Croix-en_Ternois - FRANCE! Talk about an early start, this one meant leaving home at 4:00am to catch a 7:00am ferry from Dover to Calais. Once in France, the track was about 75 minutes drive. I had decided to go on the Friday and get some testing in - this way I would avoid the tedious Friday night traffic problems the south is so well known for, and hopefully gain an advantage on some of the other competitors! I have to say that last bit didn't go entirely to plan as all but one of the other competitors arrived in time to get in at least one test session too.

The track at Croix was like nothing else I had seen, even on the circuit diagram it looks very tight with no obvious fast corners - a real point and squirt circuit. The reality was worse, a very tight hairpin leading onto the main straight, at the end of that a tight 180 degree bend that again looked very much like a second gear job, this led onto two more 180 degree bends of similar look before a short straight into a 90 right and then the only flowing bend, a 45 left before a short drag back to the hairpin. Just the job for a car with good pull out of slow corners, and big brakes. Light weight would be useful too - just the circuit where I would expect the Y10 to excel.

And therein lays the second flaw in my plan - pointless going for the extra track knowledge if you can't take advantage of it. The Y10 has yet to be repaired after the problems at Mallory Park a couple of weeks ago. The head melted big time, with damage between every cylinder pair. I'm not quite sure as to how this can have happened - basically the car was only under any load from the pit exit to Gerrards and quite plainly the damage had already been done by the time I exited from Gerrards. I had already made the decision that even if the Y10 was ready for another try, I would not be risking it in France - too far to break the car before any racing has been done. The idea of this exercise was to get some much needed points on the scoreboard. So I took the Alfasud - a standard 1500cc engined Sud probably giving out a whole 95bhp.

I had already seen the entry list - another poor turn out, though not so unexpected as at the previous race. It takes a bit more commitment to take 2 or 3 days away from home for this double header meeting. In fact, in Class B there was only myself and Russ Yates - so a good possibility of second places beckoned.

Friday was a gloriously hot day with temperatures in the 80s. I had booked two afternoon sessions, and as another first for me, I was running an on-board lap timer courtesy of James Whelan. This would help me gauge how different lines and different gears were working. I first went out in a session with a couple of Alfa 33s and a bundle of "not-so-Mighty Minis". A Mini-loving colleague of mine had tried to persuade me that these Minis were really fast, I'm sure he pulled out some lap times for Mallory Park that came a bit close to the RARE Alfa 75, so I was expecting to have to keep out of their way. I couldn't have been more wrong - I spent the session having a whale of a time bullying the Minis. On one occasion when stuck behind two of them who joined from the pits as I was going down the straight, I was 4 seconds adrift of the times I was consistently doing when not so held up. I had no idea what a good lap time was here, but a chat with one of the Alfa 33 drivers (a 1700) suggested that they could do 67/68 second laps, so I wasn't too dismayed at a string of 71 second laps, with a best of 71.11. After all, in the Alfa series race at Brands Hatch I had been 5 seconds off their pace on a shorter circuit.

For the second test session I tried different tyre pressures but the session was red-flagged after 4 or 5 laps and I decided not to go out any more. I didn't feel there was much more to learn and all was not 100% with the Sud. The brake pads had worn right down (they had been healthy enough at the start of the day) - this was not much of a surprise, I expected this circuit to be very heavy on brakes. Of more concern was the gearbox jumping out of second gear so I had to take all the second gear corners holding the gear lever in place. My hand was getting quite bruised with the punishment (all my road cars are left hand drive, so the left hand isn't that used to changing gear anyway). The brakes could be fixed - and indeed they were courtesy of Neil who changed the pads for me that evening with a little guidance from series organiser Tony Soper. Just as well I had taken a new set along - I don't hold much with the theory of taking enough spares to build another car as it seems some competitors do - after all, I couldn't fix anything more complex than a duff spark plug or HT lead, so why carry spare gearboxes and the like.

