Friday testing.

Unfortunately due to financial restrictions we could only test in the afternoon at Snetterton, and with the track being changed plus not being there for over two years I knew I had a lot on my plate to learn. After the appalling weekend at Oulton Park and not being able to compete at Knockhill I felt I had to prove myself not only to me, but to everyone else too, so needless to say I was anxious to get out on track.

It was surprising how much the track had changed, there was the obvious addition of the hairpin and left hander onto the back straight, but also more run-off had been added onto the exit of Nelson and Corum had been extended. The first session was just basically dialing myself back into the car and finding the quickest lines through the new parts of the track. I came in feeling disappointed and unhappy with my first performance, but as I always say, the second time I go out I always go seconds quicker.

The second and final session was much better, i felt a little more confident with the car however there was still much work to do setup wise to bring it to a competitive level. I had knocked another 2 seconds off my time from the first session but i knew there was still more.

Unfortunately after the Oulton Park crash one of the wheels got damaged, so we had to use the spare wheels with wet weather tyres on. This made the car have huge amounts of understeer, so we knew that was one thing we needed to sort before qualifying.

Qualifying

For qualifying we were able to borrow a wheel off Matt Robinson so i finally had my usual dry tyres on the car and i was looking forward to getting a good position. I managed to qualify a poor 13th. Unfortunately we hadn’t accounted enough setup wise to how much the car was going to grip up at the front, so the back of the car was just too loose. Once again I came in feeling deflated and unhappy with my performance as I know I can do much better than that.

Race 1
Starting 13th off the grid I knew I had a lot of work to do, but one thing I do enjoy is coming through a pack of cars. I had focused myself on the goal ahead and knew what I had to do. I got a great start however the car in front didn’t and I was squeezed alongside the pit wall which let several cars go by, but by the end of lap 1 I had gotten myself back up into 13th position and was chasing down 12th. By the end of lap 2 I was in 12th, lap 3- 11th, and lap 4 in 10th. I eventually got 9th place on lap 8 and held my position to the end of the race. I was pleased with my result and the car felt much better from the morning qualifying session.

Race 2
I started 10th on the grid for race 2. Once again i made a fairly good start and slotted into 10th position behind Clint Bardwell. For the majority of the race Clint and I swapped places which allowed Kevin Taylor to catch up behind us. Once I got past Clint and pulled away, I had Kevin to deal with too. Once again swapping places several times throughout the race. Eventually I was able to pull a good lead on Kevin and was able to set my quickest lap times of the race and finish in 9th position.

Race 3
Once again I got a great start and overtook a few cars off the line which put me into 8th position. Keeping up with the front bunch I battled hard trying to reel them in however my engine was no match, so it was simply a catching up game through the corners. Fortunately, one or two cars in the front pack had to retire which promoted me to 5th position which I held for the rest of the race.

It was just what I needed, what a confidence boost! The first half of the season I was up with the front pack, and after a poor meeting at Oulton and missing Knockhill I was back with them once again. Not only that, it also reassured me to know that my car was in good shape after the Oulton incident.

I was also awarded Driver of the Event by the team coordinators.