DONINGTON PARK RACE WEEKEND

Sunday Race Weekend

Where to start, once again another eventful weekend. Qualifying yesterday didn't go to plan which meant I had to start from 6th in race one and 8th in race two.

In the first race there were three cars side by side trying to go through the left of the craner kerbs but as you can guess it didn't work out and two of the cars ended up spinning off on the first lap which brought the safety car out on the next lap round so the cars could be moved to a safe place. Once the safety car went back into the pits I was running in 5th place with the line from first to fourth in front and sixth right behind me. I had to defend from the person in sixth place which made the gap from me to forth widen. On the last lap I was still in 5th place and 6th right behind me and going into mcleans as I went to turn in fr the corner the car behind me hit the rear right of my car and launch himself over the top of my car and landed on my bonnet driving over my hand in the process, we then both went off the track onto the grass and once he had got off my car I managed to get back onto the track with a damaged rear right wheel and made it round tot he finish line in 9th position which was good considering what had just happened so I managed to still score some points.

The second race was just as eventful but before we had even got out on the track there was a tough decision t make considering which tyres to put on the car the dry's or the wets because it had rained so hard that there where rivers running along the track, but then it stopped raining and started to dry right before we were getting ready to line up for the race. Everyone but one decided to go for the wet tyres instead of the dry's for the start of the race but then when we went out on track for the warm up lap I could see that the track was more or less dry and we had made the wrong decision. I started the race in 8th position and the person on the dry tyres was starting in front of me on the grid. By the first corner he had already dropped back because he couldn't get the heat into the tyres. on the next lap round into the first corner I dived down the inside but as I was coming out of the corner there was someone right in the front of me and we both started to slide wide to the outside of the track and as he went past the kerb and onto the mud he flicked it all over my car and visor but then just as he had done that I ran wide on the mud as well and the back of the car slid I ended up taking to the grass to save the car from spinning and when I rejoined I had dropped down to 11th position, so I had a lot of work to do to fight my way back to the front. I started to push really hard to make up the mistake as the start of the race and I put a load of quick laps together which made me join on to the back of the people in front. I managed to overtake two people going into the last chicane just before the main straight which puts me 9th overall. The next bunch of cars I caught I did the same thing and overtook them around the outside under braking entering the last chicane meaning I was now in 7th position. I then carried on pushing hard to catch the next person in front of me which I did and got him into the same corner the last chicane which put me 6th place. There were about five laps to go when I was in 6th place, to try and catch and overtake the person in 5th position. I caught him up the next lap and got a good run onto the straight heading to the last chicane and I went for the inside but he blocked me off so I switched to the outside then when it came to brake I made sure I braked later and cut in front of him and took 5th position. There was a big gap to fourth position so my next concern was keeping everyone behind me and maintaining 5th position.

Overall the weekend could have gone a lot better because I had the pace to compete at the front but a bit of bad luck stopped be again. I can still take away that I made two good recoveries to gain as many points as possible for the championship.

The next round is at Silverstone (15th - 16th August) and then even though I have never been to the track before I will be hoping for a good finish in both races and get a good points haul.

I would like to say a big thank you to the team (Academy Motorsport). I would once again like to thank my family and friends for coming to the track and giving me a lot of support, it's much appreciated. I also would like to thank my sponsors, Kammac Plc, S. Huyton & Sons Ltd and Wesley & Co. Chartered accountants, without their financial support I would not be where I am today.