We turned up at the track and were led up to the second track (which we had never seen or raced before):

I led the field out followed by Craig and we just felt our way around the track. Our first impressions were good, the track is wider than that downstairs but the ramps are steeper and so the weight disadvantage I experienced was worse. It also had some bumps in the circuit one of which at the most tricky braking point. On heading back down the ramp for the first time at near to full speed we came across Rachel Ross and Cathy coming the wrong way round the track. Rachel hadn’t followed Beth and had somehow turned the wrong way out of the pitlane meaning Craig and I came barreling down the hill towards them. It was dangerous and a bit silly.

Once everything got going Craig dropped off my back as I got stuck behind Cathy struggling to pass her after catching up after my uphill disadvantage she was good though and kept to the racing line. Eventually I had to resort to a little helpful nudging. Craig meanwhile having dropped back and found open space managed to set the fastest lap of the first session. Towards the end of the session I was confident but getting held up and was caught and passed by my sister at the end, she had also been going quite well.

It seemed from the first session that it was a great circuit for keeping people close. I found that there were only really two corners at which braking was necessary and thus the speed meant that there was less opportunity to really fall back. The headline fastest laps at the end of the first session were as follows:

1. Craig King
2. Jonathan Little
3. Helen Little
4. Beth Little
5. Catherine Leopold
6. Thomas McCorkell
7. Rachel Ross

At the end of the first session I got some stick for giving nudges to ease my passage past various people, personally I think my sister was worse but hey.

As I followed people out of pits in the second part I immediately came across my sister giving Cathy a wee shove out the way which I hope proved my point. Anyway the second session once everyone had gotten used to the track showed everyones true pace. It seemed that we were lapping Rachel Ross once every two or three laps and although he was gaining confidence Thomas turned up quite a lot as well but as was pointed out after he has barely driven anything before.

Towards the end there was a big old battle between Craig, my sister and I on the track and we all stuck together for about 5 laps. I could tell places where I was faster than them but I could not find a way past. Really seeing as the session was about fastest time I guess I should have dropped off the back of them but hey it was a fun battle trying to get past the other two drivers who were on my pace. Then about a minute from the end of the session I managed to get past Craig following a small mistake, I then made a big mistake though and found myself in the barrier. This followed a previous attempt when while we followed my wife she spun at a tight turn, Craig took one side and I took the other, he got through safe but my avoidance action on my wife put me very hard in the wall. I hope she appreciates how hard I worked to miss her. Also at the end of this session I got my own back on Craig for christmas by banging into him at the end… not quite as good but I’ll take it.

The second session contained a second red flag (the first of course being the pair of drivers going the wrong way round the track). This one was caused by Beth spinning and somehow stalling her kart. The stoppage was called as the driver had to go and restart it. Nothing serious.

Session 2 times (also overall fastest laps)
1. Craig King (faster in S1)
2. Jonathan Little (faster in S2)
3. Helen Little
4. Catherine Leopold (faster in S2 and overtook Beth)
5. Beth Little
6. Thomas McCorkell
7. Rachel Ross

After one round the championship standings are as follows (an explanation of the scoring scheme is below):
1. Craig King – 14 points
2. Jonathan Little – 10 points
3. Helen Little – 6 points
4. Catherine Leopold – 5 points
5. Beth Little – 4 points
6. Thomas McCorkell – 3 points
7. Rachel Ross – 2 points

The top 8 score points:
1st: 10 – 2nd: 8 – 3rd: 6 – 4th: 5 – 5th: 4 – 6th: 3 – 7th: 2 – 8th: 1

In a practice scenario (like this):
2 points for fastest in each session
1 point for second fastest
1 point for beating a previous personal best (set on a different day)

In a race:
2 points for fastest lap
1 point for second fastest

2 points for pole
1 point for second

With three events to go then, Craig holds a good lead. Unfortunately we are not certain he will make the next event but fingers crossed eh?

Also if anyone who went has stories of the sessions then feel free to comment.

