Brands Hatch was a good weekend for me and it was a shame it had to end the way it did.
We showed decent pace all weekend and managed to run near the front of the field until the shunt in race three, but there isn’t really a great deal I could have done about that. All I can do it walk away from the weekend with my head held high and look forward to Rockingham.
Matt and I had some good battles through race day and it’s just a shame that I couldn’t join him in the final race as I’m sure we would have been at it again! It was still a fantastic weekend for me in my first meeting with Vauxhall, although Fabrizio still has a bit of an edge over both of us.
I think that is mainly down to time in the seat. He knows the Vectra very well and he is a fantastic driver; you can’t take that away from him. I still have more learning to do and a few more questions to ask Fabrizio so I can try and get some tips and find out some of his techniques!
After the first two races went well, the final race was quite abrupt for me and I think I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. As I write this, I still haven’t seen the accident back, so as far as I know, I came out of the corner on the racing line although I didn’t get a great run as I had Matt alongside me.
Shedden was on my inside and we were running parallel together, and the next thing I knew I was aiming at the wall. On the little straight, there isn’t a lot of time to do anything about it, so I kept the throttle buried and put some lock on, but it wasn’t enough!
For sure it was a big hit and when we looked at the data, it was about 14G. It was a fairly hard shunt and the car isn’t looking too pretty, but I think I am a walking testament to the strength of the Vectra. It’s a really strong, well built car and I’ve walked away from the accident feeling fine.