Saturday morning arrived with a surprise - the glorious weather conditions of Friday had been replaced with cold, dull weather, grey skies and a feel that it could rain any time. Worse than that, it had been doing so all night long and so the track started out very wet. Just as well we were some way down the practice times, by the time we got on track, the track surface was essentially dry. The track still seemed very slippery and I thought I was much slower than on Friday. I had also made the mistake of adjusting the tyres the wrong way for the conditions and thus never really got them warmed up. And due to yet another moment of naivity, I had no on-board lap times. I had assumed that circuits have a beacon, that's what the advertising for these things suggest, and after all, it worked fine on Friday. Obviously one of the Mini guys must have had his beacon on the pit wall. So no on-board times, no idea of how I was doing other than plainly, and as expected, I was slowest! When the practice times came out I was surprised to see I was only 8/10ths slower than on Friday in conditions where I had felt a lot less confident. But I was also 2 seconds adrift of the nearest car, so the races were likely to be lonely affairs.

Come race time and the track was dry, the threatened rain had not materialised. My other competitors were already regaling tales of woe - Neil Smith reckoned his all-conquering Uno would not last the weekend, an alternator bolt had dropped out during practice (and left a nice star crack on the Sud's windscreen) and the exhaust manifold was causing concern. Jackie Osborne had broken the Alfa 156's head gasket in testing on Friday but sterling overnight work from her team had seen the car repaired. But as a contingency plan, the Alfa 33 she drove last year had been brought over to France over night. Once it seemed it wouldn't be needed, her partner Graham took it out in the Alfa series race only for the engine to let go.

The race started well, a long drag down the straight, in which I was predictably left a little behind, was followed by all 9 cars braking heavily for the second gear corner that followed. So much so that by mid corner I was right back on the tail of the other cars. John Griffiths was forced into an interesting line round this first corner, taking to the grass on the inside. Predictably the pack edged away, but Russ had made the best start and was scything through the pack in a manner normally associated with Graham's Stratos, which itself seemed to be having trouble getting past the traffic. Coming round on the second lap I came across Ian Connell's Alfa 33 pulling off the track just before the hairpin, a early sign that this weekend was going to be one of attrition. After a couple of laps, I could see that Russ had made it to the front - an outright win was on the cards. This became more likely when on lap 5 the Stratos pulled out with a broken transfer shaft. But then disaster - the marshalls were hanging out the black and orange flag with a number 14 below. My first thought was it was me - it looked like they were looking at me as they waved this flag, but then I realised it was for number 14 - Russ. I wasn't totally sure what Russ was being called in for, and my first thoughts were of dismay for Russ who looked to be denied a win. But then I realised that no Russ meant a class win for me, and all of a sudden excitement levels rose such that I needed to concentrate more. It now seemed more imperative to stay on the track above all - the gravel trap at the end of the straight had already claimed more than one late braker this weekend. Then strangely I saw Russ back out on track - I had no idea how long he had been in the pits, he certainly had the red mist big time as he went off at the end of the straight and somehow made it back on track, with just a little damage to his front splitter. The rest of the race went by quickly, didn't know if I was in front or behind Russ. near the end, Jackie Osborne's Alfa 156 pulled over, but not before dumping oil everywhere.

I still hadn't resolved the problem with a lack of beacon so had no on board timer - or more importantly, no lap counter. I had lost count of the laps, the race seemed awfully long and more so as I have never actually completed the full race distance, having always been lapped. Suddenly I could see Neil Smith out front and gaining. Each lap I came past the finish line looking backwards for the chequered flag as he got closer and closer, but still no flag. On what turned out to be the last lap, he was getting too close for comfort at the end of the straight, and in the second of the 3 180 degree bends I chose that moment to hit Jackie's oil - a big slide ensued which was to have big effect. Neil was gaining fast but overtaking was difficult down this side of the track. I made it to the hairpin with Neil breathing down my neck and on rounding the hairpin we had the drag to the finish line. I could see the chequered flag being readied but Neil was going quicker. I tried to wave him back but he thought I was waving him on and went past just as we reached the line. The results show he beat me to the line by 8/100ths of a second - so near yet so far from not being lapped! That slide had cost me heavily. Cruising round the slowing down lap, I still didn't know how long Russ had been in the pits, still didn't know who had won, but when I was waved through back to the paddock I correctly guessed it wasn't me. Seems one of the bonnet pins on Russ's Sud Sprint had come undone and the corner of the bonnet by the windscreen was lifting. When he came into the pits, some quick thinking from Neil the mechanic saw the bonnet taped down and so Russ only lost seconds. He had the class win.

