Silverstone - 27th/28th June 2009 - Rounds 1 & 2

The first race meeting finally arrived.

With almost 7 months since my last race it has been a long wait and so finally I was in
my car again and raring to go.
With two previous test days behind me it was now the official practice session at
Silverstone.
The practice session was done in mixed weather conditions and I was apprehensive
about qualifying.
With new tyres fitted i qualified in 5th place for both races and feeling a little
disappointed due to the fact that I had been going quicker on the older tyres which
was a bit strange.

Qualifying session for race 1 and 2 were as followed.

    Position 1: Edwin Jowsey
    Position 2: Damien Charveriat
    Position 3: Chris Needham
    Position 4: Mark Harrison
    Position 5: Mark Terry
    Position 6: Jon Gray

Race One
I made quite a good start to the first corner and managed to get past Mark Harrison
for 4th place and behind Needham.
A few laps later I made a mistake going into Copse Corner which allowed
Harrison back past me.
I was now struggling with understeer and was losing time on the leaders. With a few
laps left in the race the car started to handle a little better and I managed to set my
fastest laps with 3 laps to go.

The result of Race One was
    1st:  Edwin Jowsey
    2nd:  Chris Needham
    3rd:  Damien Charverait
    4th:  Mark Harrison
    5th:  Mark Terry

Race Two
After various discussions with the Team it was apparent that the front tyres were not
getting up to temperature and so some adjustments were made.
I started the race in the same position as the first one and made another good start but
this time Harrison cut across in front of me going into the first corner to stop me
getting past again.
With the car handling slightly better I managed to stay with the leading group and was
now thinking about opportunities of a pass but that was short lived as again coming
out of Copse Corner the car ran wide causing me to drop back from the other cars in
front.
My lap times had dropped by half a second a lap which aloud Jon Gray to slowly
catch me plus I was trying to get past lapped cars and it seemed at all the wrong
places as well which Jon made the most of.
I was now having to defend my position quite hard now and made sure my car was
always on the inside for the corners.
A couple of times I opened the gap but then caught another back marker which
slowed me down and that allowed Jon back right behind me.
On the last corner of the last lap I was confronted with two lapped drivers right in
front of me slowing me again. Jon made sure he exited the corner just in time to get
more speed to pass me for the line but I managed to just stay in front by 1/100 of a
second.

The result of Race Two was
    1st: Edwin Jowsey
    2nd: Damien Charverait
    3rd: Chris Needham
    4th: Mark Harrison
    5th: Mark Terry

Round 3 and 4 at Rockingham July 18th and 19th.