First of all - the races. The second heat was the first track action of the day and some heavy rain was just coming to a halt when we arrived at the track. Still, out we went onto the sodden track, me hoping that I wouldn't struggle so much as to cause an accident and get the day off to a bad start! I needn't have worried, I felt the same way with these conditions as I did at the first race of the June meeting - the conditions weren't that bad and I managed to set some reasonable times. Dropped back through the pack quite quickly but ended up ahead of Jamie Willis, managing to keep him at bay to the end. With Ben Mason and Jason Ogg going off at the hairpin and losing a bit of time I managed to finish 19th of 25 finishers which I was very pleased with given the conditions!
The final happened over 8 hours later so the weather conditions were the exact opposite - sunny and warm! Started 4th on the grid and given the big crowd who had stayed on and with live TV rolling, I just went for it. Took about five laps to drop back a bit but had a number of drivers asking me afterwards "what I'd taken" for this race as they'd never seen me defend so aggresively before! Soon found myself in a big fight with Frank Ogg and we had a great tussle to the end, with me finishing 22nd. The slow-down lap was great too - the crowd were very appreciative so we all waved as much as possible, some guys even doing donuts at the hairpin! Set my best ever lap time again on the last lap - this time a 65.008 which is almost 1.2 seconds quicker than I managed at the last meeting! The progress is coming in little steps which is great, especially given that I seemed to have stalled at around 66.2s recently.
Heat 1 Result
Heat 2 Result
Final Result
The live TV coverage of the two Sunday races was fantastic - it was great to watch and it's very strange to see your name on the live timing ticker thing! We got quite a lot of interest in the paddock as well, the cars made a popular attraction. Got to sign a couple of autographs too which was a strange experience, especially the kid with the broken chunk of legend who was getting us to sign it while his Mum got pictures of us with him! Even got to speak to someone who had done the Knockhill Legends experience in my car!
Overall, definitely the experience of a lifetime! Here's the class photo taken at the end of the day:
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