A Great Career Start
Race 9
31st July / 1st August 2021
My first round of the Junior Saloon Car Championship some massive up and downs this weekend but before I get into it I want to say thank you to all the Marshalls and everyone who works incredibly hard behind the scenes, we cannot do any of this without you guys. The accident that took place on the Saturday is a tragedy and my thoughts are with all those affected. #orangearmy
Friday:
Testing day, mixed conditions provided many a red flags. 1st session of the day consisted of about 2 laps but in the second session I was the cause of the stoppage after having to avoid a stopped car at the bottom of Padock Hill. Absolute credit to the team here, the work they put in to get my car back for the Saturday morning looking brand new is nothing short of amazing. To Kev, Marcus and Alfie – I cannot thank you guys enough.
Saturday
Race day! After the events that took place on the saturday the two planned races were cut down to one with what would’ve been the 1st race turned into a 15 minute qualifying session.
Qualifying was good, after the events of Friday I was a little cautious through T1 but gaining confidence every lap. I set my fastest lap on the last lap landing me P8 and 3 tenths off the pole time. After going through the data 2 of those tenths were from T1 alone so an easy gain and a good result.
The race:
After never doing a start in the car before I wasn’t hugely confident for it but it wasn’t too bad, a little wheel spin but only 1 place lost and away we went. An early safety car bunched everyone up but I didn’t lose or gain from it, After the restart I went for a move for P4 and would’ve had it but my gear popped out over the bumps of the Graham Hill apex kerb and instead lost me 2 places. Brands is a very tricky track to overtake on if the person in front knows where to put their car and this is what I suffered from for the rest of the race. We recovered one place from the gear pop out and brought it home in P6 and 1st placed rookie but there is definitely more in there for next time
I’m looking forward to Silverstone in a few weeks time, a simple track which should provide some close racing and good overtaking opportunites but before then we head to south Wales for a test day at Pembrey.
I’d like to thank everyone who has got me to this point, Ed Pead for the coaching, Westbourne Motorsport for the car, support and bloody amazing mechanics, My family and all my sponsors. I couldn’t do this without you guys.
Photo Credits
