Pole Position and another double win give me the Scottish Regal Sports Production Championship by 3 points.

At the last meeting at Knockhill at the beginning of September, I had a double win and my main rivals Sandy Christie and Mark Wright both crashed out of the second race while chasing me, letting me right back into the championship hunt. I was 7 points behind Sandy and 20 points clear of Mark, and with 25 points for each win, 20 points for second, I just needed to win both races at the last round to take the Regal crown. Not an easy task, I've raced against Sandy for most of my career, and he's not to be underestimated. He had already won three rounds, including the double points race at the British Superbike meeting. But I felt that after Stuart Youngs latest dyno work, my bike had an advantage at the September race, though since he also builds Sandy's engines it was likely that he too would get a similar new exhaust system for his bike, and indeed that was the case.

I went up to Knockhill on Thursday right after work to get the van parked up in a good spot in the paddock. The meeting was the traditional Jock Taylor memorial sidecar festival, and would feature multiple world champion Steve Webster as well as a host of top European outfits in the final round of the European championship. So the paddock was already quite busy as I put up the awning with a little help from Ian Forrest of Knockhill Circuit.

I couldn't get the day off work, so I missed the Friday practise sessions, but the weather was pretty wet or damp, so in the end I didn't miss anything. I planned to go up on Saturday morning with regular helper Neil Aldridge, do the practice on Saturday morning, and the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

I had made a number of changes to the bike at the previous weekend's British championship round at Donington, and spent a few hours in the garage during the week resetting the suspension to the exact settings that had worked so well for me at the previous Knockhill event. The bike was ready by the Tuesday night. I had also found out that the control fuel we had to use at Donington certainly knocked a few horsepower off, and would probably require a different map for the injection. Stuart advised me to change back to the fuel I had used previously - ordinary pump super unleaded from a popular garage. The popular bit is significant as I'm sure that the volatile (and good) components of the fuel evaporate all the time, so if the petrol has been in the tanks for a few weeks, it's likely to have lost much of it's potency.

The forecast was for showers clearing, and so it proved. The track was wet in the morning, so I didn't do the practice after seeing that other classes were well off the pace. I would wait instead for the afternoon qualifying which would surely be dry as it brightened up and the wind grew stronger. By the time we went out, it was bone dry, and I had it planned in my head that I would get away at the front on my used tyres, and get a couple of clear laps before we started lapping the slower riders. It worked to perfection. After passing Donald Macfadyen and Mark Wright on the out lap, my lap times were 54.1, 52.8, 52.4, so on seeing that I came in to check that the timekeepers had got those good times. They had, and no-one else was below 54s at that time, so I decided to stop there and then, confident that I'd have pole position after those three flying laps. That was the case, Sandy Christie ended the 15 minute session 2nd on a 53.5, over 1.1s slower than me and having done 15 laps. I was extremely happy at having won the first psychological battle.

It took us an hour or so to polish and check the bike, I planned to do the morning warm-up on the same tyres. The front was new at the preceding Donington meeting and had only done 7 laps there, so would do the whole weekend at Knockhill, while the rear was the one on which I had done both races at the last Knockhill meeting, so I'd fit a new one for the two races on Sunday.

We spent Saturday night chatting with friends around the paddock, and enjoyed a beer courtesy of Donald Macfadyen and his partner Clare while watching Les Shand polishing all the silverware he was having to give back the following day.

It was a bright enough morning, but either there was a ridiculous dew, or it had rained during the night, as the tarmac was totally wet. Despite the sun, it hadn't dried up by the time of our warm-up, so I only did two laps and pulled in. No point in learning how slippery it was. We'd been joined as usual by Dave Nicholson for the Sunday to wield the spanners, and he set to work getting the rear wheel out and took it to get the tyre changed for a new soft compound one the same as I had been using. Despite only getting one lap from the pit exit to the start of the race, I can usually scrub them well enough for it not to be a problem going out with a new tyre, but looking around I think virtually no-one else does that, they all scrub them in the morning warm up.

Over the lunch break, Sandy Mark and I were interviewed together by the commentator, and it was amusing to see that there was a definite atmosphere of tension, not at all hostile, but not relaxed either! So I wasn't the only one that was getting wound up, but we all shook hands after the interview.

I went out for the race and was careful to scrub the tyre on both sides on the warm up lap, lining up on the pole position slot on the left of the track facing the 400 yard drag to the right handed first corner. I hoped to get the holeshot, but as the lights changed I made a terrible start as the bike bogged down a couple of times, and I was about 6th round the first turn. I soon made up places, and was through to second by the end of the second lap, I don't remember the exact sequence. But as I chased leader Sandy, it was clear that there was something wrong with my bike which had caused it to bog down at the start. As soon as you tried to regulate the throttle, such as when it wheelied up the straight, it would die for a split second and spit flames out of the exhaust (unseen by me!). It also had a terrible vibration from the rear wheel going into corners when the load was off it, a sign of being well out of balance.

