The Qualifier

Donington Park Circuit – 10 May 2021. Nerves and anxiety have never been an issue for me in any of my sporting history. But the night before the race it took me a long time to get off to sleep, and I was wide awake at 6:00am like a kid at Christmas.

The day had finally arrived, from knowing nothing about driving on a track let alone racing a Porsche only 15 months ago, to getting dressed into my Race PPE in the hotel room. I had to pinch myself, it was all becoming very real that in just 2 hours I would be racing head to head with 30 Porsches on a combined grid totalling 10,000 BHP… I could imagine what the noise would be like but nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen!

Great work by the PARR Motorsports Team

Just 2 days before the race we were having huge issues with the car due to the electrics, but with some great work from the amazing PARR Motorsports Team and luckily owning a second Porsche Boxster, we were able to use parts from one car to fix the other (there was no way new parts would arrive in time from Germany). Although the revs were up and down like a yoyo and the starting was a little unpredictable, we were on the Assembly Grid ready for the start of qualifying.

As I climbed through the roll bars into the racecar-like Bo Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, hopping into the General Lee, the reality was, I was BRICKING IT!! Once strapped in like a trussed chicken so tight that I could hardly breathe, I was in the zone and determined to get some good times as the green flag waved at 9:05am and the roar of the 30 engines moved away I kicked off hard and fast like the team had told me to, I now had just 20 minutes to prove my worth.

Fast early laps

I got in some solid fast early laps before anyone could catch me and before the tyre grip dropped off which tends to happen after a few laps as the tyre heat builds up. I looked down at my lap counter and I smiled when I saw it equalled my PB from the previous day and on the next lap, I couldn’t believe my eyes as I did another identical lap to the 100^th of a second.

Unfortunately, when I had finished, I was to discover that the second time has been disallowed for breaching track limits, so I was placed in P5 (5th on the grid) for both of the day’s races. If they had allowed my second time to stand, I would have been P3 for race two… a bit annoying, but I was happy with my positions for my first ever qualifier and I had stayed on the track”

Now my mind was firmly fixed on Race 1 of the day…