So, the Friday test session was pretty straight forward - weather was nice and sunny and the track was grippy. Had a go at various lines again at some of the corners and felt a bit quicker in places.
Fast forward to Saturday and welcome to Knockhill as club racers don't normally see it - huge numbers of people and lots of awnings and transporters all over the place. With the legends mostly in a line along the top of the paddock, they presented plenty of eye candy for the crowd. The practice session went well, felt the track out and had a bit of an experiment, ending up with another 66.2 lap time despite not actually stringing a whole lap together which gave me some confidence.
Spent a while watching the Touring Car qualifying and so on then hopped in the car for our first heat. Large crowds of people still around in the paddock so had to be careful to not run them over on the way to the holding area! Out on track for the race and still quite a large crowd at the usual viewing points.
Race started and I made a pretty poor getaway which would prove to be my saviour. Arrived at the top of Duffus/Seat three wide to discover a scene from Armaggedon unfolding before me. Two cars off on the left, smoke everywhere. A wheel launched about 15 feet in the air landed in front of a group of us, causing Stevie Coull to brake whereupon he was promptly wiped out by Colin Atkinson directly behind him. At this point an undetermined chunk of metal bounced off my window netting directly in front of my face and I saw Dave Thorburn's car minus most of it's rear bodywork career across the track. Amazingly I'd come through all this in one piece and had leapt up from about 20th at the top of Duffus to about 8th! Inevitably the red flag flew though.
After being reformed on the grid (with many spaces) we had another start and I soon found the quicker guys going by. Eventually found myself battling Frank Ogg in his first race and Tony Knight but managed to pull away in the remaining laps to take 18th of 26. Best of all I eclipsed my previous best lap time by almost a full second by posting a 65.312! Hugely encouraged by the quicker lap time and the decent finish and looking forward to tomorrow when I'm starting 7th in the second race.
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2 comments:
Hey Mike. I was at Knockhill yesterday and noticed your name on the #60 in the paddock. Thought it might have been you, so I'm pleased to read that it was.
Nice job in the second race yesterday - although not as fast as many of the other drivers, you managed to let them past without problem. Good luck with your future races. :)
Cheers Alan - the progress is coming slowly but surely...!
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