This will be my first time racing at Venray as I didn’t race here in my mini or my V8, so I am very very excited to get on track and see what the car feels like!
Saturday
I went out for practice and the car was well off pace. My power steering box had stopped working and half way down the straight my engine stopped revving and people were passing me like I was stood still.
I went back to the pits and explained to my dad what the car was doing. We put different gears in to try and make the engine rev more towards the end of the straights, we also put a new steering box on, thanks Danny, which would hopefully make it much easier for me to steer.
Heat 1, and what a difference the gears made to my car… not to blow my own trumpet, but I was flying! I started at the back of the blues so the reds and superstars passed me quite early on, but I was actually keeping with them and battling with them throughout the race. It was really fun and I managed to finish but without a place.
I got a really good start in Heat 2. I was one of the only blue tops to stay at the front for most of the race and I was catching and battling with lower graders. We actually started to pass back markers… I’ve never done that before, I’ve always been the back marker being caught! I was running in sixth until 2 laps to go when a few of the superstars caught and passed me, but I finished in 9th!To some this might not sound so great but you’ve got to remember that there were 30 cars out there so it isn’t half bad, really! I was absolutely buzzing and had people coming up to me saying that I was really quick and entertaining to watch!
Heat 3 was another good race for me. I was battling with red tops and it took the superstars a couple of laps to catch and pass me which is a good feeling! I finished in 11th which I was really happy with as I have qualified for the Final!
The Final was the quickest race I have ever been in! I started at the back of the blues so the reds and superstars caught and passed me early on and I was soon at the back of the pack, but I was keeping up with everyone and was really enjoying the race. A car spun out in front of me and caught me front inside tyre, this bent my axle, bent my steering arms and smashed my brake disk in half so basically I had no steering going down the next straight!
My dad was coming up to lap me, my wheels were pointing towards the infield so dad thought I was pulling off and went to overtake me on the outside. Little did he know I had no steering and was actually heading for the fence! Dad’s front inside tyre caught with my front outside and he climbed over the top of my car, crushing my wing, breaking dad’s sump guard and giving him a flat tyre. We both retired together and boy… did I feel bad!
I pulled off track and at first I didn’t want to see my dad because I felt so bad for ruining his race but I think that he felt the same way. Dad called me over to show me how much I had damaged his car, but he actually found it quite amusing! So I called him over to my car to show him the damage he had caused to mine, ha ha!
After the meeting a really kind Dutch man bought me a tyre for how well I drove which was really sweet, and Wendy Koopmans came up to me and said that I was her new hero!
Sunday
I went out for heat 1 and did a few laps, the car was going really well and felt fast again. I was going down the home straight and my car came to a complete stop. I panicked as I thought the engine had blown up. When the race finished I got lifted off track back to the truck in the pits.
We started the car fine so knew it wasn’t the engine… phew!. I then went to drive it to see what the problem was and it became apparent that the diff had broken. Dad actually broke his diff in the same race and we only had one spare so obviously he had the spare, meaning that my racing was over for the weekend!
I actually wasn’t that bothered about not racing as I had such a good meeting on the Saturday that I was still buzzing from that, plus I enjoy watching the racing over there.
Not the best trip for us result wise but we all had such an amazing time and I cannot wait to come back next year.
Just want to say a massive thank you to the team for all their help whilst over there!
Phoebe
Some great photos from the weekend – big thanks to Paul Greenwood, James Bowles, Martin Fitzgerald, Colin Casserley, Piet Dossin, and DBS Racing Pics.
