One day I want to be a racing driver..

It was my husband in his infinite wisdom who suggested buying me a racing driver for my birthday. (Does that sound weird? I mean some instruction sessions from a racing driver, of course!)

Now that's not the normal type of gift a husband might buy for his wife but we'd just returned home from our first track day of the year (in my Toyota MR2 - it was Brands Hatch last year) and were well and truly fed up at getting mullered by the big boys. It turned out to be a very expensive present in more ways than one.

In March '07 I spent the day at Bedford with my racing driver who opened my eyes to just how well my car could handle, and to the fact that I didn't do too shoddy a job of it myself. The seed for racing was sewn and after several days of instruction, about 15 track days later (it's really addictive...and expensive) and much debate over which car and which race series to get involved with, I purchased my race car in September 07. It's an S1 Lotus Elise 111s. And then I signed up for the Elise Trophy.

Six weeks later my first track day outing in my Elise ended in disaster. I made it to the track and was driving down to sign on when the engine cut out and wouldn't restart. Several days later it was established that a tensioner spring had snapped off from the cam belt and had become mashed up in the engine. It wasn't a pleasant sight. Things had become mistimed and had gone places they weren't supposed to go.

After much debate the car was taken off the road early, the engine removed and sent away for repair, reconditioning and porting and the work began on race-preparing my Elise. Whilst the car was in good condition for road use, the level of corrosion we discovered when we started stripping the body work back was horrendous. Fortunately I have a father who is an ex-mechanic and a husband who is an engineer. Both were willing to help out. I was the official tea maker, tool hander and general dogsbody.

Every weekend between October and Christmas 07 was spent stripping down the car and reconditioning the suspension. Between Christmas and the New Year was spent reassembling the suspension. Every weekend up until the end of January was spent reinserting the engine and reassembling the rest of the car. (A big thank you to my two race mechanics who devoted 5 months of their free time to this project!)

Oh and in between all of this activity, I attended Thruxton in November and gained my ARDS Race Licence. I have also been spending the rest of my time at the gym in a desperate attempt to get fit for the racing.

I think that about brings you up to speed - I'll let you know how things progress.