MX5 City Racing Season 2005

The remainder of the 2005 racing season proved to be a steep learning curve for Martin and the MX5 City Racing Team! The second outing at Cadwell Park in May was ended prematurely when the bonnet suddenly flew up at about 90 MPH halfway down the main straight!

Subsequent races saw us qualifying more towards the back of the grid and on one occasion actually right at the back.

With such a close racing series as the Max 5 Championship and full grids at every race, there is always going to be an element of “contact”, especially at the back end of the race, where novice drivers are all jostling for position. Luckily we managed to avoid any serious scrapes, with the exception of Knockhill in Scotland , where a rear end shunt put us out of the second race. Worst damage was sustained during the qualifying race at Mallory, where Martin was T-boned on the driver's side whilst negotiating the hair-pin. He still managed to keep the car going to qualify in last place on the grid. A quick “re-shaping” of the bodywork was required during the lunchtime break in order to satisfy the scrutineers and the race itself proved to be one of the best all season.

The most memorable race meeting of the season was the last race at Snetterton in October. The Saturday was spent testing the car on the circuit, but the last session of the day ended in disaster when the engine dropped a valve into no. 2 piston, doing about 8,000 rpm and 100 mph in 4 th gear down the long back straight! We thought that that would be the end of our weekend and no chance of racing on the Sunday. But, undeterred by such trivialities as a blown engine, we had a quick scrounge around the paddock for bits and a late dash to a local scrapyard for another engine. Jonathan Blake from the Keystone Team finally came up trumps with a replacement unit at about 10pm . The only problem was most of the front end, water pump and timing gear had already been robbed off it! This meant swapping all the bits over from the blown engine.

Working with limited tools and no engine hoist (just a piece of 4x4 timber and a rope!) we worked through the night to swap engines, with the new engine finally bursting into life at around 3 am Sunday morning!

With about 3 hours sleep, Martin managed to blag the car through scrutineering with half the engine bolts missing, before qualifying comfortably for the first race. The new engine, although not properly set up or tuned in any way, seemed to be stronger than the old one! A respectable mid-field result was followed by an even better qualifying position for the final race.

Up at the front of the grid Martin Byford and Christian Dick were battling it out for the Championship with just one point separating them after a whole season's racing.

As we waited in the assembly area for the start of the race, black clouds loomed over the horizon. By the time we went out for the warm up lap it was raining hard and the track was soaking. The race for the first corner was nail-biting stuff, with cars spinning off in all directions. Luckily Martin managed to avoid contact by taking a detour across the grass, but the race was red flagged and stopped due to a serious collision. The re-start was a much more cautious affair, but still claimed a few unfortunate drivers. However, Martin managed to tip-toe his way around everyone, resulting in his best finish of the season.

Martin ended the season mid-table in the drivers' championship – a respectable position for a first season. Congratulations also to Martin Byford for keeping his nerve in the final race and clinching the Max 5 Championship.

During the winter months, the car panel damage has been replaced and the car prepared for the 2006 season. This includes fitment of additional side-impact bars into the roll-cage as required by the new regulations.

The first outing for the car will be a pre-championship 3 race meeting in Anglesey on Sunday 26 th March.

The main championship commences at Mallory Park , Leicestershire, on Sunday 23 rd April. See the full 2006 racing calender and results page here.