This track is not the most familiar to me as I have only ever been to the track 2 times (once in early 2007 Junior Max and the month before at the club race which was cancelled) so my track time at the track is limited.

Friday test day was very promising as considering my lack of time at the track and in the kart recently, I was within two tenths of fastest man, Michael Simpson.

I have also been adapting my driving style which is very hard to do, as I used to “pull on the steering wheel with my inside arm”, but I am now trying to learn how to adapt to ”pushing with my outside arm”. This is hard to get used to in a day.

Saturday testing was OK, but qualifying was the best in 2009 we have had, qualifying 5th in group, and 11th overall (only over 1 tenth off he pace) – as opposed to 28th at Whilton Mill at the start of the year! (6 tenths off the pace) – a mark of the huge improvement we have made as the year has progressed.

On the Saturday we had both heats.

In the first heat I started 8th, I was a fired off at the first corner, fired at the next corner causing me to spin – dropping back to 20th. I was coming back through the pack, up to 14th, until 35 Rikki Gordon drove over the top of me taking out my radiator and cutting my arm – i finished 16th.

In the second heat, I started 7th, but by lap 3 dropped to 8th, however having a decent pace and making a few good moves and decisions I secured 6th place.

This put us on grid 15 for Final 1, of which I had a solid race, finishing 7th, and setting second fastest lap only a few hundredths off the fastest man and race winner Michael Simpson. I knew from that performance I could have left the meeting pretty happy whatever happened in final 2.

However that wasn’t the end of it at all. Starting 7th on the grid for final 2 I managed to make every move there was, fulfill every opportunity there was resulting in me following Luke Varley through to 4th passing Dan Holland (number 2) at the end of the straight on lap 1. Lap 2 saw me follow him though again at the end of the straight to pass Lee Jenner for 3rd, and at the next corner, the tight first hairpin, I lunged underneath Luke Varley forcing him to back out of the corner, taking second place whilst leaving a gap behind me. By the 6th lap I had closed a gap to the leader Michael Simpson and I was pressuring him for the lead, as he was looking behind every lap!

However credit to him as after around 7 out of 25 laps, his experience was shown as he pulled away to take the win. Towards the end of the race I was passed at the end of the straight by John Stewart, with 3 laps to go, and I knew that as the leader was 3 seconds ahead, that I had to pass him straight back as following him to catch the leader would be pointless. I lunged him straight back into the next corner – the tight first hairpin, forcing him wide which cost him half a second, and again allowed me to maintain a good gap. From then on as the tyres went off I kept pushing and concentrating to keep it on the track, not making any mistakes, and sure enough I crossed the line in second.

I would really like to thank the team for a great weekend, even without the expertise of Jason Parrott (as he was racing in Spain).

A special thanks to Alan Mackay, Neil Berriman, Tom Arme and of course Tim Parrott for managing the team. Also to Rich Arme for the big hug after the race had ended! and my dad for the great support.

What a great achievement for the youngest in the class!