Regarding the blue duck, since Thruxton Dave had been testing up at Silverstone on the proper GP circuit (not the historic one that we would use for the HSCC meeting) and it had suffered a vertical link failure while Chris Conoley was driving it. The nearside link broke at the same place they always break, that being the acme thread broke off resulting in the wheel moving back and damaging the body in exactly the same place it has been damaged twice before! Dave was able to replace the link and jury rig the anti roll bar mount in the paddock so was able to test a few more changes and by the end of the day was able to say it was hugely improved.    

Back at the workshop and after a significant amount of fibre glass and suspension work it was back together again in time for the race albeit with the reserve gearbox in place. The race 'box finally mashed its synchro rings and is in for a refresh. Anyway, the difference to the car is amazing, it's now totally chuckable and can be driven hard through corners without it trying to spit you off the track as had been the case for the past 3 years! I really like it now.

As is our way, we ignore the Guards class system as we are in the GRP bodied class up against the Elans and Marcoses which is daft. There is no way that the Grantura is comparable and we think we should be in with the MGBs which is a much more like our type of car. So we always set ourselves the target of beating as many MGBs and other Granturas as we can.

Practice went extremely well and we were able to do about 4 laps each in the 25 minute session and qualified in 33rd place and were very pleased with the way the car was driving despite the less good gearbox and a problem with the clutch bite point.

For the race we gave the car a quick check over and bled the brakes; Dave took the rolling start in a truly huge and impressive field of GT cars. There were, as ever, some mighty quick Jaguar E-Types and TVR Griffith 400s at the front of the race. I really like the Jaguars but don't like the bulgy Griffith 400s which just don't look like 1960s cars. We had a great race and the change-over at half way went very well and I rejoined with a couple of MGBs ahead. I was able to get ahead of one of them and had a superb race with standard looking E-Type which was great fun. We finished 26th overall and 5th in real class but 2nd in our made-up class which was a great result for us.

There was a very lengthy post-race scrutineering session where we, along with loads of others, were found to be very slightly too low; by 2mm in our case and were asked to raise the car for the next race which is fine. What makes me laugh is that they spend ages checking this but loads of cars are running with brake ducting which is really obvious and not allowed in FIA Appendix K!  Apparently at the Cadwell meeting loads of fuel samples were taken and at signing on we had all had to sign a declaration that we were using pump fuel.

So the car was great but oddly I am struggling to get the car into 3rd on the downshift whereas Dave was struggling to get it into 4th on the upshift! Next race for this car is in Dave's hands at Spa and it'll have its race spec 'box back in by then.

After four DNFs at Snetterton in the Tuscan (two in practice two in the races) we were hopeful that we had modified the Tuscan's fuel system sufficiently to cure the problem of the filter clogging up. As you may have seen from the post-Snetterton report we found masses of debris in the tank and had to fit new foam in the hope that we would have a new start and would be able to put Snetterton down as a horrible dream!

Dave had his TVR Grantura whilst I had the venerable old Triumph GT6 which had already had a successful outing at Brands Hatch earlier in the year. The only annoying thing had been the change of timetable; when we entered the meeting the schedule showed qualifying practice on Friday night then both races on Saturday meaning we could get away home on Sunday however it was all moved so we had practice on Saturday evening then both races on Sunday, first race and last race so we would have to stay over to Monday to travel home.

We arrived on Thursday evening to torrential rain but to a thankfully a largely empty paddock so we were able to set up in a very nice but steeply sloped place (nice apart from the occasional unpleasant whiff from the toilet block!) so had to jack up the corner of the RV by about 20cm to get it level. Once set up were soon in the Brasserie Bar talking nonsense.

By Friday morning the always excellent FISC hospitality tent was fully set up and we were lined up for a day of doing nothing!  Around mid morning our old mucker Richard King arrived from his home in France in his Land Rover having suffered a puncture the day before; it was great to see him again despite his continuing resemblance to Oscar Wilde in a gillet. 

Eventually the practice session arrived and we had 45 minutes of totally clear and dry track; the rain had stopped overnight and all had dried out by 10AM. I was keen get up the lap times but it took me three or four laps to remember how to go through Eau Rouge and Rivage properly and also to recall how quickly you can go through Blanchimont. The car felt great with everything working well and I managed to do a 3.09 lap which I was pretty pleased with.

