Mid-season reflection

I am now past the halfway point with my racing season in the Celtic Speed Scottish MINI Cooper Cup and it’s safe to say I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs yet again this year.

Unfortunately, the downs at the moment are outweighing the ups after having a devastatingly unlucky away round at Donington Park in June. On a track I had never seen or driven before, I managed to qualify P2 and was set for a podium finish in race 1 before I was hit out of the way by another driver on the last lap. To add salt to the wound, the car didn’t even survive a whole lap in the second race at Donington before becoming victim to another driver incident and was too badly damaged to finish the race.

Qualifying on Sunday morning was ok – could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. I managed to secure 5th which was only 0.04 seconds off pole which as expected was of course taken by my guest teammate BTCC’s Adam Morgan!

Race 1 for me was great, I was fighting off Dylan O’Donnell for the first part but saw that he had to start defending for the guys catching him behind which gave me some breathing space. I was then sitting in 4th watching a good battle go on ahead of me. I didn’t want to get too involved with the podium fight in front of me as I had a feeling it would work in my favour being patient on this occasion and I was right. Adam and Paul clashed at Duffus and I’m not sure exactly where Paul’s car ended up but it promoted me to third on the last lap so for once luck was on my side.

Race 2, my lucky spell was short lived. (Still managed fastest lap though 😏!)...
I was set for another podium finish and was having yet another good battle this time with Paul Bell fighting him off to hold my position in 3rd whilst Adam and Ian Munro broke away in 1st and 2nd. Unfortunately, Paul hit the back of my car going into McIntyres which subsequently bent part of the rear crash panel into my back left tyre which started shredding all the rubber off. I didn’t quite know what had happened because I didn’t think the hit at Mcintyres was too hard and I’m not pointing the finger of blame here I’m just giving my account of what happened. 

By the time I reached the exit of Clarks to go onto the back straight my car was making the most horrendous noise, awful smell and was losing speed fast as you can see from the blue smoke in Malcolm's footage my car was clearly not in a good way! This is then when the race 2 four-car-incident unfolded. With my car losing speed down the middle of the straight the others had to go either side to pass me. Paul Bell and Malc Mcnab were bumper to bumper passing me on the right and Red car 91 was trying to pass me on the left. The red car got pretty close to me and started moving even closer. I had nowhere to go with Paul and Malcolm being on my right hand side and Red car being on my left all I could do was keep my wheel straight and hope the others did the same. Next thing 91 is across my bonnet before collecting Paul who was hit sideways and up onto two wheels (I thought he was going to roll right in front of my eyes but thankfully it landed again!). 91 was then sandwiched between Paul and Malcolm who had nowhere to go as it all happened so fast and unexpectedly. Malc and Red car didn’t finish the race. Paul and I managed to limp our cars over the finish line although I was in last place as I had a quick visit to the pits. The accident was called as a racing incident.

Anyway, determined as ever, my team got my car back in one piece again for race three and there were a few familiar fast faces joining me at the back of the grid ready for an epic comeback in the final race of the day. Myself, Malcolm McNab, Paul Bell and Morgan Murray all had a big challenge on our hands trying to get through the mid pack as quickly as possible without any dramas. For once, I had an amazing start. I made it from 24th up to 9th with a few laps still to go but side by side with Brandon Walsh down Duffus we were both fighting for the same position and came together. Luckily we both finished the race, Brandon ended up better off than me finishing in 9th but I was okay with a 12th place considering everything that had happened previously but still disappointed in what could have been but I can’t think like that so again, it’s onwards and upwards. One of these days things will go in my favour.

As a result of Donington, I had dropped down the championship standings from a promising 3rd to a deflating 8th however I am looking on the bright side and know I can still come back from this. With just under half a season still remaining anything can happen, it’ll be a close call this year and from being back at Knockhill despite further bad luck and on track incidents, I have made my way back up the championship standings into 6 th place so who knows what the last three rounds will hold.

Aside from the doom and gloom of how unlucky I’ve been, I have actually achieved a lot this season as well with many consistent solid finishes and finally achieving my first overall win showing the guys I’m just as capable! It has been a long time coming and if I can manage some more of those performances for the rest of the year then I am in with a good chance of a great comeback for my RAM Tubulars sponsored Race MINI.