…in his first ET round in his own car 
He’s qualified in the middle of the pack somewhere,…good luck dude we’re all rooting for you!
Yeah all the best Steve !!
Nice one Steve, sorry i cant be there to watch mate. All the best on your first run out by yourself.
Great bloke and great car too!
Need to get rid of the leccie locking mate!
Good luck!
Race1 completed, made up a few places…well done
Go Steve!!!
Steve did great in his fabulous looking/preparerd car! 
Hopefully he’ll do a little write up in a day or so, once he’s back home & had chance to unwind.
nicely done!
Pictures Steve. Well done buddy. 
Piccies indeed please Steve!
Guess you must have finally rebuilt the ‘K’ eh?
Thanks very much guys !
Here goes with a bit of a review. Hope I don’t blather on too much, but i’m still really excited about the whole day.
It was my first Elise Trophy race in my own car. I have shared the drive in the Cup UK class with Clive Willis and Chris Mayhew before; both are S1 Exige Owners and Elise Racers in the LOT.
But the first time out in my own car which Martin (my Dad) and myself have built up over the last 12 months or so was really nerve wracking and really exciting at the same time. I was so pleased with how the car came out I almost didn’t want to race it, as I’m sure some of you are aware the Trophy class can sometimes lead to a little Close racing!!! But the main thing is it’s a race car and has been built to be raced.
Qually on the Saturday morning was wet…very wet. A heavy down pour just before we went out meant that there was standing water on most of the track. The dampers were duely softened a bit and the tyre pressures adjusted to compensate for the wet and I cautiously made it out on to the track. Having never driven Oulton in the wet before or the car in the wet or on the Avon tyres in the wet this was going to be a really rapid learning curve. But the car felt great , really well balanced and controllable but still very slippy with the back stepping out on most of the corners and trying not to lock up on the brakes. It was great fun. I kept on the black stuff and qualified in 18th. Would have liked to have been a bit further up the grid but over all really happy.
Race 1,
Dry…Woo Hoo. Dampers stiffened up again and pressures put down again. Not too good off the start line. Well it was my first standing start but only lost one position through the first bend so not all bad. I ran well with at the back of a small group for a while then a small cloud burst dampened the track again and I backed off a bit. There were a few spinners and the as a few other fell by the wayside then track dried and I started to close in again on the group that I was following, and had a bit of a close call as two of the cars had a coming together at the first chicane right in front of me. One went left…one went right…and I went straight through the middle… 2 places thanks very much finally finished in 14th. Really pleased. 
RACE 2,
Dry again same grid slot, Slightly less hesitant start but a couple from behind were better and put me down a couple of places. I ran with them for a while then they had an off and I found myself with a huge gap to the next car so I just kept trying to improve my lines and braking points and sometimes ran a bit wide but there was not really much chance of catching them up so was just learning the car a bit more at race pace. Then a massive accident for car 75 hits the barrier and rolls 3 times (I’m told) thankfully he was ok but shaken. The race is sensibly stopped. We are all pulled off the track into Parc Ferme, And told that once the accident is cleared the next race will be ran and then we will go out on aggregate to finish off the last 7 minutes of the race to get our full time. There were a couple of drivers who pulled out at that point and didn’t want to restart, so there were a few holes in the grid so I was hoping to try to get a good restart to get back with the group, then disaster!!! The car wouldn’t go into gear. Shut the engine off put into gear and with the clutch pedal fully down when I hit the starter the car lurched forward. So something was wrong, the slave cylinder was all ok and there were no leaks then suddenly it freed and went into gear again. Sod it lets go!! Back onto the track and straight into the green flag lap. Then taking position onto the grid the car wouldn’t go into gear again. I killed the engine put it into first and with the clutch fully down, Waited for the lights to come on. When the reds went out I hit the starter and the car lurched I hit the throttle and the clutch slipped a bit and then seamed ok again, very strange. But after a lousy start I fell well back. A spinner from the pack up front then came into my sight and the chase was on and I had a great last lap dicing with him. Great fun but didn’t want to risk not finishing and getting my last signature that I needed to get rid of my novice cross. All was good with a 13th place finish. What a great day.
We already have the engine out and the problem with the gear selection was a section of the clutch plate that had broken off and jammed in the pressure plate so it couldn’t release the clutch properly. 
I knew we should have fitted a new one, while the engine was out!!! Ah well.
Finally just to say a big thanks to all the family and friends for all their help and support to get me on the grid and for coming to support me at the race. A really big thanks to Hazel. My very pregnant and understanding wife for allowing me to spend hours in the garage building a race car, and a really huge thanks to my Dad. Without him none of this would have been possible.
Roll on 20th July, Cadwell Park
Cheers Steve.
I have some pic’s of the car but can’t seem to get them to up load, if anyone can help me thanks.
Thanks mate, that’s great. I ran out of time after writing my story to figure out how to upload the pic’s, after 3 attempts I still hadn’t sorted it. I think I will stick to cars and leave the computers alone 
Steve.
Nice write up and lovely looking car.
Well done Steve.
Ex77
Nice one, pity about the clutch but well done Steve.
Well done Steve. I’m chuffed to bits that you are on the grid with me in your own car. You’ve had a great start, and the car still looks fab. Roll on Cadwell
Oh and Russ, I’ve started on the crunchy nut cornflakes - scrummy! Cheers mate.
Clive
sweet car
Brilliant Steve well done buddy, your car looks great. Good luck next time out
Brilliant debut Steve - car looks absolutely great and big well done to you and your pops - make sure you pack the big balls in the bag for Cadwell
Great to see you too Clive
Steve!
Great write up! The car looks amazing mate, a credit to you all!
Well done on the first outing… Avons in the wet are pretty cool I gather!
Super news about Hazel and your family mate… So, a girl will of course be called Elise and a boy… Exige!
Take care mate,
Pete.