Race 2 – Donington Park Circuit
Donington Park Circuit – We had a 3-hour gap between the 1st and 2nd races of the day and the team used this time wisely.
My instructor ran me through the video and data footage from race 1 analysing how I could get a better place for race 2.
Starting in P5, the team wanted me to push much harder in lap 1, so revs up much earlier in preparation for lights out start. 5000 revs and BANG I was off like a rocket, cars darting all around and I stayed full throttle and did a magnificent late brake that shot me up to 2nd place into the first corner.
What was I doing there?! What a start!
By lap 5 I had lost some of the places I had gained, but I then found myself fighting with a class 2 driver into the Chicane and in doing so sent him flying off the track.
To my amazement as I exited like a cork shooting from a champagne bottle, I noticed that the two cars in front of me from my class had spun and one had been fired off towards the pit wall. I saw my chance and gave it some serious welly!! By the end of the pit straight I was ahead of both and followed it with a blisteringly fast lap.
I kept these cars behind me along with a class 2 car lap after lap and after a few dog fights, I finished 7th again with the class 2 car 1 second behind me. I was knackered!!
I had started to struggle with my concentration in the second part of this race. Our Team Principle, Paul, said that this was normal for new race drivers and that he could see my lap times falling off but not surprising after nearly 60 laps of racing… that’s the distance of an F1 race in total so not bad going!
A successful day for the whole team
So, with a good qualifier and two solid races for my first race day, it had been a great success and the whole team said they had a fantastic day. I was over the moon and it really set a strong platform for me to build off.
I am now training for Round 2 of the Porsche Classic Boxster Cup to be held at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit on 1st May which was the original home of the British F1 Grand Prix and is full of fast and tricky sections, so let’s go racing!!
