2 track days and a race day….
Sorry for the delay in putting this on the blog, it was written soon after the race, just haven’t had a chance to put it up!
What a week and a bit it has been! First track day went very well, had Dave Allen from the Honda team in Swindon come down and give me some tuition which was fantastic and he also helped set the car up for me to able to handle Festa a bit better. The experience of having him drive Festa to was great! He even managed to spin her, so even the best can make a mistake J The speed got better throughout the day and I felt a lot more confident with myself and Festa by the end of it all.
The second track day didn’t go as smoothly in the morning, with a problem with the wheel hub but all sorted by the afternoon and we managed to get out for the afternoon sessions and by the end of it, I was getting to grips with being in the car on my own and building on the speed and technique around the corners.
Race day came …
As you can imagine I was a little nervous about race day as I had a few people coming and being my first race in the car, anything could happen!
Practice was at 8.45am, I decided to go out last and hopefully stay out of everyone’s way. The times came down and I finally managed a 1.27.5!! After seeing this on the dash I decided maybe it was time to try and hang on to anyone that passed me, to see there braking points etc, this was a mistake!!! After 2 spins in 2 laps I decided to go back to learning the circuit and my braking points at my speed! Chequered flag appeared and was time to come in. It was great to see everyone waving at camp when I came in and mum looked very relieved!
Within 30 minutes the qualifying sheets were out and to my amazement I wasn’t last! I managed to be 24th out of 31 not bad for the first time out! It seemed everyone else was in just as much amazement as me especially Dad.
A very much relaxed morning for me, while Gary, Dan, Steve & Nick all worked on the car,
I was still on a high from not being last and not really being any use!
11.45 came and it was time to start lining up in the collecting area ready to go on track for the grid walk about.
Within 20 minutes later the grid walk about was cleared, and Bron was left to sort me out ready for the first race! The look in her eyes must have been a mirror image of mine – full of terror! All belted in, helmet on and Bron allowed to leave the gird!
It felt a long time before the warm up lap happened and the fear just started to kick in.
Lights out and off we go, not a great start but started to pass people up to Quarry until we got to Quarry and I managed to get hung out to dry and by the time we got to the Esses I was last! All I could do now was try and catch up and have a race with a few people, which I did. The race passed so quickly with most of the time having a race with Dawn Boyd in her Peugoet, the way she puts it into corners is fantastic to watch! With 2 laps to go I managed a way round her, and then the flag was out! My first race in Festa over with, and all in one piece and not last. Final position 19th. Dawn came over after and mentioned
the little bit of white paint on my bummer was hers, I thought she had got close, but not as close as she told me! Everyone happy and its been a safe, fun days racing! Back on 31st May ….