YATELEY  REPRESENT 

As the sun rose on Sunday 7th August 2005 the Yateley crew awoke with a mixture of emotions. Ian Finch was impatient to feed his addiction to track time, Ashley Finch was annoyed that he had to miss the car show, Rory Elston was excited to drive somewhere flat but Ian Mullaney was apprehensive that they might never find the grip that they so badly longed for. They were on their way to the Barham Schumacher BTCC round.

The Finches were chauffeured to the track by their minion James and when Ian rushed to the track to get his "fix" he immediately found the track to be superbly grippy and came back beaming from ear to ear

an expression that was repeated by all of the posse at some point in the day. Ashley enjoyed the same abundance of grip but wanted to go faster.

Ian Mullaney and Rory who were slightly more reserved about their chances in the meeting arrived only just in time to make booking in. Ian Mullaney had rebuilt his car totally in an attempt to return it to the "glory days" of challenging Ian Finch. Discussions on the way to the meeting meant that Rory gave Ian's car the once over when they arrived.

There were three rounds of qualifying; after his first Ian Mullaney came back grinning like a Cheshire cat because he couldn't believe that he was racing on-road where there is actually some grip. His car was aided by a gift from Rory to say thanks for the lift up - he gave Ian a mysterious thing called "droop" (take note - it makes all the difference even if you don't know what it is!).

After the drivers put in decent first qualifiers they were all after MORE SPEED. Ian Finch embarked on a one man crusade to make everyone gear up. He ran into problems when his car refused to take a 30 tooth pinion and so he began a vendetta against his motor mount. Ian Mullaney could have made a good mechanic cry with the colour of his comm but switched to a 19t V2 which proved to be rocket ship for the rest of the day.

After some confusion and problems at race control the results of qualifying were finally made clear. Ashley and Rory had qualified 4th and 8th respectively in the "C" final stock and the two Ians were only separated by 4 positions as well, Finch getting 2nd and Mullaney 5th in the "C" final 19t. It looked like we were set for exciting battles between the Yateley comrades.

But RC racing rarely goes to plan. First finals were the 27t and both Ashley and Rory made good initial starts before running into problems, Ashley made his way up but got shunted on the first hairpin and had to retire while Rory took the first corner tight and made up a few places but couldn't find a clean line for the hairpin and got muscled onto the grass - stranded while the marshals struggled to contend with the mêlée of the first corner he lost a lot of time and never had the pace to make it all up.

Ian Finch got into his groove for the 19t "C" final while Ian Mullaney was still star struck by his achievement of qualifying so high. Their starts were reasonably clean and after a few laps Ian Finch had settled in 3rd with Ian Mullaney chasing in 5th. Both looked quick but Ian M was showing some nerves by making small mistakes. He was doing well to hold it together and his pace on the main straight could have proved to be his main weapon. Then he rolled on one of the hairpins but managed to park his car upside-down out of the way at the side of the track, yet still someone hit him hard and his wishbone snapped - ending a good day on a slightly sour note. Ian Finch in the meantime was blissfully unaware of the carnage and drove like a man possessed to defend his third place - by keeping his lines consistent he earned himself a well deserved 3rd place and was the only member the Yateley massive that could hold his weight in the finals.

<-- Collecting the silverware.

Report by Rory Elston