First race meeting in 2024 -1963 FIA MGB- CSCC Classic K - Donington Park 2024

With my first race in the Brabham not being until April I decided to celebrate my Birthday by entering a race in my 1963 FIA MGB at Donington with the Classic Sports car club in a Classic K race. https://www.classicsportscarclub.co.u...
The race would be 40 minutes with a compulsory pit stop.
I was in the CM class and there were 7 cars all MGB’s in the class.

I hadn’t driven the car in anger since our race at SPA last July and hadn’t driven on the L section Dunlop tyres since October 2022 and it was fair to say I was a little rusty! The tyres took quite a few laps to warm up and when they did the heavens opened so meaningful laps were impossible so I decided that I would just enjoy driving the car and exploring the grip on tyres that were at least 3 years old!…………. Then we had a hail storm which was the finish of the qualifying session .
The race itself was fairly uneventful, I wasn’t really on the pace and my gearbox was starting to complain at the higher speeds in top gear. Most cars pitted around 20 minutes into the race, especially the two driver teams. I elected to stay out as long as I could before the pit window and was rewarded with a safety car just as Jane had called me in for my stop. I rejoined the race at the back of the safety car train but I was now 3rd in class and virtually a lap ahead of the car in 4 th place. At this point my gearbox was really protesting so I just backed off a bit and waited for the checkered flag.
I was very lucky because I picked up a 30 second penalty because my pit stop was 6 seconds short and in the end I only was 17 seconds in front of the next placed MGB!!
I picked up a trophy and so that was my first race of 2024.
I have to thank my pit crew Jane and Gerald who manned the pit board throughout both the sunshine and rain but quite rightly abandoned the post during the hail storm. Without their support I wouldn’t be racing. I’d also like to thank Chris who should have the title of official team photographer!! Thanks for the pics.
Next race is in the Brabham in the Derek Bell trophy at the Goodwood members meeting. I’m really looking forward to ticking this off my bucket list.
https://www.goodwood.com/motorsport/m...