Following Minehead I had a fair few things to do to the Vitara to make it 'race-ready' and I was determined not to leave it all until the last minute again. The Monday after the event I was on the phone. I ordered a new wheel and tyre from Tyres Direct UK (http://www.tyresdirect.co.uk) to replace the one damage by the stump. During the event I'd also noticed the front wheels were beginning to rub on the back of the arches in bumpy corners - a sure sign the front bushes needed replacing.

After a bit of hunting around on the inter-web I found Supa-Pro (http://www.supapro.eu.com) who have a UK distributor and ordered bushes for the front arms. I got talking to the chap mentioned I raced the car, he then told me that he had recently supplied a few sets to people running Bowlers and that the feedback he had received about their durability was very good. I placed the order and the bushes were delivered the following day, and so the work began.

The 'to-do' list was the usual things - clean and check the brakes, check all the suspension over, check the fluid levels and seals and a general look over to check all the important bolts were tight. Along with this there were the additional repairs needed following Minehead. The main area that needed attention was the front suspension which required a couple of hours welding to repair the broken drivers side shock mount and the broken strut brace. Once this was complete the disassembly of the front suspension for re-bushing got underway.

I removed the front arms and took them to my friendly local garage to use their press to get the old bushes out, but due to the shape of the arms they wouldn't fit in the press and I had to result to an hour or so of hammering, beating and sawing the old bushes out. The two piece bushes were easy to refit but the next problem was getting the re-bushed arm back into its mountings.

The long and the short of it was the arms just simply didn't fit. It's not clear why, either the rigid new bushes didn't squash enough to allow the arm to fit in the mounting or the mountings have moved. Either way it took the rest of the day with a port-a-power to persuade them into place!

All this had taken me far longer that I'd reckoned and what with one thing and another (refitting the kitchen probably had something to do with it too) I now had only a few days left to reassemble the car. So I once again took the Friday before the race off to get the car back together. All the piped dreams of modifications and tweaks I had had after Minehead were out the window and I just about found enough time to cut a dozen or so holes in the spare bonnet I had to keep things a bit cooler in the July heat. So with a borrowed trailer (thanks Paul), and borrowed ramps (thanks Simon) it was off to Worthy Down.

The Race

Round 4 was finally here. I'd been looking forward to this event since last year as it had been watching this event that I finally decided I needed to finish the vitara and start racing, that and the site is my 'home turf' and is less than a mile from my house!

The site is situated on open downland about 3.5 miles north of Winchester. The course is a mixture long fast sections over open downland and tight complex sections through woodland along with a few short sections of old broken tarmac track through the trees dating from when the site was used as an airfield during the Second World War.

Due to the limited time spent on the car since Minehead I'd decided not to change the clutch (..again! I must do it before the next event!) so I would need to run the car in low box again. Although the gearbox fitted to the vitara has a very 'high' low box it was a bit of a worry as I wasn't sure if the gearing would be 'long' enough for the open blasts between the slower sections of the course. Testing at the farm before the event I'd found the gearing was good for about 60-65mph before the car revved out in top gear. I thought this should be ok but with stories of people overtaking cars on the A34 last year I was worried it wouldn't be fast enough to keep the land rover specials at bay.

At the briefing we were told the course was 6 miles and we would be running 12 laps if all went smoothly. After some cheeky comments about a certain slow vitara driver moving out of peoples way the course was opened and it was time for business. Everyone seemed keen and with nearly 30 starters the start line was busy. We queued impatiently and within a few minutes we were off on our first run.

The first thing that struck me was the contrast between the relatively smooth and fast sections over the down and the slow, twisty and rough sections through the trees. The first part of the course that passed into the woodland seemed especially rough with many exposed roots and pot holes that could only get worse as the day progressed.

The layout of the course was superb, and seemed to suit the vitara perfectly. At several points the vitara seemed to only just fit between the trees, the bigger vehicles were going to struggle at speed at many places on the course. We had a couple of near misses with tree trunks and overhanging branches but managed to complete the first run unscathed. Run 1 marked a special occasion for me and the vitara - it was the first time we had completed a first run of an event and not been passed by another car!

Following our first run we immediately queued for a second run but found that the course was closed after incidents behind us. I'm not sure the exact details but it appears one car rolled at the end of one of the fast straights and lost a wheel in the process and another car caught fire! After a brief stoppage and a quick drink of water we were underway again.

