Birmingham - Round 4 08/05/2010

Another Birmingham meeting, and this one was to be a bit more successful!

Again, the weather wasn't too kind and we arrived at the track in light rain. Thankfully the wets were still on the car from the previous week and I was able to do a few laps practice to get a feel of the car in wet conditions.

However, following a couple of hours without rain we took the last minute decision (along with most of the other cars) to switch to slicks as the track seemed to be drying out and the wets are susceptible to overheating if the track too dry. After approximately half a lap it was already apparent that this was the wrong decision as #17 Paul Patrick, who was on wets, came flying past on his way to winning the heat. It was nervy race for me with a number of spins in front but thankfully I kept out of trouble, and kept it facing the right way and finished.

A swap back to wets for Heat 2 and another decent race for me, including my first on track pass! Albeit on a car that had remained on slicks but still, it was a historic moment. The final was much the same, although we'd had more rain by this time so the track was more greasy. I had a great race, overtook another couple of cars that were on slicks and struggling as a result, and had a good battle with the great looking #05 car of Howard Hardy who was making his debut.

So a highly successful meeting! I was still down on pace but it was my first taste of racing in wet conditions and still only my third meeting, and of course, I'd managed a grand total of 2.5 races in those previous meetings. Started and finished every race, overtook a couple of cars and kept out of trouble, at the moment those are my aims and this was the first meeting where I had been able to achieve those so I was very pleased.