My good friend Sudhir Matai (CAR Mag big cheese and frustrated speedster of Amateur Racer Diary fame) thought there might be some interest in a blog from the UK, covering my racing and whatever other interesting items crop up along the way.
For those who don’t know me, I raced in SA in the Volkswagen Challenge series for four seasons. I then moved up to the Engen VW Cup national championship for 2012 where I raced against Sudhir – trading paint, panels and wing mirrors in a hard fought year.
In my rookie season I claimed third place in the Masters’ Championship, behind veteran Polo racer Dean Ball and fellow ex-VW Challenge racer Eddie Rodrigues. In March of this year I made a move to the United Kingdom, in pursuit of racing, of course.
Motor racing in the UK is huge. There are many series and with a bewildering array of choice I set about the daunting task of picking somewhere to race. There are tin-top series where a budget of £4 500 will buy you a car and a season’s racing. Then there are other series where £150 000 won’t bring change at season’s end. Following a tip from Sudhir I found the Mini Challenge, and I’m now running a BMW Mini Cooper in a series comprising effectively identical cars in two classes (Cooper Club and JCW Cooper S).
Race antics
We’re two race weekends into the season and things haven’t quite gone to plan. Over the first weekend at Snetterton I failed to apply some of the hard lessons I learned last year and languished mid-field. Getting T-boned by my team mate added a DNF to the score sheet as well.
The second round at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit was going a lot better, until a stupid mistake saw me hit the Armco, hard, at Druids at the end of qualifying. That left me with a bent car that wouldn’t quite come back together for the rest of the weekend. Add to that difficult tyre choices (wets! No, slicks! No, wait – wets! Umm, slicks?) in two of the three races and my second weekend was basically a write-off.
Going into the third weekend at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, I’ll be working towards a more comprehensive step forward and hopefully something exciting to report back on.
Highlights of the TV coverage from Snetterton and Brands Hatch GP are available to enjoy at www.minichallenge.co.uk/mini-tv.
So much for the introductions then – I’ll be back (popularity permitting) to spill the beans on our upcoming adventures racing the Indy Loop at Brands Hatch, 22 and 23 June 2013. Likened to a race in a tumble dryer, it should be fun!
Catch me on Facebook (Justin Taylor) and Twitter (@JustinTaylor316)