There were plenty of cars up ahead on the grid but only a few FISC runners some of whom were lapping at 3.03 including FISC organiser Pieter Bakker. Unfortunately Pieter's racing was over with a broken engine; very frustrating for him but far from the lousiest performance of the weekend. That accolade went to Chris Dear who turned up late Friday after his tow vehicle had broken down on the way and had been taken by the Belgian equivalent of the AA to their compound to try and repair it once the trailer with race car had been deposited at the circuit. In practice on Saturday evening the engine failed necessitating an engine swap but the spare was in the van and was inaccessible until 09:00 on Sunday which is when Race 1 was to take place. They collected to engine at 09:00 only to discover that the van was not in a locked compound and in fact was not even locked so they were very annoyed about that plus they could have collected it Saturday evening after all! Anyway, the engine was duly swapped over after a huge effort but just before the race the 'AA' turned up again with a low loader to take the van back to Calais and to tow the trailer. The 'AA' would not wait for the race to run so they loaded up the repaired car and headed off having completed no racing at all. What a truly terrible weekend!

Almost as bad but not quite was Paul Castaldini whose E-Type failed on the first corner (La Source) of the first lap of the first race when a universal joint on one of the drive shafts collapsed. Also the Robert & Niall Campbell MGC which crashed heavily on the second or third lap of practice; it looked to me like there had been no heat in the tyres and that some over-excitement in the early stage of the session might have been the cause...

So practice for Dave and me was good.  I think Dave was a bit disappointed with his lap times but was able to improve significantly in the races which was great; alas his engine started breathing heavily in practice and by the end of Race 2 it looked like a kettle as it vented excess oil vapour. 

In Race 1 I finished 4th in FISC having been up to 2nd for quite a while but the GT6 slowly lost grip after about 30 minutes as the tyres became a bit too hot, Dave finished 6th. I had one of those races where I was racing the whole time and it was really what Spa and motor sport is all about, tremendous fun.  In Race 2 I was a darn DNF after 3 or 4 laps when the engine just stopped working and I coasted to a halt after sneaking through one of the exits at Double-Gauche. I thought the engine had failed but it later (once back home) transpired that the distributor had failed and retarded the ignition about 30 degrees. Dave charged on in his kettle-wagon and completed Race 2 in 4th place so nearly on the podium but not quite. In fact the organisers thought he was 3rd until the mix up was corrected as the podium celebration was about to take place.

On the organisation, FISC was, as ever, excellent with a great paddock club setup and with a super selection of food and drinks. This compares to the rolling starts which are often a total mess at Spa. On race two one of the Porsche 911s sneaked up about 3 rows during the warm up lap and was about 40 meters ahead of me at the start line rather than alongside me as he should have been!

After the race we moved to just outside the circuit with a jolly bunch of others and had a very pleasant evening under the stars before heading off home early on Monday morning.  A great weekend despite the problems.

It was rubbish. The Tuscan was fine in practice for 30 minutes then crapped out again after 10 minutes of the race - I am losing the will to live with this one. So for Castle Combe we'll be changing yet more stuff in the hope that eventually we'll have a whole new fuel system!

I didn't race in 2012 as there was no suitable race for the Falcon but the pre 65 Touring cars were back for 2013 this time run by Masters rather than HSCC and it was 48 car grid with a huge array of types present. Added to that it was the first time I had been in the new Wing paddock rather than the old National paddock which is the one normally used by us clubbies. It was billed as the Transatlantic Challenge but was actually a round of the Masters TC65 championship.

All ready to rock!         The mighty Falcon in the wing at the Silverstone Classic 2013

The whole event is great. A fun fair, a trade village, loads of car clubs and a great array of bands on Friday and Saturday night. I felt like a 16 year old propping up the fence at the front of the stage area waiting to see Boot Led Zeppelin who were actually pretty good despite only drawing a few hundred people being first act on stage. There was then a Commitments Tribute band which we thought very funny - a band playing tribute to band that never really existed! They were OK but then Pink Floyd Reloaded came on and although I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd I thought they were tremendous. The crowd loved them and they put a more modern twist on Floyd rather than slavishly copying the records as most of the other tribute bands do.

Added to that was being 7th on the grid in Qualifying that day; as compared to 48th 3 years ago! I had been running around 15th on the grid until my last lap when I sneaked up the extra 8 places with a decent hooked-up lap. A really great day.

The SC attracts some top cars and really decent drivers so despite being 7th on the grid I was way off the pace and around 8 seconds off pole position! There were, however a whole gaggle of us around the same lap time which promised well for the race. Stack and Dave were on the pit wall positioned directly opposite a huge display screen and Noreen was up in the main stand at the start of the Wellington Straight from which you get a great view of the Becketts complex too.

