Mallory Park April 1st 2013: If the first race of the season is anything to go by then 2013 is set to be  a great year. The practice session went well with me posting a best of 53.42 seconds to qualify 10th in both races – 1.5 seconds quicker than my previous personal best. This was mainly due to me having the confidence in the car to enter “Lake Esses” at a much higher speed than before. I do remember the car used to be very twitchy in this corner but the modifications to the rear anti roll bar have really helped here.

Race 1 went better than expected with me finishing 9th overall, claiming 1st in class B and posting the fastest class B lap time of 52.90 seconds. So now that’s 2 seconds faster than my last visit.

Race 2 didn’t fair so well though as, although I did finish (2nd from last) I had not tightened the strap on my crash helmet and it was very distracting not at least because I couldn’t help thinking what would happen if I had an accident and it flew off! After careful consideration I pulled into the pits to tighten it but I only got 2 laps in after that. in hindsight I should have pulled in a lot sooner – for my safety and because my lap times and finishing position would have been a lot better.

Having said that, I was very happy with how the car performed. It was reliable and predictable. I didn’t have any of the understeer I experienced at Brands Hatch and I reckon with a bit more confidence I could get a sub 52 second lap time without any other changes.