Ross races a real racecar! - 28
/ 03 / 08
Don't adjust your sets folks, you did read that correctly! This
past weekend I was racing a real racecar for the first time, Dads hotrod at
Mendips Raceway to be precise and here is the report stolen from dads website
at www.loramracing.co.uk
of how I got on....
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Well, after attending hundreds of meetings and watching thousands
of hotrods lap short ovals across the UK, this weekend was the first time that
Brians son Ross would find himself in a rather unusual position…..behind
the steering wheel of his dads hotrod!
The car sits in the pits wondering why it's number #26 this
week...
Putting all his 30 minutes of experience in a race car to practice
it was a slightly apprehensive Ross who lined the #26 car up in 8th position
at the back of the grid for race 1 behind former triple word champion Colin
Whites spanking new Vauxhall Tigra…..Ross finding this immense miss-match
of experience and abilities highly amusing as they left the line for the first
time!
Throughout the day Ross managed to find more and more speed
as he got more comfortable with the car and after being lapped in the first
race he was showing enough speed to finish comfortably on the lead lap in the
final and in sight of the 3rd place squabble so it’s fair to say everyone
was pretty pleased and delighted with how well things were progressing. Not
least Brian who was expecting to have to fix the car after the meeting!
We even had a brief snow shower on sunday!
With this being a double header we found ourselves back at Bristol
the next day and Ross was instantly looking happier with the car in first practice
as he ran at the same pace as some of the other cars. For race 1 #26 would start
2nd but soon slip down to 6th and last in the early stages before re-catching
the fight for 3rd place in the latter stages of the race and actually managing
to make a pass to take 5th place…although even that didn’t quite
prepare for what was going to happen in race 2….
Starting on pole for the first time Ross left the line with
a much racier start than the previous attempts and led the pack round for the
first lap before something quite surprising happened, (well Ross was surprised
anyway) …he pulled away from the chasing cars! And once the #775 car of
Phil Parkhouse had to begin defending his 2nd position #26 could quickly open
up a massive lead although would it be enough of a gap once Colins rapid Tigra
moved into 2nd place? The laps counted down and the gap inevitably closed but
thankfully the 20 lap race came to an end with a still healthy lead in place
and Ross took his first win in his first race weekend! Cue hysterical celebrations
and a most surreal experience for Ross as he took the trophy and boarded the
pace car!
Ross looking pretty chuffed after his first win
After the perfect conditions for race 2 it was a somewhat different
situation for the final as the drivers were greeted with a track covered in
oil, water and mud from the recent banger race as well as a sprinkling of hail…still,
you’ve got to learn these things!
Dark sky over the Mendip Hills
After 2 cars had spun simply trying to get some heat into their
tyres on the way to the grid it was time to get the race underway and Ross looked
good in the slippery first few laps as he got away from the car starting behind
him and swept round the outside of #88 Alan Shelper before catching #205 Mike
Norton in third place. That was as far up as #26 was to get in this one though
as Ross couldn’t make it into third and then slipped back to 5th as he
was a little slow in realising how fast the track was drying, another lesson
learnt. Still, a close 5th place at the line meant another finish that wasn’t
last place (that being Ross’ target for the day) and a whole lot learnt
about racing in slippery conditions!
So all in all the team left Mendips after 2 days racing with
the car still in one piece, a race win and a whole lot of things learnt for
Ross, certainly a very impressive debut! The next meeting is on May 4th, see
you there.
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Well there we go, what a shock! Thanks to Charles
and Mike for coming up to cheer me on too, you must have helped distract me
into feeling like it was an RC meeting! ;-)
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