OMG!!! think I have a new favourite track!!........ Had an amazing weekend at Donington Park racing two more rounds of Junior Saloon Car Championship. This B.A.R.C. meeting was pretty special with the Truck Racing, Convoy in the Park and Praga Cup.
Had a little head start thanks to Ashley Gregory Racing who went through her previous race footage with me beforehand, which is always appreciated when I am paying my first visit to these tracks.
Arrived safe and sound again with Adam Kluj Transport ready for practice day, which went well. This weekend we had my cousin Javier with us for the race meeting experience while he is here in the UK. He and my dad put to work the practice day structure which we had used a few weeks previously working with Aston of Nurburgring Tours. The testing and debriefs saw me improve my laptimes with each outing. I was pleased with my progress and confident about Saturday mornings qualifying session.
Unfortunately qualifying didn't go to plan, paying the price for our inexperience. Ended the short session not achieving the pace I had previously, and a little disappointed to be sitting in P22 for both races, which would be taking place on Sunday.
Before beginning the evening prep we spent a chilled afternoon watching my old karting friend Gordie Mutch and his teammate Jimmy Broadbent racing in the Praga cup and taking a win. Thanks to them both for taking time to chat and kindly showing me and Javi around the car. We also got to watch some of the amazing and slightly crazy truck racing, and met a couple of truck lovin cowgirls on the way back. lol.
Ended the day with a full track walk of the 1.9 mile circuit along with my cousin, who it turns out is pretty good at going over the V-Box data. So we stopped at each corner, finding many areas where I could make improvements, this gave me a positive feeling about the two races which lay ahead on Sunday.
Made a good start in Race one, and some early positions, before putting a wheel on the grass being squeezed, as we were three wide down hill on Craner Curves. this resulted in a trip through the gravel at Old Hairpin. Got back to position after a red flag incident and safety car, but sadly race one was to end early after a second incident. Thankfully nobody was hurt although their car damage was significant. Due to the race ending prematurely no points were awarded which was a shame as I had would have placed in a good position.
Preparing the car for Race two in the afternoon and discovered that my little trip through the gravel had caused a driveshaft failure, but my parents had it replaced pretty quickly.
We even managed to spend a little time between the races with the boss man Adam Kluj
and his guests who were up in VIP which added to making raceday pretty special. We got to watch some racing with them too looking down onto turn one, before we had to head back to grid.
Keen to impress I sat in the car and set myself an ambitious target of a top ten finish. I made a great start from my grid position and narrowly missed a stationary car in front, and continued to make good progress throughout the race working my way up to P11. Trying just a little too hard behind James in P10, my overdriving let him just slip out of reach with a couple of laps to go. Still proud to deliver my best finish so far in the championship and bagged a few points as an independent running rookie. Really grateful to be able to do this, huge thanks to all my sponsors, particularly Adam Kluj, Nurburgring Tours, and Arthur Morgan Kitchens. Also thank you everyone else who has come to watch, called at the race awning, sent messages of support, and/or bought some of my One Nine clothing, it is very much appreciated.
Lots to learn with each venue for us all, moving forward into the remaining rounds of my first season and really looking forward to the next one as we head to Anglesey. Trac Mon is special to me because it is where I gained my racecar licence just twelve months ago, albeit in torrential conditions, and also with the TV cameras looking on as we filmed 'My Life on the Fast Track' (see previous news blogs).
Hopefully the weather will be a little more kind this time. Just one weekend to prepare....., then we go again, see you there.
Sandro#19
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