James J Tucker

Sunny wether and large crowds greeted me to my home track last Sunday. 

Queuing up to get into the track, hours before the green flags were to "drop" at the meeting, I was amazed that the car park was full, as far as you could see, with a buzz about the meeting with a world title at stake for the Stock Rods and being a Semi World Final for the BriSCA F2s. A few late entries into the Rebels race brought the number out on the track to 36, a busy track with me not knowing what the car would handle like with the Long Track Tyres on, used to alter the gear ratio but also change the balance of the car.

Heat 1 and my first taste of the track and the new characteristics of the car lead to me getting a little 'beat up' by the more experienced drivers in the field but I settled down in 12th place, untill a tap on turn 4 turned me round on the final lap. I scrambled to get the car started but the race was stopped before I managed so I didn't finish the race. Ironically I had completed more laps than some of the drivers that did finish!

Heat 2 and a quick tyre pressure change made the car much more stable through the corners, bringing it home in 11th. 

There was only one race between Heat 2 and 3 which seemed to help me as I suffered little in the way of problems in Heat 2. The only problem being a broken bracket on the alternator, which my old man (Paul Tucker) quickly put right. The car felt great crossing the line in 4th.

Unfortunately due to this meeting being the Twin Peaks Championship Final I only started 19th on the grid. A good start on the race restart saw me up to 15th at the end of the first lap, again the car felt great and I started to claw my way through the field. I got to 10th place when a big bunny hop out of turn 4 caused my gearbox to give up, damage from an early tussle in Heat 1 which had slowly been getting worse through the day. However I still scored 41 points moving me up 4 places in the National Points and gaining me the Yellow Grade Award, for highest points scored by a "Yellow Top" driver.

The next meeting is the Rebel Treble at Skegness Stadium on 25th, 28th, 29th August, with 41 drivers already booked in it looks like it should be a good one!