Round 2 - Race Day 1 - Donington

It was an early start today as I was qualifying at 9am. The weather had been heavy rain over night and the track was damp, which is not a good thing at Donington as it's a very slippery circuit due to the aviation fuel (as a result of being at the bottom of the airport run way).

We got to the circuit nice and early to prepare the car. It was a completely different sight to the evening before as lots of cars, lorries and camper vans had turned up over night and set up.

Qualifying came around quickly and there was an air of tension due to the track conditions. It wasn't a pleasant experience; I pretty much locked my wheels up at most corners on the ciruit at some point during the 15 minute qualification. There was several offs by other drivers and we came back in feeling stressed.

There were now several hours of waiting until the race at 14:45. This was spent catching up with other drivers, sun bathing, reading, eating and watching the weather closely.

Unfortunately in the final hour before the race big rain clouds rolled in and there were several downpours. It was rapidly looking like our first race was going to be similar to qualifying and I was not looking forward to it as I was worried about the potential carnage of 30 odd drivers trying to get round the first few corners in very slippery conditions.

Starting 22nd on the grid, I lined up along with all the other Class A cars. I got a reasonable start but lost 5 places due to caution; there was lots of spray and a lot of determined drivers trying to get through.

My caution paid off as there was carnage over the next 3 corners with lots of incidents and cars coming off. To make matters worse a particularly huge rain cloud chose to dump it's contents over the circuit so we disappeared in a deluge of rain and hail.

Bizarrely about 2 laps in I found myself with a huge grin plastered all over my face.

I overtook a few cars but got stuck behind another racer (car 46) who did a good job of stopping me from getting past. Ultimately I was faster than him (I've got the lap times to prove it) but my lack of experience (particularly in such heavy rain) meant that I was too cautious in my attacks and I opted to stay put and not sacrifice my car.


I used the time wisely and took the opportunity to get comfortable with close proximity driving. I did manage to outbrake car 46 at the GP Esses to get past but lack of race craft meant I left the Melbourne Loop wide open for him to get past again. I was getting more confident in the conditions as the race went on I think I would have got past as I started paying careful attention to his weaknesses. Unfortunately I ran out of time, finishing 18th.

This was a difficult race which ended in frustration when I realised that I hadn't turned on my camera so had recorded none of my efforts!