Formula V - Silverstone

Saturday's Formula V race was on the Silverstone National circuit, which meant another new track to learn, although I have done loads of laps on the GP track. So that meant I knew the first and last corners:-)

After a horrendous 6.5 hour drive down on Friday afternoon, I got to the track just after 7 on Saturday morning, and met up with Alan. A quick catch up told me that guest driver Nick Tandy had managed to lap in the 64 second bracket during Friday's testing, which was way under the lap record.

So around 9:30 it was straight in to qualifying and I found a decent rhythm and managed 4 laps in the 66s. I wasn't best pleased but turns out I was only 9/10ths off of pole, set by Sam Olivera with Nick Tandy second and Martin Farmer 3rd. So 6th place was a decent result!

I missed the official entry date and was told that I was on the reserve list (2nd reserve) as they couldn't run a heat and a final at Silverstone. However, a couple of days later, I got a call saying I was in. I didn't really care why, but as there were 39 cars t the track, it's plain that they changed their mind for some reason:-)


So with the top 3 going straight to the final, I lined up 3rd for the heat. I lost a couple of places at the start but managed to stay with the guys in front. I made it back up to 4th when Danny Hands had a sideways moment at Beckets and that's how it finished.


I then had to hang around 'till 17:00 for the final where I lined up 7th. An even worse start saw me entering the first corner, Copse, with Peter Studer on the outside and Steve Ough on the inside. I'm sure Peter and Steve will have their own views but I ended up sandwiched between a sliding Steve and Peter and we all went off. I managed to get going again in last place and in a lap made up 10 places before Ian Foley spun in front of me and managed to hit me on the left rear as I passed him. This broke the rear wheel, deflated the tyre and dumped me in the gravel trap. On closer inspection, the LHS drive shaft was also slightly bent. So that was it for me, Really frustrating, but as they say, that's racing :-( Roll on Oulton Park!