The front group all disappeared off into the distance leaving me leading a huge gang of Minis and Cortinas and that was how it stayed the whole race. We had mode of the video coverage and most of the commentary as we all battles for places, Falcons vs Mustangs vs Minis vs Cortinas. In the end I was narrowly beaten by Bill Shepperd's mighty Galaxie 500 which had come from the back of the grid having failed in Practice and by Rob Huff (current World Touring Car champion) in a mighty little Mini who got me on the last corner of the last lap of the race.  I finished 10th and was delighted; it had been a proper battle for the whole 20 minutes and was mentioned in Autosport and on a variety of web sites.

Silverstone Classic Transatlantic Touring cars - Race 1 about half distance with Rob Huff in hot pursuit

That night the rain came down and we watched the one hour Gentlemen Drivers/Sailors race from our favourite grandstand with a couple of bottles of champagne, half a dozen umbrellas and a huge plastic sheet over our legs. Unfortunately the rain was so bad that the feature Group C race that was supposed to run into the night was cancelled.

Noreen and Connor went on to see the Saturday night bands (including the Hollies) which were good but it was pretty much washed out and with very modest numbers in the audience.

Bill's mighty Galaxie 500   (it went on to star in the Goodwood Revival in September)

Sunday's Transatlantic Challenge race was just as exciting if slightly less successful. I managed to get up to about 5th or 6th by half way through the race but then fell off at Copse trying a bit too hard to keep a Mustang behind me. I lost about 20 places although I recovered about 10 of those by the end with 15th place being recorded. I was a bit annoyed with myself but delighted that the car had been good all weekend and that it was far quicker than before with its new engine and gearbox. I am now really hoping that there is a similar race next year as it's such a brilliant weekend; the organisers have since reported that over 90,000 punters attended making it the biggest ever and the biggest classic car event of the year.

Since the Wiltshire DNF a mass of work had been done on the car (as well as the huge amount of prep that needed to be done on the Falcon for the Silverstone Classic). Work included a new bespoke aluminium radiator from Radtec (www.radtec.com) and a specially fabricated bracket to hold the front of the final drive unit in place. Its a slightly strange looking thing but it means I did not have to weld anything to the chassis which might have been the root cause of the original problem. I also had to straighten the rear bracket as that was badly twisted during the failure and also make new exhaust mounts for the same reason.

For Castle Combe but not mentioned before is that I fitted a smaller brake master cylinder to get more brake feel and what a difference it has made. The brakes are actually good now and not dissimilar in feel and performance to the ones on the GT6 which have always been one of its strong points.

Practice Fine weather and Dave was raring to go. The race was combined (Group 1 and Group 2 Swinging Sixties combined together) so we were hoping for a reasonable overall performance. We took it pretty steady and finished up in 7th slot which was a bit lower than we expected but with 40 minutes of racing that wasn't an issue for us. The great thing was that we finished practice with no car problems!

We did a good check over and re-tightened all the diff bolts and all seemed well for the race.

Race 1 Really superb conditions and I started the race and was up to 4th by the first corner and back to dead last by the second after putting a wheel on the marbles then onto the grass. I was lucky (again) that nobody hit me but that was the beginning of yet another recovery drive. I made a conscious decision not to over drive the car and gradually made my way up the field and by the pit stop was in 6th place. The hand over to Dave went well and he was out and away. 

The next 20 minutes was all drama as cars spun off and broke down and Dave was able to keep out of trouble and move up to 5th then 4th and then, right at the end, 3rd. First finish for the Tuscan and first podium; to say we were delighted would be an understatement and we celebrated hard in the paddock bar that night. For once reliability had been on our side and against everyone else; it would be a stretch to claim it was our sheer speed that claimed the position but we were fast enough.

Race 2 By contrast the weather for Sunday was truly appalling. Torrential rain all night and it continued, if slightly less heavily, all morning. The car was changed to wet settings and new tyres fitted; generally, brand new tyres are better in the wet than partially worn ones. I took the start again but was super careful not to chuck it away so drove a very safe 20 minute stint in monsoon rain that started just as the race began. We actually started under the safety car and as the winner from Race 1 had gone home I was in 2nd slot. I was soon down in 7th but holding place and happy to hand over the white duck to Dave which we did under Safety Car rules. He went a bit better than me as the rain backed off and was able to hold station. Unfortunately, up ahead, Steve Adams had a big crash in his Spitfire which has severely damaged it.

We were very happy to finish 5th overall and with a second class win of the weekend it was trophies galore. Really happy that the car behaved well and we did have a great weekend again despite the slightly dodgy singer that performed on the Saturday night in the paddock bar; if you want a crowded bar cleared of people in under one minute, he's your man. The suspicion is that might be why he's called "Just Jonny"...

