Last Sunday I competed in the TORA LeMans Series Round 2 at Suzuka, Japan, My Second Event as a Member of M&M Racing.

Last time out was a rough race for me, Still recovering from a bad illness for which i was hospitalised i was off the pace from where i'd expected and then an accident saw me plummet down the field as the now wingless M&M Rizla Mazda Lola twitched and spun its way to an eventual 15th place.

And so to Japan and hopefully a better run for me and the M&M Rizla Mazda Lola, Once again i was representing M&M Racing by myself in LMP2 with Team Mate Crisis Nine unable to attend. However it wasnt all doom and Gloom with Japan being the Mazda's home race a special Livery was prepared by me and the team in celebration of the Mazda coming home. Paying homage to the LeMans winning Mazda 787B of the early 90's (the only Japanise car EVER to win LeMans outright) The Green and Orange livery was very well recieved by the paddock as it was rolled out for some pre race testing.



And so to Qualifying and the car was a little more unsettled than i would have liked, loosing time in the corners but once again the Amazing power of the Mazda Rotary engine powered the car down the straights with frightening velocity hitting 190+mph at the Apex of 130R. However the handeling imbalance hit hard placing me 4th in LMP and 12th overall (6th in Lobby) Just ahead of the XTI Acura ARX-01 of XTI Avenger with which i had a great battle in qualifying swapping places several times.

The race began without too many problems I knew M&M Racing Superteam Mate IanMR was behind me after a penalty in the Much Faster M&M Rizla Peugeot 908 HDI and so i was looking in my mirrors to make sure i released him as soon as he caught up. However this couldnt have come at a worse time for me....

On Lap Two the hot Battle between XTI Nightrider's XTI Petronas Mazda Lola LMP2 and Chucky1982's Coke Cola Acura ARX-02 LMP1 ended in a self enduced spin from XTI Nightrider after a slide snapped back on him and sent the car spinning in the middle of the track. Approaching this at speed IanMR Suddenly went down the inside for the pass, and in me letting him past i got stuck on the outside unable to cut in to avoid the stranded Nightrider and i had to swerve off of the Track and into the gravel to avoid a collision....



Which i just managed to do my the Smallest of Margins, Heres a close up of the gap between Mine and Nightrider's rear wings...



This, of course bought out the Safety car with Myself one from last in an XTI LMP2 Sandwich with XTI Avenger infront and XTI Nightrider behind. And heres where it all started to go wrong once again for me. A miss understanding of the Safety car rules saw XTI Nightrider start overtaking After AJzero had declared go, rather than once he had crossed the line, he had passed both me and XTI Avenger before he was reminded of the rules. Panicing he hit the brakes trying to rectify the passes before the line. However I was behind him in his Slipstream lined up to pass Avenger when i could and went straight up the back of the braking Mazda at full speed in the middle of the home straight, i tried to aviod the incident but couldnt quite get the car turned past due to the suddeness of the braking and the massive closing speed...



...Hitting the right rear wheel of the XTI Petronas Mazda Lola very hard, removing the spoiler and spinning it into the front wheel of XTI Avenger's Acura....



...all three cars went spinning down the Track at over 100mph with pieces flying everywhere. Luckily i Wasnt killed and was able to spin the car back around and continue round the lap and into the Pits to get the bad news. The front Aero was destroyed, as were the brakes and the steering. the team did there best getting the steering and brakes fixed but there was nothing that could be done about the splitter as its moulded into the chassis itself. With the Aero damage the car was well off the pace of LMP2 and closer to GT1 and the time in the pits had put me way off the back of LMP2.



In the end I was 4th in Class after XTI Nightrider had to Retire the XTI Petronas Mazda Lola and i was 20th Overall behind all of LMP2 and almost all of GT1. another poor showing for myself in circumstances which were out of my control.

Hopefully things will improve in Two weeks time as the TORA LeMans Series and me and the M&M Rizla Mazda Lola travel to Motegi Speedway also in Japan. Which is good for everybody as the car and team are already in Japan and dont need to transport too much equipment too far. A new chassis is being flown in and a new car is being constructed in a Small workshop owned by SBR at the Foot of Mount Fujimi Kaido from which we base our 800K Challenge and work on the drift cars. I will also be spending the majority of the next two weeks in Japan in preperation for both this and Rally Kaido only having to leave to compete in the TORA Touringcar Masters Championship in the USA on Tuesday.

Also I will be joined by Team mate Crisis Nine for the first time this season which will be great to help work things out and maybe even work some clever strategies. Finally I will personally be looking into a loophole which may see the 787B inspired Orange and Green stay for Motegi aswell. (TORA says you may have a special paint job for your home Event, but there are Two in Japan so we may be able to use it twice! ) But we will see how this goes...

Well done to everybody who competed and good luck to everybody at Motegi in two weeks, especially the M&M Super Team!