Start of the season doesn't go to plan

Race report time. So Round 1 is now done and dusted and I am going to call it the “Almost but not quite” round.

To summarise:
Qualifying – ALMOST Pole
Race 1 – ALMOST my first win
Race 2 – ALMOST made the first corner
Race 3 – ALMOST had the car fixed in time to not miss the race (it’s amazing the difference 3 minutes would have made, that’s all we missed it by!)

In the four years I have been racing in the Scottish MINI Cooper Cup, I have never had an incident free Round 1, so I am going to put all my troubles from the weekend down to my usual dose of Round 1 bad luck, it’s just become a thing for me now – onwards and upwards. 

Qualifying, I was technically Pole but annoyingly my fastest lap was disallowed due to “exceeding track limits” (bad Hannah!) so I was demoted to P2 but I’m not complaining, rules are rules.
 
Race 1 it was full wet. I took the lead into the first corner and maintained it throughout the entire race even after a safety car brought the pack back together. It is just unfortunate that my teammate, ex-Scottish MINI champion Vic Covey Jnr, pounced on the last lap when I had a lapse in concentration whilst being too cautious in not wanting to throw the car off with less than a lap remaining. After Vic took 1st place it was an extremely close drag race between myself and Ian Munro from the hairpin to the finish line but thankfully I JUST got it. I would’ve been really upset if I’d lost two places on the last lap but one place I can just about live with. Although disappointing I was robbed of my first win, I am glad Vic made the move because I absolutely do not want my first win to be because my teammate let me have it. I don’t want it handed to me on a plate.

Sadly, it all went wrong after that…

Admittedly, I completely misjudged how slippy the track surface still was after the morning’s rain and gave it too much revs going off the line resulting in wheelspin and an abysmal start forcing me to take a defensive line on the inside. Upon arriving at the first corner with a pack full of 20-odd Minis behind me fighting for the same bit of track, I took a hit to the rear quarter that was just enough to send me spinning the wrong way down Duffus. 

I was very lucky not to have hit half the pack on my way down but unfortunately I did collect Des Wheatley and very nearly Morgan Murray also. The accident all happened so quickly I had no idea what caused it, one minute I was heading for the first corner and the next my poor car was in bits! After my previous history with Mr Wheatley, I was guilty of thinking it was him who had made the contact on my car (sorry Des!) but it wasn’t and after studying everyone’s footage, we all decided there are no hard feelings with anyone involved and that it was just an unfortunate racing incident. One I could’ve done without though.

A special thanks goes to all the Marshalls at the Chicane where I eventually gave up limping my car in the desperate hope to get back to the pits. “I have to finish the race!!” I shouted from inside the car as they were trying to wave me in. I didn’t show my appreciation in the heat of the moment but you guys really do do a fantastic job and have a supreme amount of patience when it comes to dealing with emotional stroppy drivers like myself. Keep up the good work guys!

Lola had a lot of damage on the front left. I am still to find out from the team exactly what was all broken underneath the smashed bonnet and bumper but at the time I just had to leave them to it, trust them to do their job and get the car patched up again in time for the final race (which wasn’t long!).

Minimax Motorsport put in an absolutely outstanding effort and had me sat in the car ready to go whilst they were still fixing it. Devastatingly, I heard the whistle go in the holding bay and the race start without me so I started taking my gloves off but then the team dropped the car down off the stands, shut the bonnet and told me to get out there so that’s what I did.

I could tell everyone on the pitwall was thinking what on earth is she doing coming flying down the pitlane and joining the race 3 laps down but I really didn’t care. If I’ve paid for a full weekend of racing then I am going to get as much racing out of it as possible, I am not going to spend it sat watching everyone else! Also, with the monumental effort Minimax put in to getting the car going again there was no way I was going to let their hard work be for nothing plus it’s a chance to test the car after its accident. You never know what might happen and if Race 2 was anything to go by, there could well have been enough DNFs to allow me to finish the race high enough to score 1 point and that 1 point could make all the difference come the end of the season. 

I also went back out to prove a point. 

I am not afraid to get back in the car after an accident, I am not phased by it and I will not give up easily. A championship is not won or lost at the first round and there is a long season ahead of us. Everyone has a bad round at some point I’m just glad I got mine over and done with at the first round, now I’m ready to fight for the lead again. My first win is just around the corner and I am more determined than I ever have been before.

A massive thank you goes to my sponsors RAM Tubulars, nexus24 and Whitehaul Ltd for all being there to cheer me on and to my team boss Scott and the Minimax boys for doing such an amazing job despite being short staffed yet again. Now, time to replace all the broken parts and get the car tip top and ship shape again for Round 2.