May 1, 2008
Well the last few weeks have been extremely busy. We started our journey two weeks ago up to Knockhill in Scotland and came across some snow once again on the way to the track!! Earlier in the year in testing we struggled a fair bit and unfortunately we didn’t improve as much as we had hoped in practise on the Thursday but after some homework Thursday night with my engineer we improved considerably for qualifying.

We qualified 6th which was a bit disappointing but still an improvement on where we were 24 hours earlier. Race 1 started terribly with me making a rookie mistake and stalling on the start however I quickly learnt how go fast around the Knockhill circuit setting a new lap record on my way to 5th trying to save the situation! Race 2 and 3 provided some more opportunities to gain a good point haul with two podium finishes…

After Knockhill we headed straight to Croft to take on two days testing. Croft is an interesting circuit. It is fast and flowing until you get to the complex at the end of the lap which has a few 1st gear hairpins to deal with. After two days testing at Croft we travelled further south to Brands Hatch near our workshop to conduct a further days testing on the Brand Hatch Indy circuit which we will compete on at the Formula Ford Festival in October!

I never thought I would say this but the day after Brands Hatch I was actually happy not to be at a race track, we had been at a track for 9 days straight with me in the car 7 out of the 9 days we were away!!!

Our break was short lived though as after a few days break we were off to Croft for the next race meeting. The weekend started poorly as I had one of the biggest crashes of my career a few laps into the first practise session. Croft has a very fast back straight which has a kink at the end of it before you jump on the brakes however going through the kink I lost the rear end at 220k then hitting the wall at 180k doing a considerable amount of damage to the left side of the car!

After some hard work by the team the car was repaired for the weekend luckily. We managed to get some more podium finishes in races 1 and 2 however ended the weekend with a disappointing crash. With only a few laps to go I was right behind my team-mate Wayne Boyd on the restart after a safety car, only to clip a tyre bundle right on the apex of the corner in a flat out chicane which promptly took the left front wheel cleanly off the car ending my race! Croft ended up being a very expensive weekend as my damage bill for the weekend will actually be higher than my damage bill for the whole season last year!!!

Once again we have a very short break before we are in the car again as this weekend at Brands Hatch for another 2 races supporting the A1GP which will hopefully see the Aussies clean up the A1GP as well as the Formula Ford races over the weekend. Brands will hopefully be a very good weekend for us as it seems to be a fast circuit that will suit my driving style very well.

Away from racing I have finally found a house in Oxford and have had some great fun travelling to IKEA and assembling beds and bookshelves etc. The location seems very central for racing and is not far out of the town centre. My mate who has also moved over here is just 10 minutes up the road and the gym is just around the corner so no excuses for not being fit!!! Anyway I better go and do some washing so I have some clothes for this weekend…

Tim

older tales
April 10, 2008 - Oulton Park, Knockhill and British slang - click here
March 2, 2008 - Tim settles in to England and auditions for Mythbusters - click here