Silverstone National circuit hosted the opening round of 2012 Ma5da Championship. Two top ten finishes provided a solid start to the season, but I can’t help but feel a little disapointed as I expected slightly more. Still, I think we’ve learnt a lot and can concentate on making improvements before the next round.
Qualifying was wet, and I went out at the back of the grid which was not ideal. I tried to find myself some clear space early on. With hindsight this was not too clever because the track dried up towards the end of the session when I caught traffic. I qualified 10th in my group, which by the time the grid system was worked out meant that I would start 9th and 10th respectively for my two races.
Race One was by far the most enjoyable of the weekend. I was in a very tight battle for 7th place. As we entered the last lap I managed to get myself into 7th and needed to hold off the two cars beind to keep the position. The Silverstone National circuit has three very long straights and it seemed that either as a result of setup or engine performance, straight line speed was not one of my strengths. I was unable to hold onto the position, losing 7th on the back straight and then 8th on the line by 0.012 seconds. Bit unlucky I guess, but still not a bad result.
Race Two was again wet and whilst I did a lot of overtaking, I didn’t really end up moving forwards. A mistake on lap two saw me slide very wide and lose a handful of places, which I later gained back only to lose again later. The video camera runs out of battery at about halfway so didn’t capture me collecting a spinning car. Fortunately for me it was a bit of a glancing blow so I was able to continue with just a scrape on the front bumper. I came home in 10th, which later apparantly would be 9th as a penalty was applied to someone further up the order. I did have to visit race control later though to be told off for running all four wheels off the track when there was a yellow flag. It is on the video so I can’t deny it!
Having a video camera with a wide angle lense would really help because you can’t always see when I’m side-by-side with someone. Thanks to Kimberly Latcham for her photos of the weekend.