Last year overall was a good year, but I was massively disappointed to miss out on the Indy title and end the season with such a bad
Thruxton. I had a coming together with
Mat Jackson on the run-up to the chicane which broke the front suspension and that was on the grass at 140mph – which you don’t really appreciate! Then in the final race I had the front right wishbone fail on its own, I hadn’t hit anything and just had a weld fail. Thruxton is hard on the kerbs so you could ask if I was mullering them too much but it was a frustrating meeting like that and I was disappointed. At the start of the season – like now – I didn’t look at it and think ‘we’ll win the Indy trophy’ but at the end of the year when we went there leading, I was disappointed not to win it.
It was also disappointing that my season ended with an accident for the second year in a row and I bloody well hope they won’t need an ambulance waiting for me again this year!
The accident was a hard hit, even though it wasn’t particularly high speed. It was probably 80mph but you have a little bit of right-lock on coming out of the chicane and when the wishbone broke, it just turned sharp left into the wall. I only just got out of the throttle and it was probably more of a shock because you think afterwards ‘where did that come from?’
I sat in the car and I’d cracked a bone in my elbow, but I was so out of it that I was sat there thinking ‘I really want to get out of this car because I don’t want them to stop this race’. I was thinking it to myself and I could see the ignition switch, but could I get my hand to reach out to it? It’s like driving down the motorway at 80mph and driving into a bridge – you’d see stars for a bit! Hopefully it won’t end like that this year.
Back to the season ahead, and it’s a year that will be special for me for a number of reasons.
For a start, I’m going to be 50 this year – I’m a proper old man now! I used to try and hide my age, but I’ve long since given up. I’m 50 in February, so to be 50 in the year that the BTCC turns 50
and be part of the first father and son team is something I’m proud of.
