Brands Hatch Rounds 3/4 2012

Right So its a little bit behind schedual. but I think that can be forgiven considering whats happend!

So the car was fixed just in time to get out and race, she looked just as good as normal and felt just as good as normal on track, I’ve got to thank my dad for the effort he put in during the rebuild with me in the garage, the car wouldn’t have made it to the track without him!

Qualifying
A very very wet session at brands hatch, I hadn’t been out in the car since the crash so the aim for the session was just to get through it and come out the other end, in one piece and with some information about how the car felt after the rebuild.
The session started and very quickly a red flag came out while i was trying to find some space to play in. The red flag benefitted me really well as I was the 1st driver to get back to the pits and park at the end waiting to go back out. When the green flag came out I let george go straight past as I knew he would be faster and I didn’t see the point in holding him up. For the next few laps I had clear track ahead which was perfect! during these 4 laps I put in my fastest time which was goodenough for 4th place on the grid (same as silverstone!) Sadly the rest of the session I was finding my way through traffic and my 2nd fastest time only put me 7th on the grid how ever considering I had gone out on track with the aim of making it to the finish of the session with some information about the cars condition the grid positions were fantastic and quite a shock to be honest!

Race 1
So starting on the outside of the 2nd row, I felt if I got round the 1st lap I would make it to the end with a decent result and thought I would take it steady and just hold position. However when the lights went out I completely ignored my plan and went for it on the outside of paddock hill and headed up to druids alongside george, I was on the outside again and didn’t really have a option but to go round the outside (risky considering it was damp!) but it paid off as hinson got a bit sideways and held george up on the apex and I skipped into 2nd place. george got past paul fairly quickly and was soon on my tail and quickly past on lap 3, so I was down to 3rd, at this point I was pulling away from everyone behind and starting to feel a bit comfortable, Guy and George disapeard off into the distance and I was just on my own. However close to the end of the race my tyres went off and just seemed to drop off a cliff as the track had dried and we had a wet setup so the tyres overheated. Mick Wells caught up with me and got past so did matt palmer. At this point we were going through the back markers so it kept us all pretty close together, Paul Hinson and Stuart nichols also got past during the traffic. But I managed to get past Mike Wells as he missed a gear on the final lap, so I finished 5th in class and 6th overal which is my best result in the championship so far.

Race 2
Starting 7th on the grid this time I was on the inside of row 4, I got a good initial jump but george infront didn’t and I was boxed in behind so had to lift off and coming out of the 1st lap I was down to 8th with a lot of work to do. Still getting a feel of the track as it was a lot dryer than before I just got into the rythem as Steve Wells spun at druid. I spotted it quite early and tried to set myself up to go on the inside of the track because it looked like he was spinning to the outside, sadly when I turned to go inside There was already 2 cars there and from that point there was nothing I could do but to drive into the static Steve Wells in a head on crash. The damage was massive and put both of us out of the race. Thankfully we were both able to drive the cars off the track to avoid a red flag but sadly we had another massive rebuild to work on and get ready, it was looking likely that we wouldn’t be at the Motors TV Live Raceday event on the 7th May 8 days after the race.

However me and my dad hatched a plan on the drive to work the following day and got it fixed, not looking quite as nice but the important thing is the car worked and it will look spot on next time!

Bellow is my onboard video of the crash.