Round 1 analysis and quick prep!

WOW, where to begin… what a season opener at Donington Park.  Without a doubt our strongest ever start to a season, coming away with a 2nd, 3rd and a WIN!!!  Our first win in the JCW class, fantastic result for the team and certainly topped off a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
 
We went there not knowing what to expect really, with no off season testing and moving to IN:MINI there was a lot of… “what… if… maybes…” as we made the journey south ready for testing.
 
Track time began on the Friday, where we did a few runs getting used to the car set up and generally dialling myself back into a race car.  Everything seemed to go smoothly and I felt like we were getting on the pace quickly.  It was a good settler for the weekend, learning to work with the new team and by the end of the day we were all happy/comfortable on how testing had gone and looked forward to qualifying Saturday morning.

Qualified 3rd on the grid after a brief ‘panic attack’… the gearbox got stuck in 5th gear on the start of our 1st flying lap so quickly aborted and diverted into the pits… fortunately the guys at IN:MINI quickly rectified the problem and sent me back on my way.  

Unfortunately the nice clear track I had managed to find had now gone and I rejoined amongst the pack.  With little time to spare I had to get a time on the board… luckily I got a clean lap on the last lap, bumping me up from 8th on the grid to 3rd… relief at what could have been a disaster start to the weekend!
 
Race 1 was really tricky, starting off on a dry track the rain began to appear at different parts of the circuit making each lap very different to the last, although I managed to keep some heat in the slicks which helped maintain the pace and brought the car home in a strong 2nd.  This gave all of us in the team a real confidence boost going into Sundays races.
 
Race 2 was a lot of fun, a near race long battle with JCW regular Kevin O’Connor.  Kevin drove really well all weekend and is showing real pace this year, as he did last year, although his new car is proving reliable so I expect to see Kevin pushing for some strong results this year.  I finished up 3rd, with Kevin managing to hold me off to finish 2nd… many congratulations to him, his first podium (I believe) in the MINI Challenge.

With the reverse grid, Race 3 saw me lining up 4th on the grid, I’d joked with a couple of JCW drivers earlier in the day that my plan was to be into the lead by turn 1… couldn’t believe it when I absolutely hooked up the start and my ‘plan’ worked out haha… if only ‘plans’ always worked as well.  From there, apart from a brief scare when I lost the lead for about a lap, surprisingly I managed to stay pretty calm and worked on building a gap to 2^nd.  By the end of the race the gap was around 3 seconds.  Quite an uneventful race to watch I would imagine although for me it was probably the longest 20 minutes of my life… I’m sure they were adding time on just to make me sweat a bit more.
 
What a result though and what a weekend, so happy to have such a strong start and repay the guys at IN:MINI… Russell, Jim and Simon were absolutely first class all weekend and I’m hugely grateful for everything they did.
 
Was also a mega feeling seeing the pride in my Dads eyes at the end of Race 3, he’s always been there supporting and helping me with advice and guidance so to share the win with him was very special indeed.
 
Probably one of the best things that came out of the weekend is how great an atmosphere there is in our team, I feel extremely settled and happy already which is a real boost going into our next meeting at Brands this weekend.

That’s right… round 2 is this weekend… phew, hardly time for a breather after Donington!  However, that being said, we’ve all put Donington in the past and are 100% focussed for this weekend.
 
3 races on the GP layout should be awesome… Brands GP track is a real tricky circuit to get right, with the long straights and fast corners one mistake can be mega costly on lap times.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to test on the GP layout so on Friday we’ll be on the Indy loop, then straight into qualifying on the GP track.
 
I absolutely love Brands Hatch, both as a track and a venue… I really need to get my head down and work on getting a good qualifying lap which should hopefully set us up for another strong weekend.
 
Fingers crossed next week I’ll have some good news to report after our 2^nd round, don’t forget… if you’re making it along to Brands this weekend, come and say Hi!
 
For more information on Panda Racing and Hamish please visit 
www.PandaRacing.com / www.HamishBrandon.com, ‘like’ the Facebook pages www.Facebook.com/PandaRacing and www.Facebook.com/HamishBrandonRacing or follow @PandaRacingTeam / @HamishB on Twitter.