Donnington Park
29th March
Round 2

The Vees were racing on Saturday and were first on. A 8:25 scrutineering meant getting out of bed at 5am. Practice started ok. A bit of reading the Autosport Guide had awaken me to a decent line into Redgate, something I struggled to master on my 2 previous Donnington visits. Craner Curve was the usual flat out affair and the Old Hairpin on my fastest laps was hustled through in fourth gear. McLeans was terrible driven as before and I felt I had lost something at Coppice and on reflection the Esses was not attacked enough. My lap timing showed my eratic lapping and a 1:24.06. 3 seconds faster than my last visit. It put me 2nd on the grid for the heat. No automatic qualification to the final. Still a bit more practice around Donnington wouldn't do no harm and chance of a victory (although slight hollow).

In between practice and the race I decided on the areas I would find some time. A better line at Coppice, carry more speed into MacLeans and attack the chicane. At the start, I wheelspun a bit but then missing second gear totally knackered up my start leaving me in 10th at the end of the first lap. This didn't concern me because I knew I get back some places but first place was now out of the question. The next few laps I enjoyed some overtaking and dicing - the pulling off of a 3 abreast lunge down the inside into the chicane being the highlight. By the end I had pulled myself up to 4th and had enjoyed the race. Of the areas I wanted to improve, I did attack the Esses but the rest I had not improved and I thought I was worse through the Old Hairpin.

So for the final I was 22nd. Another naff start meant another charge. I made up a few places but the car seemed to have lost its edge. It was smoking a fair bit and sounding rough. I was behind Steve Glasswell and when Steve went wide at Redgates and slowed to avoid going off I jinked to the right to get around him not realising that Adrian Weston was coming up the inside. We touched and I saw Adrian go onto 2 wheel. Luckily for him it came back down on 4 wheels. I continued on and the car's handling felt fine. Tough cars these Vees. With the car sounding rougher and rougher I was driving with one eye on the oil pressure gauge and then suddenly the chequered flag popped out 2 laps early. It turned out later the race was stopped early because of safety issues. An incident at Coppice had left 2 cars close to the edge of the circuit caught in the gravel trap.

I enjoyed the racing but wish I had made a better start in the heat and challanged for the lead. It did cross my mind, what do I need to do if I win - would the commentator want to talk to me ? I'll cross that bridge (hopefully soon) when I come to it.