Rob closed out the 2009 season with another race for Lunar Racing in the Britcar 'Into the night' meeting at Brand Hatch. Again joining forces with Cassey Watson, Rob competed in the final round of the Britcar 2009 Production Championship. "I am delighted to be invited again to race alongside Cassey, she is an extremely quick and competent driver. I am also looking forward to working with Lunar Racing again following our outing in the Britcar 500" (see The Britcar 500... finally!!!!).

With the weather forecast looking like it was going to be raining over the race weekend, the lack of horse power the team are suffering from looked likely to be equalized with the wet condition. Also with the chance of securing 3rd overall and 2nd in Class the stage was set for an exciting weekend.

On arriving at the circuit early on Saturday morning, this is a one day meeting with qualifying and racing on the same day, the weather was cold but dry. This meant that we were really up against it as we had to beat the BPM Clio Cup car of Ash Woodman and Owen Thomas to maintain our position in the championship. "I knew as soon as I saw the weather on Saturday morning that were going to have a battle on our hands. BPM have a fantastic car in the Clio and it is always immaculately prepared. Ash and Owen have really worked hard on their race craft and have really stepped to the plate in the last three or four meetings. I am a positive thinker but we are going to need something special to secure our positions" stated Rob.

Qualifying went relatively well, however the lack of horse power showed around the Indy circuit with Rob setting a 57.2 and Cassey showing her additional experience in the Car with a 56.8. The Lunar Racing MG would be starting its final race of 2009 from the very back of the grid. Well things can only get better.

Cassey started the 90 minute race and immediately got onto the pace of the car setting steady 57.5s with dips into the 56s with a 56.2, setting the fastest time for the Car all weekend. After 45 minutes, Cassey brought the car in to hand over to Rob 4th in class behind the Clio of Woodman and Thomas. With a quick refuel and no new tyres Hedley immediately settled onto the pace with consistent 57.5s. Following an unscheduled stop by the BPM Clio for a suspected gearbox problem, the race really hotted up when the Clio came out of the pits directly in front of Rob. "When I saw the Clio in front of me I knew this was my chance and took off after them with everything I could. I stayed on the back of the Clio for lap after lap only interrupted when quicker cars lapped me but I was soon on the back of it. The only problem was I was driving the car way past its limit and the tyre pressures were creeping up. In the end I had to ease off slightly to bring them back down as I was struggling with major understeer". Rob again settled into consistent 57.5s again for the rest of the race and brought the car home 4th in class and 14th overall just 9.7 seconds behind the BPM Clio and a quickest lap of 57.1 on the slowly deteriating rubber.

"That was a fantastic race" commented Hedley immediately afterward "to finish just 9 seconds behind the Clio which is so much quicker than us really showed what a strong driver pairing Cassey and I are. We both drove our hearts out today in the chase of the final position of the championship, unfortunately on the day the Clio was just a bit too quick. I don't think we could have done any more, in fact when I looked at the front tyres after the race we were down to the canvas!!!"

After a fantastic season and an excellent race, Lunar Racing finished the season with 3rd in class and 4th overall. A fantastic achievement in their first season of Britcar. Rob and everyone at RobHedley.com would like to congratulate Lunar Racing on their success and thank them for allowing Rob to be involved. Here's to next season.