Golf GTi race at Anglesey 8th July 2008 - race report.

After a day spent testing in glorious weather at the spectacular Anglesey on Friday 6^th July it seemed implausible at the time that the weather might continue to be so nice in North Wales for the rest of the racing weekend. Implausible as it may have seemed but the weather did indeed hold out for the weekend making what is a stunning circuit with breathtaking views look any day look extra special! 

Unfortunately the reliability of the car was not quite as good as the weather come race day but the pace was definitely there and, this combined with the both the competitive but clean nature of the racing and the friendliness of all the competitors in the championship has spurred me on to tackle more rounds of this exciting series. 

The grid for race 1 was to be determined by the fastest lap set by each driver in qualifying and the grid for the second race was set by the second best times set by each driver in the same session. I managed to get into a clear space on the track early on in the qualifying session and therefore managed to set a number of consistent laps. This clear track time early on proved to be invaluable as I had to cut the session short when the car started to loose oil pressure. This was frustrating seeing as the car had proved to be reliable throughout testing on the Friday. The laps that I managed at the start of the session enabled me to qualify 5^th on the grid for both races, which considering this was my debut in the championship left me pretty pleased with my efforts. With no obvious explanation for the loss of oil pressure experienced during qualifying a decision was made to start race 1 and hope for the best! 

Having never attempted a standing start in the car the start of the first race was also going to be “interesting” and so it proved. I made a shocking start and was in 10^th position by the time we had all made it round to the banking for the first time of asking! From there I made my way back up to 6^th place and was challenging for 5^th when the car lost oil pressure once again on lap 9 and was forced to retire. One memorable moment in my fight back up through the field was going door handle to door handle with a fellow competitor for half a lap, including down through the spectacular “corkscrew”.  With very little time between the two races, a bit of improvisation relating to the airflow to the oil cooler was necessary in an attempt to get enough cold airflow to hopefully keep the oil temperature low enough to complete the race! Unfortunately despite the resourcefulness shown by Saxon Motorsport I was unable to coax the car to the finish despite driving at around 85% in my best efforts to do just that. I did however manage to run just behind the leading group in 5^th position and even challenged for 4^th before once again having to retire the car, this time on lap 12.  Despite the two non-finishes, the fact that I was able to lap just off the pace of the leaders whilst not driving at 100% has inspired both myself and the team to get back out there for the next round of the series at Donnington Park on 20^th July and challenge for the podium that I now believe is in both the car and myself! 

Watch this space for more updates…

A big thank you must go to Saxon Motorsport and John Hillon from the championship organising board for getting me sorted with a car after some last minute dramas realting to the car I was due to drive for the meeting. Also a big thank you goes out to my family and firends for their much valued continued support!