Well what can i say, a few months ago it seemed like the season would never start, However today it would appear that it is all over.
The races are complete, the car's back on the trailers and looking around the padock it is a sad sight watching all the teams packing up to go home after what has been a sensational first year of motorsport.
So what did i do today? well we raced, and without major incident too. we have come a long way since starting the season so long ago at Aintree. The race today was a very good clean hard fought race, with some strange situations.
Through the paddock we had some great  banter, and last night a hog roast, band and good family evening with most partners trackside for the festivities.
So what makes the academy worth doing? well it is not only a chance to get to do something you want to do, and to compete in some of the closest motor sport in existence, but it truly is an opportunity to expand your mind and grow your skills with a bunch of like minded people, no I mean friends. At the begining of the season you look around the paddock and you talk to the people there, wondering if you will get on, which ones will be the "idiots" that will take you off instead of letting you get thier position on track, and it is in my experience this year that there was no need to worry, they are a truly decent bunch of chaps and we all have a vested interest in getting both car and driver home in one peice. 
 
Anyway less of the meloncoly and more about the race... here is my video of the race, in which i qualified 11, got up to 4th place, and then spun, and managed to hang on to 7th place ahead of Tristan.
It was such great fun, made especially more so because of a comment that Alex Gurr made a couple of weeks earlier about wanting to be in the middle of the racing instead of being at the front. well he got his wish, and as you will see in my video, i help to make it some damn close racing too!!

Enjoy the video !!

Well, desptite yesterdays incident I did manage to qualify in 4th position.
First starting in 4th, we managed to get around to the second corner, where a major incident happened again, causing a red flag, and a restart.
The video below shows my main race, and shows how starting in 4th i battled up to third, and despite some strong defending I managed to break the tow distance for a couple of laps, but gear change (missed 3rd and got 5th instead) meant the distance was lost, and on the last lap i dropped from a Podium to 5th place.
I will appologise for the last lap ... mmmm.... temper tantrum and language you hear (so if you are offended, dont watch the video).
With all of that said, i have to say after the initial disapointment at myself for mucking things up, I did really enjoy the battles, and the hard fought race was such great fun to be a part of.
Enjoy the video!!

Qualifying
Well this is becoming a habit, I spent the Friday test day avoiding a lot of spinners in front of me, i think in 4 consecutive laps I was behind 4 different spinners... I think it might be personal.. or people just dont like the sight of a red car in thier Mirrors

So to then have one of the strangest and biggest accidents of the sesason happen in front of me on a the start finish straight seems a little bit of a coinsidence (I hope it is, or a lot of people are conspiring to get me involved in an accident (that one is for the conspiricy therorists amoungst you).

Here is the video of me avoiding the carnage and creating some very bad flat spots on 4 tyres. 

So what do i think happend ?
Well from pulling the pieces together it would appear that there was a car (who will remain namless) who crossed the line and slowed down just as the 4 of us were flat out approaching hte line.
The problem was that in slowing down he drifted in front of the first car. This meant that Matthew Lawrence was forced to break hard with Andres Sinclair so close behind he could not take full avoidance from Matthew, and clipped his back end spinning matthew around so fast he actually hit the back of the nameless car, mean while Andres heads off towards the grass, and the third car of the 4 (Tony Mingoia) was left with no where to go and no option but to crash into Matthew Lawrence's spinning car. Meanwhile, I stood on the breaks in order to gain time for the situation to play out and to see if i could find a way out... which i managed to do as the gap opened between the two spinning sets of cars (Andres on the left and Tony/Matthew in front).
What is strange is how clear everything is in my mind, they say everything slows down when you are in danger, and it is so true, i recall everything from the instinctive reaction to stand on the breaks, the concious question of which way are they going to play out, to the instinctive removal of the foot from the break to allow me to steer once i had decided how to get out of the problem.

The strongest memory is that of coming off the break to drive round the accident directly in front and at the same time seeing the parts of shattered lenses glistening in the sun above my car as i drove under the debris in the air....

I have to say it was the strangest experience of all, but above all no one was hurt and no one missed the race the following day... Thanks to the support of the Caterham mechanics....

It was an interesting weekend, starting with a mad Test day on the Friday in which there was a large amount of carnage, including a 69mph coming together between myself and David Russell.... which could have ended a whole lot worse.

Qualifying was the first time i got back in the car after the crash, and i managed to pull a 7th position on the Grid for the start of the race.

The race itself was not quite to plan, my start was better
than at Donnington, but a dodgy gear change on the first lap which meant I couldn’t get up to 4th gear coming out of Graham Hill bend cost me 3 places. 

The next 8 laps involved fighting in a pack of 5 cars, Brian Caudwell, Tony Mingoia, Jason Gale, myself and Tor Mcilroy all fighting for position, I felt I was faster than the three in front of my, but could not find a way past them on the tight short circuit that is Brands Hatch (Indy). 

Unfortunately we lost Tor on about lap 9, when his inertia switch stopped his engine and put him out of the race.

Lap ten saw me take Jason coming out of druid's, but the yellows for Tor's car meant that I lifted and Jason took two places (as he had not seen the yellows).

We then battled very closely for the rest of the race, and the last second saw Jason pip Tony to the line taking 7th place from him.

if you want to see the race have a look at my race page which has my in car video on it. As well as the crash that happened on the Friday (click here for race page).

Well what can i say a superb day of racing, and a mixed back of emotions.  

Qualifying was done in the morning rain, with me being slow to start and consisting of overtaking 11 cars (2 of them twice cos i span), without a clear lap i only managed to qualify 12th on the grid.

Racing in the afternoon, there was lots of weather watching and tension... but if you want to see how i got on, including a good view of a spin right in front of me, and a great peice of driving from scott lawrence to deny me an oertake into the chicane, then have a look at my video....

Lots of action, on lap one with 3 spins, some narrow avoidance, 3 laps of saftey car, cars overtaking under yellows, one good blocking move, and another overtake, this time by me.

PS, noone was hurt in the makingof this video, but some cars were bend out of shape, and hopefully they will be on grid at Brands in 3 weeks time..

I have a 17" longacre mirror on my car, and rather than using longacre clamps to attache it (it would not easily fit between my rollcage and windscreen, I chose to attach using a 32mm P-clip and an L-Bracket you can buy in a DIY store.

I have been asked a couple of times how i attached my mirror to the rollbar, so here are some pics, and some instructions on what i have done.. incase you might be interested.....

List of things required
1 – mirror
2 – 2* 32mm p-clips
3 – 2* L-shapped brackets (can be got from B&Q, they are the kind you use to fit a kitchen to the wall)
4 – 4* nuts and bolts (and 8 washers) which fit the mirror bracket and the p-clip
5 – 1 drill bit and drill to enlarge the hole in the l-shaped brackets to fit the bolts

instructions
Basically get the brackets, and make the holes the same size as the bolts you are going to use. 
- Put the P-clips on the roll bar
- Put the L-shaped bracket on the inside of the p-clip and put the bolt through (with washers) through the l-shaped bracket and p-clip
- Now put the mirror arm to the other end of the L-shaped bracket and push the bolt through the L-shaped bracket and the mirror arm
- Do the same for the other side and tighten all nuts and bolts.