Pre-season trackday testing is a first!

Time is ticking and the season is getting ever closer and I just can’t get enough practice under my belt! I would say this is the most prepared for an upcoming season I have ever been so hopefully my organisation and preparation will pay off in the first round!

In the last few weeks I have been taking part in as many trackdays as I can afford to get those vital extra practice laps in on top of official pre-season testing. 

In previous years it seems I have been a bit of a slow starter, only getting on the pace a few rounds in to the season which is too little too late and that is why this time I have hit the ground running and have made sure I got straight back on track as soon as the notorious Knockhill weather conditions permitted.

Luckily this year, so far, the weather has been fairly snow-free. I have had tonnes of testing in the rain with lots of torrential downpours so my confidence has grown even more in the wet and will be doing lots of rain dances this year to try and get the weather to work in my favour! However on the 28th of February I took part in a Track Scotland trackday and for once it was glorious clear blue skies and sunshine with low track temperatures which made for perfect dry testing conditions which I was very happy about.

Ever conscious of the wear-and-tear these extra trackdays might be having on my car, I won’t be back out again until the next official test in a couple of weeks to give my car a bit of breather and my team Minimax Motorsport the chance to get some more work done on it to make sure it’s race ready again. I certainly need to invest in some new wheels after taking a fair few hits on them last season they are somewhat 50p shaped now rather than the perfect circle they should be! 

Since revealing my 2016 RAM Tubulars chrome and pink livery, I am delighted that the design seems to have gone down well receiving lots of compliments from everyone and it definitely stands out on track - especially when the sun makes an appearance - although many people have joked saying they wonder how long the chrome will stay intact… Hopefully I can stay out of trouble on track and keep the car in one piece but don’t go thinking for one minute that I’ll be holding back out of fear of ruining my fancy chrome, there’s plenty more where that came from so I won’t be backing out of any moves to keep my car “pretty”, it’s elbows out and each man for himself in the Scottish MINIs and I look forward to some more close racing in the season ahead.