Ups, Downs and All Sorts.

Almost impossible to believe it's a year since the start of last season but my debut year has been and gone and year 2 started at the weekend. As practice on Saturday got underway and I stood beside Lance Gauld and Rob Johnston (Radio Knockhill commentator), I commented as Rory went by on his first lap out of the pits in our car that I was going to feel uneasy watching someone else racing it. Sure enough, 15 seconds later the red flags came out and Rory didn't come back round... turned out he'd hit the tyre wall on the outside of Scotsman chicane and been pitched head on into the perimeter tyrewall. The car came back on the flatbed looking a bit crumpled at the front but thankfully a few cosmetic repairs and a new left-side steering arm and the car was ready for the second session in which Rory was able to go 6th quickest.

Here's Rory and his trophy for the day: the bent steering arm.



Sunday morning was wet and cold, but started really well. After being 6th in the morning warmup, Rory had a good first race. He was challenging for a podium finish when another driver put himself and our car off the road but Rory still recovered for fifth place at the end. The second race saw Rory with podium-pace again but David Thorburn spun directly in front of him and the avoiding action put him to the back. He still managed to fight back to 12th which in a field of 26 was really good.



Then in the final things went a little awry. After a poor first lap he found himself towards the back but along with Oliver Mortimer he quickly worked his way through the midfield. However with 2 laps to go he and Oliver got hooked on the pitstraight and in a cloud of tyre smoke both went into the tyrewall. The car suffered some front-end damage but wasn't too bad, Oli however suffered a fair amount of damaged bits and pieces.

Even with the DNF in the final we ended up third in the "Team Championship" standings for the day which was a good start.

Next up is my first shot in the drivers-seat at the British GT Championship round at Knockhill. It's going to be a three-day deal with testing on Friday aftenoon, warmup and a single race on Saturday and two races on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to taking part in a big event again. The timetable of events for the weekend is here.