Unfortunately it's pissing it down, and apart from my first chance to experience the performance of the Hankook wet weather tyres (verdict: awesome) there's not much to be gained from the test.

Experimentation with suspension settings has to be postponed; Friday's washout forces us to take a guess at the best set-up for Qualifying.  We get it wrong and after the 20 minute session I'm a distant 24th on the 28 car grid, having effectively wasted the best of two brand new tyres.

Race day Sunday is warm and dry. After a long conversation with Andy and Richard the car's set-up is revised with changes to the dampers at the rear, but the lack of dry track time means that, like a blind man in bed with twin sisters, we're groping for the best solution.

I get a good start in the first race but as I accelerate alongside a competitor from the row in front he veers towards me.  It feels like he is trying to squeeze me into the pit wall.  He probably hasn't seen me, but the end result is that I'm forced to hit the brake in order to avoid a collision and then I'm swamped by the cars that started behind me.

A few laps later and after a slingshot onto Hangar Straight, I'm closing once again on the car that baulked me at the start.  Unfortunately, he probably doesn't see me again as I come alongside him in the braking zone for Stowe Corner.  Again he veers off his line and I'm forced to choose between holding my ground and being hit, or backing off and living to fight again.  My competitor's car is fully funded by his employer, mine isn't - these nuances are important in racing; I back off.

From then on the race settles (at least my part of it) and my driving finally finds something of a rhythm; a huge improvement on the disjointed, ad hoc approach I'd fashioned on Saturday.  The race finishes and after a lap time analysis, Richard and I calculate that there has been real improvement in my times compared to Qually.  At last, a step forward.

Race one in summary: started 24th, finished 19th.

Should we try further changes to the car's suspension set-up for the second race?  Steve Chaplin (Beetle driver and Championship leader) is our next door neighbour in the paddock and after listening patiently to my story gives a little advice on what to try next.  Richard is in agreement with Steve's suggestions and so we make further adjustments.

The car is better again.  I make a great start to race two, picking up several places, but one or two are lost back to braver souls in the barely controlled confusion of the first lap.

On the second lap we all find a little space and I find myself in a pack of four cars racing for 16th place.  Mark and two Simons are my companions as we dice for the next seven tours during which Robin joins us to make five.  By the beginning of the ultimate circuit, I had worked my way to the front of the group and led it over the line with just 3.194 miles to go.  Lap eight had been my fastest of the race and I felt sure I could hold them off for the next two minutes.

I couldn't.

I was quick enough around Copse but a determined Mark hounded me through Maggotts and into Becketts.  I was concentrating on a clean exit from Becketts into Chapel in order to maximize top speed, but I didn't get it; Mark saw a gap and made a lunge on the inside of the right hander; unfortunately there was contact with my car on the rear three quarter panel.

At 90 mph, when you're knocked into a spin it is a bit disorientating - even so, for a second I retained an ambition to rejoin the race and salvage something from the result.  And at that moment the force of the slide ripped one of the front tyres from its rim.  Now out of my control, poor number 24 still had enough momentum to slide through a gravel trap and then gently and finally to rest against a tyre barrier.

My first DNF.