It has a unique odour caused by the open drain nature of the toilets and a dampness all its own caused by the mountains, woods and the open drain nature of the toilets! It's still the best track we go to although I do wish it was a tad closer. 120 miles to Folkestone, a train journey sous La Manche then 50 miles of smooth French motorway and 170 miles of bone-jarring Belgian austerity.

On arrival we are always welcomed by cigarette-smoking gate guardian who undertakes a cursory inspection of paperwork and then points you in the general direction of the paddock. We didn't even get the latter part this year; as we approached the gate he asked "Barry race?" and the nod was enough to let us through and into the outer paddock which is situated outside the track by the old start/finish straight. As ever at Spa, the facilities are probably the worst of any circuit we go to. Really bad toilets and the showers away in the middle of the inner paddock and shared by most of the assembled teams so not ideal but at least they are kept clean.

Practice was at 09:00 on Friday so we had a fairly relaxed evening once we had set up involving going up to the pit brasserie which I really like; it's right on top of the F1 pits building and during racing has an excellent view of the exit to Blanchimont, the chicane and the F1 start/finish straight. You can also see Eau Rouge and the drop down towards Double-Gauche. Oscar Wilde joined us again with his witty one-liners but had unfortunately forgotten his smoking jacket, sorry I mean Richard King who has plans of a cunning nature for Classic Le Mans 2016...although I think they may involve being dead last.

Anyway, as is oft the norm for the Ardennes, the low cloud greeted us as Dave went out for the start of the test session; he did about 4 laps and came in for the swap; I then got told off for doing the driver change in the Endurance Pits (the old ones) although we had been told by the collecting area and pit lane marshals that it was OK to do so! Oh, those hilarious Belgians. Anyway it was all pretty slow and we qualified 43rd from 78 cars; rather lower than I had hoped for but in one piece and with all of Friday and Saturday to plan our tactics (and drink some beer and eat some chips).

For Saturday's big race, the Six Hours of Spa, I had agreed we would be pit crew for the Alan Tice / Chris Conoley Marcos 1800 which was good although it did mean we didn't get to do our normal trip round the circuit on the scooter to watch the cars in the dark going through the far side of the track which is pretty cool really. The Marcos was ace and they both drove exceptionally well coming home 11th overall from 106 starters and winning the GTS11 class. Really hope we can do this race one year.

There were some added attractions at this year's Six Hours of Spa...I think it's the front wheel of a Lotus or Brabham, shame those girls were in the way.

Oscar Wilde and the beer monster have clearly spotted a number of classic racing cars too.

Interestingly cars seem to drop out at a huge rate from this race underlining how hard it is to run a single car for 6 hours. The Falcon driven by Frankel / Frankel / Harris was in the pits next to us and was out after about half distance with a clutch linkage problem which they didn't seem inclined to try and fix which I didn't really understand especially as a Falcon can lap Spa just using 4th gear in about 3:12 so I am surprised they didn't just struggle on. Also the Martin Stretton team on the other side seemed to be in a bit of a stress the whole time with their Cobra in and out far too many times and lots of shouting going on. All good to watch however as were the GT40s and the Corvette Grand Sport which are all just fabulous.

So for our race which was first thing Sunday I took the start which was delayed to about 09:15 and was very wet by the time we actually got out on the track. I did 35 minutes of relatively modest lap times but I made it more interesting for myself by falling off at Double-Gauche on the first lap letting 8 cars get past me although I did get them all back by the pit stop. It was a very odd spin in that the car was unloaded and not really under any stress; very like at Cadwell and at Pembrey and on looking at the in car video and doing loads of chassis analysis over the past week I think we know why it does it. It will be sorted for the next race...which may well be 2014 unfortunately.

On the start line grid for the "Barry race" in 2013                              Photo: Nick Jackson

The track dried out nicely for Dave's stint and he was able to put in a 3:10 lap which was great and was the benchmark we had wanted. The engine isn't really all that powerful and the handling is pretty evil at low speed so we really have something to go for for next season.  We finished 37th overall which was fine and we were well ahead of some potentially much better machinery. 

The awards ceremony then took forever (in that special and very entertaining Barry SS stylee) so we missed the train and had to wait 2 hours for another...other than that we had a great run back and I'm now concentrating on the re-born CSCC Classic K series which starts as a taster at Snetterton on 20th October. Thanks go to Stacky the beer monster and to Oscar for helping out.