Back at the Track!!

Hello everyone, welcome to week number five,

The week kicked off with the All Women’s Racing Championship (A.W.R.C) run by CC SimRacing, due to being very busy at the moment I didn’t get a chance to practice the track until one hour before, so with limited run time I wasn’t expecting much. Qualifying went okay but I felt there was more time in the car, I was sitting on the front row in second place when I went off spectacularly at turn one on my last lap meant I couldn’t finish out the session, as the chequered flag came out for the end of qualifying I dropped down to fourth. At the start of the race I nearly forgot we had a formation lap and got a bit too eager but quickly realised and fell back into position. Come the actual start, the leaders hadn’t backed the pack up enough and there was already a one-and-a-half-second gap to the car in front, I quickly managed to pull the gap in and halfway around the lap I made it three wide going into a corner trying to gain two positions, it half worked as I gained one but couldn’t gain the second without making contact so I didn’t try to force it. The race then proceeded for me trying to catch the leader but I kept making little mistakes and overdriving the car, a few spins later and being very grumpy I crossed the line in sixth, as you can imagine I was not best pleased with that result.

Another day another race. This was the final round of Alethea’s (BananaBraids) Banana Boffin Series at Misano, a track Yvonne and myself are very familiar with. After a dry qualifying which I managed the high end of the midfield, we went to the grid and it was raining cats and dogs, something we didn’t plan for but had been on the cards all season but just didn’t happen at the other races. Running a completely dry set-up on a very wet track definitely threw up a few surprises, even the leaders were getting caught out by the conditions as I saw a few of them slide a little off track. After an eventful start, I settled myself down, got a rhythm going, and pulled myself back up to the twelfth position. It was nice to be back in Bernadette it’s just a shame she has been B.o.P’d too much now in favour of the newer cars.

The third race in three days and the last sim race of the week. RPM series on iracing saw us at Interlagos. I had some practice with this due to the VRS sprint races and Endurance, I qualified mid-pack as usual and around fifth or sixth in the Bronze class. The race again started okay but a little into the race I made a mistake and lost around ten positions putting me in the low thirties, got my head down and kept putting the laps in, my pace was well within the top ten and I started to pick people off and made up a lot of positions, but as usual, I got too many incident points and had to serve a drive through and then on the last lap and last corner I got too greedy with the exit kerb and put the car in the wall which resulted in me not being able to finish as the car was dead. Next week is Bathurst but I’m not holding out much hope as those walls on the mountain are lethal.

Now to my favourite part of this week, Yvonne and I had our first test/track day in the Citreon C1 at Donington. A long journey we got there early and made sure we had all the admin done and just waited for the chance to get on track. Unfortunately during the shakedown laps, the car developed a problem with the hand controls and onboard ECU caused them not to work together which meant that the car either had no power or the brakes binded on. With the car basically undrivable nobody got to put any laps in but it was a great opportunity to get some media shots and footage with the car which is always a bonus. It was also a good day as we meet the new team and drivers and we had one of our United Sim Team drivers there, it was very nice to meet Meg and get to know her a little better and continue building on our friendship.

Last but not least I need to do something that I don’t really like doing. If anyone out there is interested in motorsport and wants to help me secure my place on the grid It would be awesome, and just think you could be standing on a pit wall in the not-too-distant future watching the cars fly by :)

Thank you all and see you next time