No matter, I caught Sandy within another lap, and he looked back coming out of the chicane to see I was about three feet behind him. We hammered round like that for a couple of laps as I struggled to slipstream him on the straights with my bike misbehaving, and looked for a place to pass him. I certainly was not playing around as was suggested afterwards by a few people, I was pushing pretty hard. On the 8th lap I dived past him going into Clarks, a 3rd gear uphill right hander. I had the bike quite sideways going in, and slightly missed the apex, compromising my drive out, and as we braked for the next corner - the hairpin - it was no surprise to see him outbraking me up the inside to retake the lead. He also was on a line that compromised his exit speed so I was right on his tail as we started the 9th lap (of 10), and I was in a position to have a go into McIntyres, but he shut the door pretty firmly and I lost about 5 or 6 bike lengths. This was not in my plan, and I had to absolutely ride the wheels off it to catch him up, not even in his slipstream as we started the last lap.

But I just threw caution to the wind, flew round the first two corners getting a perfect run up on him and this time outbraked him into McIntyres by such a margin that I was worried he would cut back inside me on the exit. If he did, I didn't see him, and I took my normal racing line through the next kink and took as much kerb as I dared through the chicane where I knew I was faster, and kept my head down through Clarks and round towards the hairpin. To my horror there were three backmarkers in front and we were going to catch them right at the hairpin, the last corner of the race. There was no decision to be made, I had to go for it if I wanted to win, and I passed two of them on the brakes, and ruthlessly cut under the third at the apex, so I didn't lose any time, but it was VERY close. I got a good drive out, and knew then that I was home & dry provided I didn't miss a gearchange before the line... which I didn't. But I didn't dare celebrate before the line either! In the end the winning margin was 0.8s, with a gap of several seconds back to Donald Macfadyen continuing his run of strong placings. Mark Wright was 5th which ruled him out of title contention.

That first race was also for the Roy Anderson Memorial Trophy, which is one that I have never won before in its 11 year existence, so it was an extra bonus to be presented with that after the race. Roy was one of my heroes at Knockhill when I used to go as a spectator, he could wheelie his Honda CBX and was the star of the show as far as I was concerned in his much photographed Dave Aldana style skeleton painted leathers. He turned out to be a real gentleman once I got to know him after I started racing myself.

My immediate concern after the race was for Neil to go and find Stuart Young of YPE in the paddock and get his help to sort the fuelling problem that I described. Luckily Stuart knew exactly what the problem was (throttle position sensor) and how to fix it, so by the time I returned to the awning there was only the wheel balance issue to be sorted, which I did myslf using Donald Macfadyens balancing equipment - thanks Donald and Stuart.

I can't really explain or quantify how nervous I was before the second and final race of the season. The championship depended on it, and I was still 2 points behind Sandy so whoever beat the other would win the championship, and if we both crashed then he would be champ. I was pretty confident though that if I could get away in front then I could lap faster than Sandy. Once again I didn't get a good start, and was 4th as we headed round to the hairpin at the end of the first lap. No big worry, but I outbraked Bob Grant and went inside second placed Donald round the hairpin. I was desperate to get a good drive out and wound the throttle just a bit too enthusiastically, and had a huge near-highside which threw me right out of the seat. Luckily I landed right back on it, and within a split second was back on the gas, but not before I'd dropped back to 4th again.

I repassed Bob Grant at the next corner, took Donald going into Clarks on lap two (which was a 53.2 for me), caught Sandy at the start of lap three and passed him cleanly going into McIntyres again. I didn't look back and concentrated on getting my head down and getting away, which worked perfectly, the next 5 laps were all below 52.8s, and I remember Neil showing me a +2 on the board as we started the 8th lap. I hadn't quite thought about winning when I saw waved yellow flags approaching Clarks. I couldn't afford to slow down virtually at all, but rounded Clarks (a blind uphill 100mph right hander) to find a fallen rider and his bike on the right of the track and marshalls running to his aid on the other side of the track. It was a dangerous situation, and before I got to the hairpin the red flags were out to stop the race.

I cruised into pit lane unsure whether the race would be restarted for an aggregate result, but within a few seconds it was declared a result. That was it, I'd won the race and the championship! What a feeling. Some elation, some relief, and I was lost for words in the post race interview. But it certainly felt pretty good!

I tried to thank everyone I could think of both in the post race interview and my message in the programme, and forgive me if I do some of the same here. Thanks to sponsors in no particular order: Itronix, Alvins.com, Rock Oil London, ETI, YPE, Neil Williams Haulage, Transco, and Knockhill Circuit. Thanks to Neil Aldridge, Dave Nicholson, Ian Willcox, Gareth Evans, Ray Johnston, Brian Goodall, Graham Dove, and especially Stuart Young for the hours that all of you have given up to help me with various things this season. Believe me, it is appreciated, and this is a result for all of my sponsors and friends as much as it is for me.

Roll on 2003!