We had both been rather canny in this race - he obviously fancied his chances of a class win, and I reasoned that a finish meant at least second, so we both played our joker for this race. 64 points to Russ, and I am off the mark with 48. The race itself was won by Neil, his first outright win, with John Griffiths coming in second place to record his first class win.

The second race was on the Sunday morning - bright and sunny weather at my hotel had translated into dullness with imminent rain at the track. My ideal scenario was for the rain to hold off until about lap 2 of our race - the Alfasud was on grooved control tyres, Russ and others were on slicks. As it happened, it looked like I might get lucky, minutes before the start, as we were in the assembly area, it started to rain, albeit lightly. It was still raining as we went out on the rolling lap, but then it just stopped and the track never did get wet. A newcomer in our race was Sam Laird in an Alfa 75. He had flown doen from Scotland to take part in the Alfa series race but his car broke in practice. Now repaired, he figured he would enter our race in Class A to get some track time in. Graham Scott's team had managed to repair the Stratos and the team had also put a replacement engine in the Alfa 33 - but to no avail, there wasn't enough time for the job to be completed. So no Jackie and no Ian Connell in this race.

A cleaner start this time meant everyone got round the first bend cleanly, this time Russ got held up bad and John Griffiths almost didn't get away to the point that I was level with him exiting the first bend. But power told and slowly he edged away. On the second lap I came round the hairpin to see John, Russ and Sam have a coming together. The obvious damage was Sam's purple door mirror laying in the middle of the track, not so obvious was John's suspension was bent. I first had an inkling that something was wrong when I caught up with John approaching the hairpin and then was caught by surprise as he braked early. I went past him and round the outside of the hairpin, but he fought back and we travelled the length of the straight side by side only for me to lose out at the last - John had the inside line. Rounding that bend I again overtook him and realised that his race seemed over - I could see him cruising around from time to time (unbeknown to me John pitted and then came back out a few laps later in order to register a finish - and collect the win points being the only class starter). A few laps later I was sure I could see Neil in the distance, I was gaining on him. As this just doesn't happen, Neil has registered 17 consecutive class E wins, he obviously had a problem. As I came up behind the Uno, he moved over and waved me past - I assumed he was driving back to the pits, but 2 or 3 laps later I came up behind him again, going ever slower. Neil was limping round to gain some points for a finish. He finished 3rd in class but those 16 valuable points could prove very important at the end of the year. The race ended much the same as the day before, except this time I knew I was second to Russ and 6th overall again. I had got the lap timer working for this race but inexplicably my times seemed down on yesterday's. One lap showed on the timer as 2:23 but then I realised that the timer couldn't see the beacon on the lap that John and I went down the straight side by side. Even half that came out at 1:11.5 which was quicker than yesterday, but inexplicably the results show my fastest lap to be in the 72s - bizarre!

Anyway, a worthwhile trip, 66 points in the bag which gets me right back in the game. Not sure what I'll be racing at Castle Combe yet, the Y10 is due for a rolling road session next week if she is ready, this may give a clue whether to risk it, or go with safety (and a last in class) and use the Sud.

One final piece of excitement for the weekend came on my entry back into England. Whether it was my hippy-look-alike appearance, the Dutch number plates on my Lancia k tow car or just a general distrust of racing drivers since the Touring Car drug bust a few years ago, but Customs decided to pull me over and go through the car. Of course nothing was found, but they asked lots of questions about where I'd been, could I prove it, etc.

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