This year has been a fairly steep learning curve and one thing I was learning was to get as many laps in as early as possible. After the first lap checking out the route I concentrated on improving the lines around the course and trying to carry as much speed through the corners as possible. Not far from the start we came across an orphaned wheel and tyre on the course. As we rounded the next bend we met Pete Barrett walking back along the course towards us to recover it. About a mile and a half into the run I managed to clip a stump (again!!) but this time the tyre and rim survived and stayed inflated. We pushed on and in under 2 hours completed our first 4 runs.

At this point I dropped of my co-driver for a 'breakfast burger stop' and had a run around the course on my own. Coming out of the first tree complex (not far from where Pete lost his wheel) I was directed around a small diversion by the marshals. A car had rolled on the corner as the track left the trees. It turned out it was the boys from Oxford who were parked next to me in the pit area. Talking to them at the end of the run they were fine and the only real damage appeared to be a broken wing mirror.

After picking up Matt we decided to put in a few runs back to back. After 2 great runs over a clear course we lined up in a group for our 7th run sandwiched between two much faster cars. About 5 miles in to the run at the section near the water tower we noticed we were being caught by number 14, one of the Bowler style specials. I was determined not to let him catch and pass me. On the open ground he was gaining on me at a fair rate, but in the trees I was holding my own, and perhaps even recovering a bit. We pushed hard but he finally caught us at the last corner but didn't pass us and we crossed the line nose to tail.

The next run 14 lined up behind us again so we were up for a re-match. It seemed we were caught sooner this time but held our own in the twisty sections through the trees. As we entered one woodland section number 14 was closing on us fast but as we exited the trees and drove the series of bends on the open down he was nowhere to be seen. We later found out he had clipped a tree trying to catch us!

As I lined up for my next run we found the event had been cut to 10 runs from the initial 12. I also found that I had completed 9 runs, not 8 runs as I thought. This was a new situation. It was ten past 2 in the afternoon and I had completed all of my runs but one. I had just over 2 hours until my last start time and only one run to complete! We decided not to start the final run yet and took a break to give the suspension and radiator a quick blast with Simons jetwash.

On the final lap we were flying. Within 2 miles we caught the Gott Strange Rover that started a minute ahead of us, once past them we were away.. Around mile 4 Pete Barrat in number 1 caught us as we let him past and tried as hard as we could to keep up with him, which we probably managed for about 2 or 300 metres! As he pulled away from us we caught another strange rover and passed him before we entered the final tree section. (see the video of the event). We crossed the line, all our runs complete.

This gave me the chance to have a wander around the pit area and site to see some of the competitors in action. But as I approached the timing caravan I found that the course was closed, there had been an accident. To begin with it wasn't clear what had happened. It turned out that car 200 had crashed on the long sweeping tarmac right hander near the top of the course. After clipping one large tree the car had spun hitting several other trees before coming to a stop. Although the car was quite badly damaged it appeared both driver and co-driver were shaken but intact. After about a 30 minute stoppage the course was re-opened and the event continued.

Retrospective

Worthy Down was a fantastic event. The site is excellent with a great mix of fast open and slow tight sections. As we found this has the effect of really levelling the field. Although the vitara is considerably less powerful than most other vehicles in the championship we were still able to secure 7th position overall, with only 6 retirements from 29 starters.

The car performed well at Worthy Down. The new suspension bushes have withstood their first outing and the car felt noticeably tighter and more direct. The cooling holes cut in the bonnet also made a significant difference. Despite the temperature being in the mid 20s we were able to complete 3 or 4 runs back to back without the engine or suspension overheating.

The gearing turned out to be ok. The car only revved out at one point on the course, on the very long straight about 4 miles in. Although we had to back off to avoid just running the car on the limiter I think the most this cost us was about 10 seconds per run.

One thing I noticed at Worthy Down was either people don't like to let the vitara pass or I need a louder horn! The standard horn is fairly pathetic and I wouldn't be surprised if drivers ahead of me in a rear engined car with a helmet on can't hear the horn.

Unfortunately we broke the other side of the strut brace mid-way through the event. In hindsight we should of learnt from Minehead and found time to replaced and strengthen these parts on both sides instead of just repairing the previous damage. That said this appears to be the only 'injury' picked up during the Worthy Down event.

The next event is Horam in Sussex on August bank holiday Sunday. I've never been to the site to it will be virgin territory for driver and vehicle! Hopefully the to-do list will be considerably shorter this month so I may even get around to changing the clutch in the next 5 weeks...