Pre-Practice
Winter is over and the racing season has begun. Has I get out of bed at 5:30am and look out of my bedroom window and see my car covered in snow I think, perhaps the racing season has begun too early. Over winter I've done much work on the car. I've done all the "must-do" jobs and now have a long list of "nice to do" jobs to start.
I arrive at Silverstone and get myself a garage. The paddock is icy in places, I wonder what the track is like. My mechanic Ian arrives and we have trouble persuading the fuel pump to work. A faulty earth is the problem and Ian quickly fixes it. He also does the pre-practice checks while I go and change. I choose a fairly soft setup for practice. In the assembly area with the sun shining I decide to harden it up a bit.
Practice
Out onto the track for practice. I spend the first few laps checking the car is working OK and checking out the track. A dry line is there and there is lot more grip than I thought. I circulate reasonable quickly avoiding the odd spin, overtaking slower cars or being passed by faster cars. When I get back into the pits I use the age old excuse "I didn't get a clean lap". 27th is not too bad for the first race of the year.
Pre-Race
Between practice and race we clean the car and sort out a problem with the steering. The bolt we had used at the previous meeting had stretched and there was movement in the steering which was causing the steering wheel to twitch at speed. A replacement high tensile bolt is used.
Race
The race is a blur. I start reasonably well and hold position. I dice with a few cars for the first 3 or 4 laps. Then my group catches up with another group of 3 cars. Now its 6 car group. There is plenty of overtaking for the rest of the race. I try a few moves and get chopped a little. There is cars everywhere. Every corner someone is trying to overtake someone else. At the finish, cars in 18th to 23rd place are covered by less then 1.5 seconds. Unfortunately I am the one in 23rd place. Thoroughly enjoyed the battle and my fastest lap ever at Silverstone 1:10:04
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