As for the last race, well it was a bit of a lottery wasn’t it? The reason we were going as slow as we were in the closing stages was because me and Adam had a coming together at Hollywood as you come into the Craner Curves and neither of us were prepared to give – we hit and it bent my steering. It obviously wasn’t as badly damaged as Adam’s, but my arms were like Popeye’s when I got to the finish and I could hardly hold onto the car. I kept radioing in to Geoff to say I was staying out because I’d counted eleven other cars and I knew that if I could stay out then it would be a point if someone fell off the track.
That isn’t the way that I want to win points, but I think that the performance of the team over the course of the weekend deserved a point. We are making positive steps forward now and up until we got to
Croft, I was faster than the car. Now I feel that the car is faster than me, so I just have to raise myself and get the confidence back to get more time from the car. Until I can drive it as fast as it can go, we will keep looking although now we are chasing tenths of a second and not full seconds. I’m upbeat though, it’s great.
The Independent points from the weekend were good and my aim had to be to try and get onto the back of Jason Hughes and he hasn’t had the best of weekends. But we have to keep going with it, we are developing for next year and with each meeting we are collecting data. The more data we have, the faster we will go and the more confidence I will get.
My confidence has grown once again and roll on
Snetterton – then I can go on holiday! I think Snetterton will suit the car as it is very fast and there isn’t much of the tight and twisty stuff that the car doesn’t like. It’s a circuit that I have done well on in the past, it’s fast and furious – and that’s just how the
BMW likes it.
Until next time,
MB
For the 2006 season, you can become a sponsor of Martyn Bell and the Geoff Steel Racing BMW in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship as, for £550, you can purchase space on the chequered flag that adorns the roof of Martyn’s car. Visit www.martynbellracing.com/sponsors/ for more information and to purchase your space on the car.
