I went to Sheffield hoping to try and improve on the last time we raced there as I got a bit of damage and didn’t do too well.. that didn’t go to plan at all!
The car seemed to be going well and I had a good start, keeping with the other blues and slowly catching the lower graders. When the reds started to catch me, a few came past nice and clean but another red hit my nerv rail and put me straight into a post. My battery had died so I couldn’t start my car to move and I was parked facing the fence so I could have been hurt if I got hit! Because I couldn’t start my car they decided to stop the race to get a tractor to pull me onto the infield.
Hoping for a bit of a better race and a better result in Heat 2. Again I got quite a good start and the car seemed to be going okay. Me and another car we’re going down the back straight and got a bit tangled, my panhard rod broke making my front axle loose and the car quite hard to control. I managed to get untangled from the other car but my wheel immediately turned completely right half way down the straight and I ended up hitting the fence again! I managed to get out and get going again but I pulled off due to the damage on the axle.
We managed to fix the damage ready for the Final and I was actually going okay! A blue top put me into the fence but I managed to join the race during a stoppage for somebody else and I was just quite enjoying myself in about 12th place. I started hearing an awful noise coming from my gearbox, I think, we still need to investigate, and the noise started to get louder, I didn’t want to chance my gearbox going so I pulled off and watched the rest of the final from the infield. I didn’t want to risk doing my gearbox for 12th place, really.
When I went back to the pits I explained to Dad the noise that I heard. We checked the oil in the gearbox and it was a little bit low so we topped it up, Dad said to go out in the National and see if it made a difference so I did. I didn’t do many laps however!
Coming out of turn 2 there was a car coming off the infield so I was forced to turn right to avoid them, unfortunately for me, there was another car parked down the straight in the fence. I ended up going straight over the top of the car and Paul Hines ended up underneath my car! Me and Paul looked at each other and at the same time just put our thumbs up at each other haha!
Whilst I was up there, Dad, Karl, Little Ted and Danny all drove past me with their thumbs up.. actually, every time I crash, which is quite often, each one of them always drive past me with their thumbs up haha!
They obviously stopped the race and got the tractors to try and get our cars apart. When I got out of my car the crowd cheered so I decided to stand on my car and show off!
I got quite a lot of damage from the National so have quite a lot of work to do next week!
By this point I have kind of realised that Sheffield just isn’t the track for me, it will never stop me trying though!
Rachael and the gang!
Phoebe
Thanks as always for the photos – Jordan Cooper, James Bowles, Dave Bastock.
