Friday

So it was a really hot sunny morning and we were all up early ready for are usual track walk. By 9 ‘o’ clock and just after the track walk the heat was already extremely hot, we knew we were in for a hot day. The first session came about at around 11am for 45 minutes. I went out and felt as if all was good. The car felt okay, if not a bit understeery but I was still pushing on anyways. I then noticed that I was sitting in 5th place which I was chuffed about. I came in for a set of better front tyres, went out and set some seriously good laps good enough for 2nd overall just 0.185s off the fastest person, a mega result!

By the time the 2nd session came around at 3.25 the heat was almost unbearable and the track temperature was scorching meaning that the tyres were going off so fast. I went out on the same tyres and set up as before and put in some decent but slower times. I then came in for a new set of Slicks which made the car brilliant! But, i didn’t use them particularly well as I was stuck in traffic and therefore the tyres went off very quickly due to the heat meaning that I had a lot of understeer in the car and ultimately I could only manage 10th fastest in that session.

My results from earlier meant that I was 4th quickest overall throughout the day, so lets hope as qualifying is at a similar time tomorrow, the same 2nd fastest, or even one better for pole, time can be achieved! Fingers crossed.

Saturday

So Saturday started with an 11.25 qualifying, and another hot start to the day. I went out straight away on new tyres and was running first for a considerable amount of time. Unfortunately there was an accident at the first corner meaning the yellow flags were out for a while so nobody could go any faster. I therefore came in to switch to a new set of tyres ready for a second go at qualifying. Everyone seemed to get much quicker later on and I managed a 1m36.261s lap time just 3 tenths off pole position again but only managing 8th on the grid and 8th on the grid for tomorrow’s race too.

Come 4.30pm it was race time. I got a reasonable start up to the first corner and was side by side with Matt Allison before I was pushed out wide over the dirt losing me ground. As a result the fast starting Jake Packun got a run on me and got past by the 2nd corner putting me into 10th. From 1st to 10th for the majority of the race we were all in a line everyone as fast as each other leaving the remainder of the field behind us. Jake then started to struggle with his tyres and as a result I managed to line him up for a successful pass into the hairpin putting me up to 9th. I couldn’t gain any further ground on the people up ahead though so had to settle for 9th overall, still a top 10 finish great news for me and the Daffodil Car. Bring on tomorrow’s race, let’s hope to go a few better yet!

Sunday

So Sunday brought us Race 2 at Oulton Park and Round 8 of the Clio Cup. The race was scheduled at 3.10pm and the weather looked gloomy. The morning was most certainly wet, it then dried up slightly around mid day but then poured down with rain just after 2pm which meant we all decided at Pyro to go for full wet tyres and a tweaked set up for our race. It was certainly the right call as all our cars were extremely fast. I knew from the first corner that I had a race winning car underneath me and that was certainly proved by two of my team mates taking 1st and 2nd. I believed that there was a podium in the car and myself.

So I had a good start off the line and was up to 7th instantly. The first lap was fast and frantic and I clearly had more pace than those in front. Come the second lap there was a mistake at the hairpin between two other cars so I slipped up the inside to take 5th, on my way to what I thought would be a podium. But then disaster struck as one of the cars that had gone wide rejoined without knowing I was on the inside of the track. He swiped across the front of my car trying to get on overlap and instantly broke my steering bringing my race to a very sudden end. Very disappointing for me and the daffodil car I was sure of a very good result but then that’s motorsport I suppose. Such a shame, but we can only look forward to Croft knowing that we have the pace wet or dry. Fingers crossed, especially for a wet croft!