Black cloud racing.

The first race for Noel at Silverstone was neatly timed with heavy back clouds rolling in and large drops falling by the end.

Noel started at 14 on the grid. Sir John Chisholm (in an almost identical Gemini) started at 10.

It is a very long track and the cars quickly spread out, the gap between Sir John's group and Noel's was too much.

Crispian Besley had taken the time to give Noel some advice earlier and he was racing close to Noel. Noel had also benefitted by some advice from Howden Ganley, so armed with all this help, all he had to do was remember it!

The track was very  slippery. Even on the rolling start cars were sliding. Some didn't know it was a rolling start and there was a bit of confusion with drivers sewing to look for their place on the grid. Noel looked confident and managed to hang on and advance a place finishing 13th, but actually second in class behind Sir John. A very satisfactory race.

He's got some bad oil leaks. He lined up Matt King to work on the car next week, then he ran into Bruno Weibel.  We met Bruno when he was in NZ this year as mechanic for Colin Nursey. Bruno kindly had a look at the leaks and (hopefully) identified some parts that need replacing.

Guess what! It means Noel has to take the gearbox out again! Robin has volunteered to help him.

Just after Prizegiving, the rain came down in a  deluge. We were all confined to the garages for a while. No one seemed to mind.