ANOTHER REAL MEAN MACHINE

News from our racing driver:-

I won on Saturday! Well the weather was awful, I was as nervous as hell because I had never raced in the wet before and the guy to beat was mega quick and has been racing for years.

I qualified 2nd in class after having to pit after only one lap because the window screen has misted so badly I couldn’t see a thing! I was 2.5 seconds slower than the quick guy but only just behind him on the starting grid which was the important thing.

The weather kept changing and 2 hours before the race it had stopped raining completely and there wasn’t many puddles around so I thought about changing my suspension settings in case it dried out – well it didn’t, it started hammering down just before the race so with a quick adjustment of tyre pressures to compensate we went out onto the grid.

I got a good start with no wheel spin and stuck to the quick guy’s rear end (never thought I’d hear myself say that! ), I followed him as best I could considering the conditions which at that point with so many cars close together were very bad with visibility no more than 10 metres which is a little scary – especially when you cannot even see the lights of the cars in front!

On lap 3 I made my move into the fast Druids corner and slid up the inside, the car got very sideways during the move and I had to keep the throttle flat to the floor to get the wheels spinning to keep the front end gripping but I made it stick and once my heart had restarted itself I got my head down and tried to pull away.

The guy tried staying with me but I kept it very neat and tidy whilst he was pushing too hard and falling back by getting scruffy.

I caught a car from the modified class – an Alfa 155 3 litre V6 but decided not to jeopardise my class win by overtaking him so I backed off and just followed him to the end and thus gaining my first class win!

I also got the fastest lap by nearly 2 seconds meaning I got 22 points in total (maximum possible is 24 – I missed out on 2 points for pole position)

I got a lovely engraved silver plate, I will send a photo of the presentation and some of the race as soon as I get my hands on them.

Castle Combe is in 2 weeks time, I will again be pushing hard – winning gives you a real confidence boost, lets hope I can keep the momentum going!

I will be putting a race report and some pictures on my blog very soon, keep an eye out – www.wayneashfordracing.com

Well done, Wayne. We had every confidence in you and good luck at Castle Combe.