We’re back!!
Finally after a very barren couple of years Mike and Matt were back in the drivers seat of the Red C for the first Swinging Sixties race of 2022 at our ‘home’ circuit. It felt like a bit of a learning curve for the whole team, although Matt has been on circuit more recently it’s been 2 1/2 years since Mike sat in a race car so our aim for the weekend was just to reacclimatise, not just for the drivers but also the rest of the team, it’s been a long time between pit stops!!
Qually went ok, there were a fair few fast cars in the race and so we were happy to qualify 16th.
Matt started the race and made up a few places on the opening laps but then the lack of recent seat time began to show and he had a spin under the bridge at the end of the back straight losing several places, then a couple of laps later a mistake by the driver ahead caused him to miss a gear and go off circuit losing another couple of places “I was kicking myself in the car because I’m not used to having spins, definitely not two in one race and both were just unforced errors”.
Despite the lack of practice the pit stop was quick and pretty much flawless giving Mike a good start for the second half of the race. After a cautious qualifying Mike immediately started to find more and more pace, knocking almost a second off each consecutive lap in his own words “As soon as I got out there something just ‘clicked’ and it felt like I hadn’t been away” by the chequered flag he had improved by over 6 seconds a lap! We were happy to finish 14th given our lack of ambition for this first race! Main thing was everyone started and ended the day with a smile on their faces!
