Birmingham July 2008 - I believe I can fly ...

Birmingham, scene of Damian's Triple Crown triumph from last season, and the total washout that greeted the start of this season. Once again we made our way up the A14 hoping it wouldn't rain as forecast this time!

The racing got off to a pretty rubbish start, and went downhill from there! Damian started in heat #2, at the back. He finished heat #2, at the back! And in heat #3 Damian decided to try a radical new overtaking manoeurve, going OVER the car in front, rather than around them!

In heat #3 Damian was making decent progress, working his way up the pack with his usual any way round will do technique, when he found himself behind car #614. Not a problem, except car #614 decided on the back straight to break it's throttle cable, Damian slammed into the rear wing and was launched into the air, coming down with a bang that bent various parts of the chassis, and his steering column!

It was doubtful he'd make the final, this being the last heat he only had the time it took for the other 2 forumulas at the meeting to have their last heats to get the car track worthy. A bumper was borrowed, a foot plate vigourously jumped up and down on to get in back into shape, various things hit with various hammers and other large objects to make the car roughly the shape it was supposed to be, and some last second adjustments to make the wheels point roughly in the same direction, and off he went to the final.

Placed pretty much last on the grid, this looked like being a "let's hope he gets round in one piece" kind of final. But Damian doesn't do "best of a bad show", he goes for it whatever the circumstances, and with some 30 odd cars on the track he clawed his way up to finish 8th in a typical gutsy performance.

All in all an eventful meeting, and some good driving on display, and for once the wheather didn't spoil things. Well, it is July after all, some people even claim it's summer!