Our 2026 outing on the Thruxton circuit sadly ended in a DNF with a mere three laps of the race remaining.

Sharing the car again with professional race coach David Hornsey for a single 40-minute race at David’s local and best-known circuit was a recipe for a class win. Sadly – and again – there was only one other 924 entry, Irish drive Ivor Mairs who was do run in both the CALM race and the 750MC Roadspots – and he’d never raced at Thruxton before.

A kind timetable meant a late start and an early end to the day, which slotted in nicely with my journey to Cardiff for an ice hockey game that evening. David took the first stint in qualify and put in two timed laps, the best being a new record: 1:31.803 ! I then took over for the rest of the session, aiming to at least match my best of 1:40.393 set in the same race back in 2022. I completed 5 timed laps with a best of a less-than-impressive 1:42.500

With a slight delay to the day’s proceedings, we assembled for the 40-minute race after lunch. I was going to do the first stint so that I could leave before the end of the race if necessary (it wasn’t). I fluffed the start – having put the car in third instead of first – so the rest of the grid, including Ivor, charged off ahead of me and it was a case of playing catch-up until I was on the tail of the other 924 and Ken van Hauen in his air-cooled 911. Ken’s 911 started having gearbox oil overheating issues and he retired – in fact we had the most retirements I can remember in a CALM round.

David took over after I’d completed 10 laps, the last being my quickest at 1:39.851 – so I’d just managed to set a new personal best. David posted 1:32.764 on his 8th lap but then the engine started to make more noise than it really should, so he sensibly brought the car in for Phil and Jack to check. Although there was no sign of an oil leak, on the side of caution it was decided to retire the car.

So, no pots for us this weekend and there’s no chance that Phil and his team could get the engine either repaired or swapped before the Birkett Relay at Silverstone on 24th October, and therefore its unlikely I’ll be racing again this season.

In-car footage of the qualifying session:

Photos: Sean Mulcahy