We are currently voting on when our next event will take place on our facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=343599396053&

2010 rankings (after three races):
1. Sebastien Vettel
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Robert Kubica
5. Felipe Massa
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Jenson Button
8. Adrian Sutil
9. Rubens Barrichello
10. Mark Webber
11. Michael Schumacher
12. Heikki Kovaleinen
13. Nico Hulkenberg
14. Jaime Alguersuari
15. Timo Glock
16. Jarno Trulli
17. Vinatonio Liuzzi
18. Sebastien Buemi
19. Vitaly Petrov
20. Pedro De La Rosa
21. Kamui Kobayashi
22. Bruno Senna
23. Lucas Di Grassi
24. Karun Chandhok

When I revisit this at the end of the season I can see it changing a lot. That said what do you think? Am I wrong about any of the drivers? I think the top 4 are very close in terms of ability and then theres a little gap.

In terms of the drivers there are some great names in the sport including Fabrizio Giovanardi who is something of a touring car expert having picked up 9 titles over 18 years. Jason Plato will be known to many as a hard racer who takes few prisoners and the whole field is full of drivers who don’t mind swapping a little paint. This season is going to be great and the only real downside is the loss of last years champion. Yes, rather sadly the champion can’t find the funds to go racing this season. Colin Turkington has long been a driver to admire being I suppose best described as a gentleman driver staying out of trouble and yet still able to pick up large numbers of wins. He will be greatly missed this season.

As usual my mother and I will be venturing to Brands Hatch in May and October with Paddy and Beth joining us as well it’ll be a fun little trip. If you have any interest in close racing and lots of overtaking then you should really consider coming with us sometime… Just don’t be like Craig and spend the whole time taking photos instead of paying attention. To get in the mood and find out just how good the BTCC is tune into ITV4 this Sunday sometime between 11 and 6.

This year I have again tried to watched the Daytona 500… For the first 120 laps of the race it held my interest and I thought it was an interesting thing to have on in the background while doing other things. I watched the 2009 race and they called it off for a small shower. That is wimpy and dumb, certainly I can see why the way nascar and indy car runs it would be near impossible to maintain in the rain. People are there to see a race not to see caution flags thrown because of a bit of rain or a driver losing a wing mirror…

Todays Daytona 500 though has been delayed… twice for a hole in the track. Apparently the track itself was last serviced in the 1970′s… Hmm, its a race track, it hosts Nascar’s biggest race, and you think that you don’t have to resurface it for 30 years? Once a decade is probably passable but 30 years and you are surprised the think is developing holes and causing red flags?

If you want me to watch Nascar you need me to be able to watch a race without stupid stoppages. The fact is that Nascar is for rednecks who like big crashes but I want to see racing… I saw 120 laps of fairly good racing and then they stop it for something dumb. It is also noted that Nascar has now lost its live coverage in this country for this season, that just shows that sensible racing fans are noticing how daft this sport is. Also if these guys are racing drivers, they’ll be fine dodging a hole in a track or missing a wing mirror. Sure I’ll give it one more chance this season based on the quality of the first 125 laps but if next race I watch is this dumb then bye bye nascar. Oh and also take better care of your sodding race tracks you nutters.

Tapovan

My aunt wanted a website for her Gite in the south of France. It launched last week and is already near the top of google in searches for the region. Currently I am finalised a gallery and ideas for an online booking system but for now if you are interested in a holiday in a beautiful area in the south of France then take a look and contact them.

The other thing I have been working on is a pet project, being a Formula One fan for the last 12 years and not missing a single race in that time while also playing every F1 game that has come out in that time. I have been a member of a forum for the last 5 years that was a great community but its somewhat fallen into disrepair as the owner lost interest. I therefore wanted to take the theme and improve upon it. I have therefore launched the first version of f1gaming.com.

f1gaming.com

The idea behind the site is to place the latest f1 and f1 game news onto the website on a daily basis with several writers keeping out community updated. In the next couple of months we will be launching a forum on the site and a full database of race results and racing games with reviews and user reviews. For now though the site only has the ability to allow users to sign up and post comments on most news stories with a lot of other parts coming soon.

Other sites I am working on:
A church website
A telecoms and courses website
This Blog
My film news website
Our hosting site

So if you want a website or you have comments about my work let me know… but be prepared to wait for a little while due to my current workload… and the fact I occaisionally don’t want to work in the evenings.