Silverstone 2wd Regional 2017
This 1st event of the year was indoors on EOS carpet. I call it the home of Schumacher racing as their factory is only round the corner but of course it’s not factually correct. Many drivers have competed over the winter months here so their cars are pretty much dialled in. Full concentration needed to achieve a good result here. The club put in a great effort as usual and laid out a challenging track with some tried and tested features and jumps used over their winter series.
I was running some prototype parts on my 2wd Serpent and as usual looking forward to the challenge. Practice was good and the car felt safe and powerful.
Round 1 – I made too many mistakes and simply gifted the others the 1st round. Without my errors I would of TQed by some way but of course others would claim similar. 3rd in round was good.
Round 2 – I had a better round. Again some small errors so 2nd in round was good but to catch Charlie Ware was going to be difficult. He has won many big events here and on this surface and he TQed the round and was the pre-meeting favorite.
Then the most unusual scenario occurred!! The computer crashed and lost all the data. The organisers had the printed results and could of course call it a meeting there and then but decided to ask the drivers on their choice. It was decided by vote of the racers to run a fresh meeting of 2 rounds on a FTD basis. I can’t remember the last Fastest Time of the Day event I did. I also voted to carry on.
Round 3 (1st of FTD) – Went round and made one error but could only manage 3rd in round. Don’t get me wrong I would have been happy with that but the lap times showed more in the car so my driving had to improve.
Round 4 (2nd of FTD) – Well if you’re going to pull off a good run then the last round is the time to do it, especially on a FTD basis. Charlie, William, Steve and I were in with a shout. Of course others from other heats were super quick too and already posted superfast times. Charlie already posted a fast time from round 1 of the FTD rounds so it would have to be fast but clean too. Going into the run I was 5th in the round after everyone else had their runs. I didn’t go for any heroics. Drove round, clean and tidy and found myself surprisingly at my age right at the top of the qualifications. 
Finals – The Finals would normally be 3 legs but it was cut down to just the one because of time loss through the day. Off we went and basically I started to pull away after a few laps. I sort of surprised myself if I’m honest as the drivers behind are not slow. 1 minute goes by, then the next minute goes by and I was really comfortable at the front. I knew just keeping it clean it will be an easy flag to flag win. Then at 3 minutes gone I sort of started to play it safe. For the youngsters out there, this is a mistake. When driving fast and within yourself then the concentration is high and all is well. Slow and safe though, sometimes is not the right way. The quick guys behind were catching me and applying pressure. Being caught and being overtaken are two different matters though. Pressure I can handle so still very confident in bringing the car home for the win. At 4.30 into the race and the smallest error made me clip the pipe and unfortunately running a test car saw me pop a steering turnbuckle. Crazy unlucky but that’s racing. Finished around 6th I believe.
Loved the weekend and totally happier to be away from the BRCA shenanigans and to enjoy my racing with great friends.
As usual many thanks to my sponsors and supporters.
Serpent for great support and great cars
Muchmore for reliability of smooth but super powerful electrics
ArrowMax for great fluids and tools
Racer for great coverage of race events and product reviews from all over the world
RudeBits for the innovation of supporting enhancing products
Sick1Grafix for making my rides look super cool with wicked paint, decals and wraps