Shut Up. I'm Talking.

6th Aug 2011

Front row of the grid for SA Champs

What a day.

After yesterdays debacle with a dud engine and time wasted I woke up this morning with a new purpose. It felt like I was a lot more focussed compared to the last few days where some things (read: real life, work etc) have distracted me mentally.

The aim for today was to confirm our setup and then hope that I’d do OK in qualifying (never been a strong point for me). Rain had been threatening the whole day but we thought we would get away with it.

Morning warm up went incredibly well, I was well and truly on the pace from the get go and found a new sense of motivation. That all came to a halt when I put on new tires and didn’t go any faster. I was hoping to achieve 44.5 second lap times but the best I could was only a 44.9. Things seemed to have slipped back to the day before.

Rain…

Next up was qualifying and up to this point the rain seemed to have stayed away. Turns out that as we got to the grid it started to fall. Everyone panicked and stuck on Wet Weather tires but all I could do was watch as I didn’t have a set. I thought to myself “oh well, not much I can do except try.” The difference that wet tires give you over slick dry weather tires is huge but I had my hands tied.

As we went out to start the session, those on wets flew off into the distance while I slid around the track trying to find a reasonable racing line. By lap 3 I was getting comfortable and felt like I could maybe pull out a miracle and get into the top 10.

As the session progressed the track started to dry out slightly and from being on the wrong tires I was suddenly on the right ones! By the end of the session I had actually managed to qualify in 2nd place! Even though it was kind of lucky it’s way above expectations and an excellent place to start the first heat tomorrow.

Sunday’s racing doesn’t count for me it will definitely boost my confidence if I do well in the SA Champs. This kind of situation is perfect preparation for Monday’s big race.

Bring it on.