Donington 2012 - Academy Group 1
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.
The day started with a very early jolt for me personally, getting a phone call at 4am informing me that my Daughter was in a serious car accident. So the question is what do you do, obviously you want to get right home and make sure of everything being ok, and doing things to help.... but i was being told to stay where i am there is nothing i can do, and that she was gonna be ok and they are running all the tests they need to... nothing to do there, ... Dilema Dilema.
After several conversations i was convinced to stay where i was .. for the time being... so on with the work at hand, and the distraction of racing at donnington was welcome i can tell you... but not far from every waking thought was my daughter.
So prep'ing the car was a good distraction, and every half hour with a call to my wife, it became clear that there was nothing life thretening, but my daughter was pretty shaken up.... So came the breifing...
All the normal stuff, and questions on saftey cars, and procedures were plentyful... And near the end came a call from my daughter... thankfully, ok, shaken but ok... so i missed the final moments of the breifing and was a little late getting to the line up for qualifying... (well a little late means i was something like 23rd onto the track, near the back of the pack with little room to get a clear lap on.. ). Since it was wet i had no idea what a wet lap good time was for Donington, as i had not been at donington in the wet. So i started to try to find some clear track by overtaking the cars in front (if nothing else it was good overtaking practice).
During Qualifying there were 6 laps, and i overtook 11 cars (2 of them twice after a little spin at melbourne hairpin). This meant i did not manage a clear track and ended up in 12th place.
Racing in the afternoon, there was lots of weather watching and tension...luckily the weather was fine, so a few minor adjustments to the car needed to be done in prep for a fine afternoon's race.
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....
The day started with a very early jolt for me personally, getting a phone call at 4am informing me that my Daughter was in a serious car accident. So the question is what do you do, obviously you want to get right home and make sure of everything being ok, and doing things to help.... but i was being told to stay where i am there is nothing i can do, and that she was gonna be ok and they are running all the tests they need to... nothing to do there, ... Dilema Dilema.
After several conversations i was convinced to stay where i was .. for the time being... so on with the work at hand, and the distraction of racing at donnington was welcome i can tell you... but not far from every waking thought was my daughter.
So prep'ing the car was a good distraction, and every half hour with a call to my wife, it became clear that there was nothing life thretening, but my daughter was pretty shaken up.... So came the breifing...
All the normal stuff, and questions on saftey cars, and procedures were plentyful... And near the end came a call from my daughter... thankfully, ok, shaken but ok... so i missed the final moments of the breifing and was a little late getting to the line up for qualifying... (well a little late means i was something like 23rd onto the track, near the back of the pack with little room to get a clear lap on.. ). Since it was wet i had no idea what a wet lap good time was for Donington, as i had not been at donington in the wet. So i started to try to find some clear track by overtaking the cars in front (if nothing else it was good overtaking practice).
During Qualifying there were 6 laps, and i overtook 11 cars (2 of them twice after a little spin at melbourne hairpin). This meant i did not manage a clear track and ended up in 12th place.
Racing in the afternoon, there was lots of weather watching and tension...luckily the weather was fine, so a few minor adjustments to the car needed to be done in prep for a fine afternoon's race.
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 incidents on lap one with 3 spins, some narrow avoidance, 3 laps of saftey car, some evidence of cars overtaking under yellows, a good blocking move.
Thankfully no one was hurt in the making of this video, but some cars were bend out of shape, some mechanics will make some money and all being good and well all the cars and drivers will be on grid at Brands in 3 weeks time..
Now you have seen the carnage from my perspective and managaging to get through the middle, have a look at the following picture which was taken from outside of my car at the point i am going through the carnage... it's much closer than i thought!!
I hope you enjoyed race, as you can tell it is a proud moment to have got 6th from 12th, but it is sad to have seen the carnage of the crashed that happened after i went through, and hopefully we will see all the drivers back on teh grid for the Brands race in 3 weeks time.
I want to say thanks for tristan for staying on the brakes when he span (it could have been much worse, great driving m8.. thanks) and i want to say Toni, nice threading of the needle i was not aware there was so little room between nigel and Tristan, but some how we managed to get two cars through there... nice driving !!
Finally to let you all know that my Daughter is doing fine, on the mend, no broken bones, but well shaken and very stiff and in flexible... there is a chance she will be at Brands too.
Have fun, all and see you on the next track day !!
Thankfully no one was hurt in the making of this video, but some cars were bend out of shape, some mechanics will make some money and all being good and well all the cars and drivers will be on grid at Brands in 3 weeks time..
Now you have seen the carnage from my perspective and managaging to get through the middle, have a look at the following picture which was taken from outside of my car at the point i am going through the carnage... it's much closer than i thought!!
I hope you enjoyed race, as you can tell it is a proud moment to have got 6th from 12th, but it is sad to have seen the carnage of the crashed that happened after i went through, and hopefully we will see all the drivers back on teh grid for the Brands race in 3 weeks time.
I want to say thanks for tristan for staying on the brakes when he span (it could have been much worse, great driving m8.. thanks) and i want to say Toni, nice threading of the needle i was not aware there was so little room between nigel and Tristan, but some how we managed to get two cars through there... nice driving !!
Finally to let you all know that my Daughter is doing fine, on the mend, no broken bones, but well shaken and very stiff and in flexible... there is a chance she will be at Brands too.
Have fun, all and see you on the next track day !!