Belle Vue, 18th March 2018
Unloaded and ready to go.
This was my first meeting in my own F1 and also the first time I had actually raced my car. I didn’t have any time for any practise so the only experience I had of driving the car was from driving it around the farm!
I was a little bit nervous to race given that I didn’t know how the car was going to handle and how I would find driving it.
Going out on track in my own car for the first time.
When I was lined up for Heat 1 I don’t think I had ever been so excited in my life! I didn’t have any nerves whatsoever and I was just waiting for the yellow flags to start the rolling lap. When the race started I instantly knew that the car felt awesome, despite not having much of a brake pedal, I was almost flat out down the straights and getting is sideways around the bends and it felt fast! A few laps into the race my goggles broke and I had to take them off as I couldn’t see, I have done this before in V8’s but in F1’s the shale hits your eyes so much harder and faster! I could hardly see where I was going but I carried on because I was having such a good time. Around half way through the race a car hit me going into the bend and spun me which made me face the wrong way, I stayed there for the rest of the race as there wasn’t a gap to get out.
I didn’t get a very good start in Heat 2, the blue tops were pretty much on us before the green flag had even gone down! One blue top hit me quite hard going into the bend and I hit my elbow on the roll cage…. which really hurt! I dropped a few places but was still going well. I still had no brakes which didn’t help as I couldn’t go as fast down the straights as I would have liked. Daniel passed me on the last lap and gave me a puncture on the front inside but I managed to finish 11th.
I started on pole for the Final which was very exciting! I got a good start but then going into the first bend there was a bit of a train, which I happened to be at the front of, and I ended up going into the fence with a few others. I managed to get out and carry on at the back of the pack. A few laps later the front end of my steering arm snapped whilst coming out of the bend, causing me to have no steering whatsoever, this caused me to go into the fence, as I couldn’t steer away from it and still had no brakes! I stayed there for the rest of the race then as there was no point carrying on without any steering.
Into the fence…!
In the National I was taken out on the first bend by a fellow yellow top who got tangled up with me. We were there for a couple of laps and I managed to start the car up and get going however, when I was going down the straight I realised that I had no steering again.. no steering and no brakes is not a good combination! I went straight into the tyres on the infield at the end of the straight, but I was okay and it didn’t hurt thank god! When I pulled off it turned out that the back end of the same steering arm had snapped! Looks like I need some new steering arms…
I know that I didn’t get the best results in the world but I enjoyed the whole meeting so much and I cannot wait to fix the teething problems with the car and race at King’s Lynn next weekend
I just want to thank my dad, Karl, Little Ted, Sean, Cliffdog and Binsi so much for helping me get the car ready for the weekend, and also Wez, Vicky, Mason, Alex and James for helping me fix the car at the meeting! Grrr those steering arms!
Phoebe
This is how bad the conditions were at times!
Thanks for the photos…. Jordan Cooper and Ant Jenkins
