First Race, First Podium
At last the 2008 season has finally arrived! Months of boredom and mundane tasks around the house have finally given way to some high octane on-track action!! This year sees us switch to Class 2 of the Porsche Club Championship, and with a new car and capacity grid at Donington Park, the first round was always going to be interesting!
Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two sessions, the first of which really did have the feel of the first day back at school! With 35 cars out on circuit, space was at a premium and clear laps were hard to come by. Given it was our first time of driving the car in anger, we were relatively happy with our grid slot of fifth in Class.
Session 2 proved to be a little more dramatic! On the second lap one of the Open Cars decided to empty the contents of its sump down the Craner curves, leading to some impromptu car ballet! The session was red flagged to allow for some copious quantities of concrete powder to be applied. However, the track remained slippery and we were unable to match our session one time. Despite this we managed to secure third in Class.
Race 1
A topsy-turvy grid, brought about by the mornings qualifying led to a frantic couple of opening laps as the lowlier placed Class One cars scrambled up from the back of the pack. With some sort of order obtained, we found ourselves battling for third in Class. However, midway through the race, the tyres appeared to go off, leaving us with a lack of grip and allowing the lead cars to pull away. The car came good again towards the end of the race, but we were unable to close back up and settled for fourth in Class - not too bad for our first time out in the car!
Race 2
The technicians made a few tweaks to the cars setup for Race 2 and it immediately felt far happier in the corners. The first three cars in our Class, driven by Mike Clapham, Chris Dyer and us, ran in close proximity for the majority of the race. A bold out-braking manoeuvre (almost too bold!!) allowed us to grab second place as we entered Goddards, and it started to look like a dream result. However a slight mistake on the next lap allowed Chris Dyer to catch back up and as we entered Coppice, having clearly taken exception to our new paint scheme, he decided to drive his car down the driver's side of ours! A graceful pirouette into the scenery ensued, but with no major damage we were able to rejoin and still grab third place.
Reflection
Massive thumbs up to all at EMC for building a superb car and for all their hard work at the circuit, without whom the result would never have been possible. The meeting had delivered more than I had expected and with the car still quicker than I am, the season holds a lot of promise.
Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two sessions, the first of which really did have the feel of the first day back at school! With 35 cars out on circuit, space was at a premium and clear laps were hard to come by. Given it was our first time of driving the car in anger, we were relatively happy with our grid slot of fifth in Class.
Session 2 proved to be a little more dramatic! On the second lap one of the Open Cars decided to empty the contents of its sump down the Craner curves, leading to some impromptu car ballet! The session was red flagged to allow for some copious quantities of concrete powder to be applied. However, the track remained slippery and we were unable to match our session one time. Despite this we managed to secure third in Class.
Race 1
A topsy-turvy grid, brought about by the mornings qualifying led to a frantic couple of opening laps as the lowlier placed Class One cars scrambled up from the back of the pack. With some sort of order obtained, we found ourselves battling for third in Class. However, midway through the race, the tyres appeared to go off, leaving us with a lack of grip and allowing the lead cars to pull away. The car came good again towards the end of the race, but we were unable to close back up and settled for fourth in Class - not too bad for our first time out in the car!
Race 2
The technicians made a few tweaks to the cars setup for Race 2 and it immediately felt far happier in the corners. The first three cars in our Class, driven by Mike Clapham, Chris Dyer and us, ran in close proximity for the majority of the race. A bold out-braking manoeuvre (almost too bold!!) allowed us to grab second place as we entered Goddards, and it started to look like a dream result. However a slight mistake on the next lap allowed Chris Dyer to catch back up and as we entered Coppice, having clearly taken exception to our new paint scheme, he decided to drive his car down the driver's side of ours! A graceful pirouette into the scenery ensued, but with no major damage we were able to rejoin and still grab third place.
Reflection
Massive thumbs up to all at EMC for building a superb car and for all their hard work at the circuit, without whom the result would never have been possible. The meeting had delivered more than I had expected and with the car still quicker than I am, the season holds a lot of promise.
