were the last race of the day and so would only have had to leave home around 6:30am!

I arrived at Cadwell on the Saturday about 3 hours before my first session. I was the only Le Mans Auto-Italia driver there, although I recognised a few of the Alfa series guys - clearly our guys were more confident!. Because there was no scrutineering for the test sessions, I ran with the rear spoiler on the car as I had done at Brooklands. It may or may not slow the car down (would be interesting to find out) but it sure makes the Y10 look more purposeful. Shame the MSA won't allow it!

The session went reasonably well - there were a few Alfas on track and a handful of Caterhams. The Caterhams were much quicker and I just let them go, but I spent the session running around with an Alfa 33 behind me. There was no problem keeping him there, but apparently he was running in his engine. My lap timer was not working so I had no idea of how the lap times were. I did note that I couldn't take the left/right at the start of the mountain in third without running into the wall, so had to grap second to blast up the hill - much to the amusement of one chap who in scrutineering on Sunday thought he would check the steering was connected because it didn't look like it was! I also missed the Gooseneck a couple of times which soon focused me into remembering where it was! But the major problem I had was when I noticed that the boost gauge was only showing 0.5 bar - it should have been 1.5. This was causing the Y10 to struggle noticeably up the Park Straight hill where I was only reaching 5000 rpm in 5th gear (94 mph) before braking for the corner. The brakes were working well, it was just a case of getting confidence in them (I later found that the brake bias was fully forwards) but I was having a problem with the resurfaced track at Charlies where the rear of the car was bouncing and bottomed out twice each lap. I pulled out of the session with maybe one more lap to go as I saw no point risking damage - I didn't know why the engine wasn't boosting as it should. As I slowed down to enter the paddock I saw a familir sight - smoke pouring from the bonnet! Fearing another fire, I parked up and got the extinguisher ready before removing the bonnet. The smoke was all coming from the new lagging, I was unsure whether there was a leak or whether the lagging was just curing - I guessed the latter when I couldn't see any trace of liquid or leaks when the engine had cooled. I didn't go out for the later sessions, was still a bit unsure about the smoke and wanted a second opinion - but there was no-one about I knew that well. Julian Brown was supposed to be there that afternoon, he would be making his race debut the next day in the X1/9 that I blew up last year at Castle Combe - at least it focused his attentions to do the Uno Turbo transplant.

I carried out a few rudimentary checks - all I'm really capable of is checking fluid levels. The water level was well down and so I hoped that although the temperature gauge had been reading OK, maybe the Motec system knew something I didn't and was restricting the boost because of engine temperatures. Sunday would be the moment of truth.

I stayed about 15 miles from Cadwell so was at the track shortly after 8am, even though we weren't due to practice until midday. Julian arrived around 9am so I helped unload his X1/9 and pointed him at the various activities for the day - signing on, new driver briefing, scrutineering, etc. A long wait until midday and then we were off. Saturday had been really hot and sunny but Sunday was cooler and dull - rain threatened, in fact a couple of time during the day a few spots fell, but thankfully no more than that. Another trip for the wet tyres to sit around unused! Cadwell is a very long circuit by our normal standards, and with only 15 cars in the field, you soon get strung out. In theory this should help lap times as its easy to get a fairly clear lap. We exited the pits straight onto the Mountain and coming down the other side past the start/finish line I blasted past Alan Bates in the Strada - it was his first time here so he was being circumspect on lap one. Julian started out behind me but apparently he got stuck behind the Strada so I never saw him. On my next trip round the Mountain section, I got my gear change all wrong at Hairpin and the back of the Y10 came round, thankfully not too far as there is no run-off area and Ian Stapleton's Alfetta GTV was right behind me, probably having a good laugh. After a couple of laps I caught up with Emma in her Sud. We have had some good battles this year, I was hoping that I would now have the upper hand, but my water level theory was wrong - I still only had 0.5 bar boost and the Y10 was still struggling up Park Straight. Once she caught sight of me in her mirror, she sprung into action and put up a big fight. Practice times show that she out-qualified me by almost a second - what they don't show is that my second fastest lap was only 3/100ths slower than my best, and faster than her second best. This boded for an interesting battle in the race if I couldn't solve the boost problem - I would hope that with the full 1.5 bar boost I would be significantly quicker! Another disappointment was when Russ Yates outdragged me comfortable along Park Straight, I would hope on full power to be able to at least match him - but not in this session.

