First Trackday - Oulton Park Jan 2007

The anticipation for the arrival of this day was immense. What I did not know was the set of circumstances that cruel fate would throw my way barely a few hours into the event which would turn the dream into a nightmare.

When I arrived at the circuit, I unloaded Nichole and warmed her up with a couple of laps up and down the carpark. I had never used the sequential gearbox previously so wanted to get some confidence in it before hitting the track.

With the car warmed, I parked her in the garage and went off for sign-on and the briefing session. On my return I decided to go out for a couple of sighting laps at the back of the group. Nothing fast, just a slow pace to let me get used to the car and to check that all was well.

This went OK, so I decided to get noise checked and head back out onto the track. All was going well, then on what was only my second ever lap it all started going horribly wrong.

Coming into the Knickerbrook chicane half way around the track, I pulled to the right to let a faster car pass. As I changed down the gearbox it started making a noise that did not sound very good, so I decided to slowly head back to the pits to check it over. Then, as I arrived into the pit lane, I changed into 1st gear - in which it decide to stick totally.

Thus ended my day after just two slow laps.

I was gutted, so put the car back on the trailer and left it there for the rest of the day, while I went and video'd some of my mates who had joined me on the day.

Tales of 2k repairs bills were ringing in my head for weeks after this while I worked out how/where to get this problem fixed. Some mates removed the box for me and one recommended a Hewland gearbox guy (John Pickford) to take a look at the box.

So, I take the box down to his base at Silverstone and a week later I get the diagnosis. A couple of bolts had (somehow) fallen out of the crownwheel in the box and rattled around in there till they managed to lock the mechanism. You can see the bolts in this picture.

Luckily (very luckily indeed) they had not damaged any other parts of the gearbox, and so after some new bolts, a good clean and a thorough check over, the box was ready to be re-fitted.

The car and gearbox were re-united at a local Clio specialist - YozzaSport. I wanted a company to maintain the car going forward, and after visiting their facility in Eccleshall near Stoke on Trent, I thought they were ideal.

So, Nicole was soon back to full fitness and ready for her next Trackday, at the new Angelsey circuit in June 2007.