It's in the Race Part 1 clip, stupid stupid spin after I somehow thought I was in the ideal place to go for an overtake and it would be OK to stamp on the throttle.

It's even worse than I thought watching the video, I'm not even on the right side of the track and must've had a fair bit of lock on. Idiot.

Anyway, barring Jo's little off, it was a superb weekend both as a competitor and a spectator.

The nerves were ever so slightly better than the first event, probably because I'm more familiar with Brands then Lydden, but they were still there and no doubt always will be.

The best bit for me has to be the first few laps of the second race, we were dreading rain and it looked like it had been and gone, we did the green flag lap, lined up on the grid for the start and the heavens opened.

From what I can remember and by the looks of the video it didn't really bother me to start with, it was only when it stopped raining and the track started to get greasy that I started to slow down. I was absolutely determined not to spin again, and that (I think) is when Jo having already got past, started to put some distance between us.

Not long after that she fell off, like I normally do

I think we are going to have some cracking races, maybe for longer than a few laps as the year goes on, it's just finding that balance between trying to hard and not trying hard enough. I speaking for myself BTW, I think Jo's closer to it than me at the moment.

It's interesting watching the videos, I've not seen footage of myself before and how far off the edges of the track I am. It certainly goes some way to explain my dire lap times

It was also really good to watch some racing again, it's something I used to do a lot a few years ago but most of my time at tracks these days involves me driving (not that I'm complaining).

Roll on Lydden in May

 

The video's are really useful - I thought I was using all the track and watching that I realised I was wasting loads of it !!!

The really annoying thing is, I only span cos I hit that slippy rubber stuff beyond the rumble strip GRRRRRRR

 

Thanks for the comments Dave

Here are some more photos taken by Jeff Bloxham, a professional photographer of jeffbloxham.com









and my favourite

 

Hasn't he got any of me in front?



...or wasn't I there long enough

 

The third one down - I love it cos it looks like we're eyebaling each other!

 

Sorry to hear about the prang Jo, it happens to the best of us

Good stuff generally though. Once you've gone a bit too far wide and put that wheel on something slippy, unless there's a ton of run off, you're off.

You were starting to pull a proper lead out from Graham though.

Good stuff to both of you. Keep up the good work and hope you get the car fixed quickly. Damage looks similar to what I did. I'd be surprised if the chassis did need re-jigging though.

 

The chassis is visibly bent...

 

 

interesting to read the race report...

really bad luck with the off.

messing things up at corner entry or mid corner goes relatively un-punished as there is usually plenty of run off or gravel to park the car..

but corner exit onto a straight is often very narrow particularly in circuits with gradients.. and in the wet you are always going to be hitting some form of barrier if you go off at that point as zero grip on the grass... and unfortunately tends to be a corner tap when you hit.

c'est la vie.

 

Thanks Kobe - yes you're right - once I'd hit the grass I was only a passenger and I am sure I remember covering my eyes and waiting for the impact, although I'm not sure I actually did !

I think the only thing I could've done (except not hit the rubber in the first place) was hit the brakes hard and try to bleed some speed off on the tarmac, but tbh I think I crossed it sideways so not a lot of braking would've happened !

Will do better next time!!