As I mentioned, traffic gets somewhat strung out at Cadwell. I had seen Emma pull off into the pits after 4 laps with overheating problems so the next time round she was waving me on from the pit wall. As I went round Charlies and onto Park Straight I realised I hadn't seen anyone for a while. What if I'd missed the flag - today it was on the start line where yesterday it had been at the pit exit. Just what I was going to need - a talking to from the Clerk of the Course. The marshalls all looked disinterested too - made me even more worried so I started to slow. I had decided to pit and was just approaching the start of the Mountain when I saw another car going past the finish line and the chequered flag waving! Phew! I could have gone round one more time but there was no point as I had already slowed. On top of that, Andy Thompson had parked his Minari in the wall just before the Hairpin having hit a kerb hard and punctured the tyre - on landing with a flat tyre he drove into the tyre wall with some damage to the front corner, and a bent wishbone. Because of the yellow flag for this incident, and the chance of joining him if I got it wrong, the last 2 laps had seen me more circumspect going past him.

A chance chat with Steve from Le Mans Motorsport's recently acquired preparation business Motorsport Engineering led him to finding the problem with the boost. The vacuum pipe from the wastegate to the boost control valve had melted, presumably in the great fire of Brooklands and was split and perished. A run around the paddock looking for some suitable pipe finally ended with Andy Page having some suitable pipe and donating it to the cause. Then we found that the inlet manifold plenum chamber had come undone from the rubber hoses leading to the inlet, such that not only were we losing boost due to the melted pipe, but then what we had left was being lost to atmosphere. I was running a low(ish) compression 1300 engine! No wonder I struggled up the hill.

So, hopefully all faults found. I was feeling good for the race - with the extra power the Y10 should have made short work of the two straights, and the blast up the Mountain should have been easier too. We drove down to the assembly area to wait. Andy Thompson had got the Minari back into running order despite an early lack of enthusiasm, but he was running a wet tyre at the rear. But this is the man who raced at Lydden with a broken suspension link, so a tyre mismatch and bent wishbone should hold no fears for him. I had left the engine running for quite a while after reaching the assembly area before realising that we were there very early, as we had been at practice where I had done the same. When I realised we were still no nearer to going out, I turned it off and waited for the signal to prepare. When that came, I hit the starter button and the engine wouldn't turn. I signalled my problem and a few guys came over to push start me - but I already knew I was doomed. The Y10 has no alternator and an electric water pump, so power would be needed for that at least. I kept the engine running as we went out onto the track and down to the grid, but despite my throttle blipping on the start line, the engine died. The marshalls came over to push start the car again, but I told them that was it and I was pushed into the pits. Another race to watch from the sidelines! Another lesson learned the hard way - charge the battery up between practice and race, or take a spare!

From my vantage point on the pit wall, the race looked great, which made it all the more frustrating that I wasn't part of it. Adie Hawkins came round in the lead at the end of the first lap with Graham Scott in close pursuit. As Adie came round the last corner from the mountain, the whole car was on the grass - this led to him coming into the pits next time round, presumably as a penalty. By lap 2 the Stratos was in front, and by a large margin. Andy Thompson pulled into the pits complaining that the engine sounded rough - he wasn't willing to risk further damage so that was him out. Julian Brown disappeared on his debut, the throttle stuck open on the X1/9 so he parked up. A couple of laps later Adie Hawkins was black flagged, presumably for using too much grass again and already Class B was down to just Russ Yates who by now had worked up to second, although a long way behind the Stratos, and with Ian Stapleton's Alfetta in close pursuit. Further down the field Emma was leading Ian Brookfield in the battle of the Suds until her overheating problems got the better of her allowing Ian through. Emma limped round the final lap to the finish with a blown head gasket. Adding to the non-finisher list was Jackie Osborne's Alfa 33 which blew its engine - a shame as she was playing her joker here. Only nine finishers and an emphatic victory for Graham Scott - might have been different if the Minari had not hit the wall in practice. Russ was taken for second place overall by Ian Stapleton with a couple of laps left. I had hoped with full power that I might have given Russ a good run, so who knows how this race might have turned out for me.

To take the good out of this race, the Y10 has run and proved capable of completing qualifying (and thus race) distance. We should have solved the riddle of the missing boost and look forward to the next race with renewed enthusiam. Competition Transmission Services are rebuilding another gearbox for me to the same spec as at the beginning of last year such that 6000rpm in 5th gear should equate to 131 mph rather than 114 mph. With the long straights at Donington, Silverstone and Snetterton coming up, this might prove a godsend.

View the Cadwell Park results.

Read the official race report.

Visit the Le Mans Motorsport site for details of the Le Mans Auto-Italia championship and standings so far.

Check out the current points standing