M&M Racing Team Report
For August 29th & 30th BARL Event (by Barry Mayers)

Everyone was anxiously awaiting the big "International Williams Event" at Bushy park, including the M & M Racing Team!

The days leading up to the event included some long hours of work on the Suzuki SX4 & the Ford Focus, with quite a bit of testing. Since the Suzuki is still under major development, we had quite a few small problems during testing. But for the most part of it we got all of the problems sorted out, including the handling of the car.

On Saturday Roger qualified with the fastest time of 41.068, but while Roger was qualifying he encountered a problem and came into the pits, so Roger did not get his car weighted, and was put at the back of the grid for the first race on Sunday, Andrew King who set the second fastest time in qualifying also made a similar mistake to Roger.

Fortunately I was to benefit from Roger & Andrew's mishap as I set the third fastest time in qualifying, 42.135, so I inherited POLE position on the grid, ahead of some very powerful turbo-charged cars!

The problem Roger had encountered in qualifying was a broken fly wheel, so after qualifying we loaded both the cars up and went home. Luckily Roger had a spare flywheel, so we all worked late into the night and got the gearbox out of the car and changed the flywheel, so that both the cars were ready for the next day.

I had spent hours upon hours on Saturday & Sunday thinking on how I could get a good start in the first race to retain my 1st position, as I had Stuart Maloney next to me in a much powerful turbo charged car, which could easily beat my car down the straight to the start.

Unfortunately the many hours of thinking about this start went in vain in the warm up laps in race 1, as David Summerbel (above) collided with me doing extensive damage to my car, forcing me out of race 1. So I came into the pits and went straight to watch & support Roger in the first race.

Roger had his work cut out for him, as he had many cars to pass, but he slowly started passing them, until eventually he had passed them all and was in first position! But, like me, luck was not with Roger as on the closing laps he lost all power to his car and slowly pulled to the side of the track, a faulty alternator was to blame for this.

The team then worked frantically on both my car and Roger's to get them fixed for the second race. My car was severely damaged, but we were able to get it back driving, but not to the cars full potential. We were also able to change Roger's alternator and get that back working.

For the second race both Roger & myself were at the back of the pack and had our work cut out! As the race started Roger slowly started passing some of the cars again, but then luck again was not with him and he got a flat tyre, forcing him to stop on the side of the track. For me I had slowly started to pass one or two of the cars until my gearbox got stuck in fourth gear. So I decided it would be worth it to get to the finish of the race to help Team Barbados get some point toward the Caribbean Championship, so in the end of race 2 I finished fifth overall.

Roger's tyre was repaired for the third race and I also tried to repair the problem with my gearbox, which was a broken sensor from the accident in the first race. We had no spare sensors, so we tried our best to repair the broken sensor.

In the third race, again Roger and myself would start close to the back of the grid but had high spirits of getting a good finish. With in the first lap Roger was involved in a racing incident between himself and Kevin Jeffery, putting Roger out of the final race. I was more fortunate and climbed up to fourth position, keeping Stuart Williams behind me and also keeping close to Mark Maloney & Andrew King ahead of me.

Mark & Andrew had a bit of an incident and I benefited from this as it put me up to second position, but 2 laps to the finish my car yet again stuck in third gear! So I just kept driving as hard as I could, and looking constantly in the mirrors to see the competitors in the back getting closer & closer to me! Fortunately I was able to keep of the competitors and bring the Suzuki home in second position!

I think out of the four years of circuit racing the M & M Racing team have been involved with, that this weekend was by far the most challenging for the team, but we all worked together as a team and at least I was able to get a second place in the final race!

The team now has a few weeks before the BARL event in October, then we all head south to Guyana where we hope our luck will be better!

Thank you to all of our sponsors for all of your support, with out you it would not be possible! - Simpson Motors, Shell V-Power, Chefette, Ignition & Illusion Graphics