It was always my intention to race my own little MX5 around Silverstone but when I was offered the opportunity to race around in a proper race car at Rockingham Raceway, well, that’s a no brainer.
So on the 25th March Ian and Paula Blackatt and myself took a trip up to Corby and met up with Steve Collett one of the owners and operators of SK Motorsport. He has race car that can be adapted to suit the driver.
My instructor was the three time Clio Cup Champion Paul Rivett. He took me out for a few sighting laps first so that I got a feel for the layout, entry and exit speeds and specifically where to ‘grin’ a lot.
I did have a few issues getting my foot placed on the brake at first but once I’d switched to using the brake on the hand controls there was no stopping me. The track was quite technical in places, it wasn’t as easy as just turning the wheel into the corner, oh no. The entry speed and braking had to be just right or the exit was a mess. One part of the track that I did like was a very quick left-right chicane and at one point while going riding the kerbs through this part of the track Paul said to me over the in-car intercom “I can hear you smiling!”.
A great experience and one that I will repeat that’s for sure.
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