As a company we sponsor a young racing driver who is doing rather well this year. Good luck in your next race at Oulton Park next weekend Wayne, we are all routing for you.And this is a photograph of the young man accepting a trophy for the best newcomer which was presented to him at Silverstone. Note the slightly reserved smile, he hadn’t long found out that he had been excluded from his first win as described below!
For the racing aficionados amongst you this is a record of his last race at Silverstone on 24th March this year.
Hi to everyone at Infotel, I hope you’re all ok!
Well Saturday was interesting to say the least, I went through as many emotions as possible (I think).
I qualified 2nd in class D and 10th overall (from 37 cars) on the Silverstone International layout which I have never driven before so I was quite happy with that.
In the race I had the lead of class D by the time I had got to the first corner, and then the top 3 of us traded places for 2 laps before I got my head down and drove away from them.
The car was really good, the new engine is amazing and the Toyo tyres were fantastic – this really boosted my confidence during the race and I pushed even harder, I soon caught 2 cars that were running in classes B and C (both modified, special gearbox, slick tyres etc) and we had a real good tussle with me passing them both through Priory on one lap but the class C car (Alfa 155 3.0 V6) was just too fast on the straights and although I could outbrake him on every slow corner when we got onto the straights he would just blast past me – it was hard work for 25 minutes and especially in the final few laps when we started lapping the slower cars (some of them were in my class!).
And that’s how the race ended, I won my class by over 8 seconds, set fastest lap by 1.1 seconds and was only 0.5 second off the lap record – all in all a pretty good days work, I was delighted to take my first win but the feeling didn’t last too long as I was called up to see the Clerk of the Course (the boss of the circuit).
He proceeded to tell me that a marshal had observed me passing under yellow flags through a fast corner very early in the race when I was still running with my own class cars – problem was that I was already making a move on the outside so his car blocked my view of the marshal’s post so I never had a chance of seeing the flags, this was compounded by the other driver making an official protest and hence I was excluded from the result and given 4 penalty points on my race license.
I’m obviously disappointed, especially as I though it a little unnecessary for the other driver to complain – if I had seen the flags I would have let him back through – I was over a second a lap faster than him so he wasn’t a threat and I had nothing to gain by it, he ended up 20 seconds behind me at the finish and 4th in class so it was a little academic.
I can take some positives out of this though, I had the measure of my entire class (14 cars in this race) and I proved I could overtake by running with the bigger cars and passing them – on the unofficial results I was actually classified 5th overall and was still on the lead lap at the end of the race, everyone behind me had been lapped, that is quite an achievement in itself!
Oulton Park is in 3 weeks and I’m really looking forward to it now, I fully intend to go and win my class – I proved I can do it and fully intend to do it for every race I participate in this year, my car is set up really well and the engine is just awesome.
I have attached some small pictures of the race.
Hope to speak soon.
ps, hope you like the graphics – I went for a different material this time with no backing so each square and piece of text goes on individually – I think the car looks brilliant!
Many thanks
Wayne Ashford
Matrix Trainer
Hexcel
wayne.ashford@hexcel.com
Hi to everyone at Infotel, I hope you’re all ok!
Well Saturday was interesting to say the least, I went through as many emotions as possible (I think).
I qualified 2nd in class D and 10th overall (from 37 cars) on the Silverstone International layout which I have never driven before so I was quite happy with that.
In the race I had the lead of class D by the time I had got to the first corner, and then the top 3 of us traded places for 2 laps before I got my head down and drove away from them.
The car was really good, the new engine is amazing and the Toyo tyres were fantastic – this really boosted my confidence during the race and I pushed even harder, I soon caught 2 cars that were running in classes B and C (both modified, special gearbox, slick tyres etc) and we had a real good tussle with me passing them both through Priory on one lap but the class C car (Alfa 155 3.0 V6) was just too fast on the straights and although I could outbrake him on every slow corner when we got onto the straights he would just blast past me – it was hard work for 25 minutes and especially in the final few laps when we started lapping the slower cars (some of them were in my class!).
And that’s how the race ended, I won my class by over 8 seconds, set fastest lap by 1.1 seconds and was only 0.5 second off the lap record – all in all a pretty good days work, I was delighted to take my first win but the feeling didn’t last too long as I was called up to see the Clerk of the Course (the boss of the circuit).
He proceeded to tell me that a marshal had observed me passing under yellow flags through a fast corner very early in the race when I was still running with my own class cars – problem was that I was already making a move on the outside so his car blocked my view of the marshal’s post so I never had a chance of seeing the flags, this was compounded by the other driver making an official protest and hence I was excluded from the result and given 4 penalty points on my race license.
I’m obviously disappointed, especially as I though it a little unnecessary for the other driver to complain – if I had seen the flags I would have let him back through – I was over a second a lap faster than him so he wasn’t a threat and I had nothing to gain by it, he ended up 20 seconds behind me at the finish and 4th in class so it was a little academic.
I can take some positives out of this though, I had the measure of my entire class (14 cars in this race) and I proved I could overtake by running with the bigger cars and passing them – on the unofficial results I was actually classified 5th overall and was still on the lead lap at the end of the race, everyone behind me had been lapped, that is quite an achievement in itself!
Oulton Park is in 3 weeks and I’m really looking forward to it now, I fully intend to go and win my class – I proved I can do it and fully intend to do it for every race I participate in this year, my car is set up really well and the engine is just awesome.
I have attached some small pictures of the race.
Hope to speak soon.
ps, hope you like the graphics – I went for a different material this time with no backing so each square and piece of text goes on individually – I think the car looks brilliant!
Many thanks
Wayne Ashford
Matrix Trainer
Hexcel
wayne.ashford@hexcel.com
One final comment from me (Mr Grumpy will testify to the fact that I like the last word). A nicer, more charming and charamatic young man you could not wish to meet. Once again Wayne, good luck at Oulton Park this weekend.
2 comments:
This is a test comment. Isn't it lovely.
No one ever tells me about this sort of thing in time. I'd have watched if I'd have known.
Doglover
Post a Comment