Cadwell Park Race Weekend

After a successful test session on the Friday I felt I was ready to go play.  Saturday morning nerves weren't too bad but i wasn't taking anything for granted.  Qualifying came and went and not surprisingly I qualified last.  Some people would have been disheartened by that initial result, but to be fair i was just glad I was there enjoying it.

Later that day Race 1 was imminent.   Whilst pushing the car down to the holding area, i didn't realise it at the time but I went very quiet.  Andy Bates was there offering words of encouragement and advice, but whilst i was listening away, there was not much of response from me and I could tell pre race nerves were starting to kick in.  Whilst in the holding area, sat in the car, i was trying to visualise the circuit and get in 'the zone', like i am sure many others try and do.  It was when we lined up on the grid it started to really get to me (nerves that is) and with engines revs up foot on the clutch my left leg started to shake tremendously.  Then disaster!  The ECU light came on.  'What does that mean?'  'What i have done wrong?' i thought.
Light out i booted it up the main straight through Coppice, then i had had a sense check going through Chris's Curves that the ECU only comes on if there is an issue.  Tris having spent a lot of money on the newly installed CBR1000 i really didn't want to total it on my first ever race.  I cruised round to the pits and retired from the race.

Later it turned out the fault codes indicated that a sensor mounted not far from the exhaust headers had obviously gotten very hot.  What with the weather being very hot too and me sat on the starting grid with the revs up with no air flow basically caused the issue of the ECU light coming on.  The sensor wasn't broken i might add, but seemed as though all the latent heat in the engine bay was enough to cause the butt clenching moment thinking i had damaged the engine.  Thankfully not the case.

Cadwell Park RACE 2

Engine fault codes reset i was ready for race 2.  Having learnt from the previous days exploits, I decided not to sit on the grid with the revs high just waiting to dump the clutch for the off.   No no no....i decided to rasie the revs moments before the light out, then dump the clutch.  Bear in mind this was my first ever start in anger, i seriously got it wrong.  Took me 3 attempts to get going as the video shows.  Bit embarrassing, but hey....have to learn some way or another!

The race itself was fairly straight forward.  Just tried to keep a reasonable pace going, but my biggest issue of all was gear selection.  In the heat of battle, i could not for the life of me keep count of which gear i was in.  So it resulted in selecting neutral a few times and also being in too higher gear normally.

I finished the race in one piece, unlike a few others, and was just really chuffed to bits i had finished.  Great feeling.  The feedback from Tris was both good and bad.  Data analysis showed i was loosing time all over the place in the corners etc.  However, whilst it was a good learning exercise to go through this, what with being my first ever race i was just pleased to finish at that point.  The term 'Driving like Miss Daisy' soon became quite a well known expression!

Prize Giving

At the end of every race meeting there is a prize giving session.  I duly attended like everyone else to congratulate those who won etc, but what I was taken a back with was the fact I got awarded 'Driver of the Day'.  Bloody hell.....i wasn't expecting that!

Driver of the Day is usually the arbitrary decsion of one person who has taken the feedback from lots of others who were there.  In my honest opinion, Driver of the Day usually goes to someone who displayed some amazing overtaking prowess or gained 10 positions in a race and was triumphant against all odds.

None of this applied to me.
So cut a long story short, i think was really more recognition for me as a new arrival and the fact i didn't take anyone out.  I think we all know the real truth behind me getting that award.  But hey......i wasn't complaining.

Good weekend all in all.  Great stuff.