MIKE TO GUEST AGAIN FOR TRACK DAY SPECIALISTS:-DRIVING EXPERIENCES DIRECT.COM

Mike received the email today from MD Ross Jones, to join their team once again on 7th May. This will be his first outing in the seat since they won three months ago by a resounding 5 laps in a two hour endurnce back in February. This is a team of professional track drivers pitted against 10 other teams who also earn their living either from coaching at Track days and others with years of circuit racing experience. At the last meeting Mike recorded the fastest individual 20 laps of the meeting and was just short of the lap record. So he has a tough record to beat. Later this month, subject to driver coaching commitments with Ash Hand, he will be assisting with one of their Track days in a range of cars which include an Aston, two Lambo's a Porsche and a couple of Ferraris. More details on their website shown below.

WHILTON - HALF DAY ON SUNDAY

Saturday practice was just like a month ago with Ash being the quickest on the stop watch. All was looking promising for Sunday, but again the weather forecast was hopelessly wrong, and the predicted rain never arrived.

The first of the heats at Whilton on Sunday, went far better than expected. As always Mike said to Ash to make 10 places and with Ash starting twenty third on the grid he doubled that to make 3rd. Following the rolling start Ash managed to capitalise on an incident ahead of him going into the first corner and a concerted effort with some masterful overtaking saw him claw his way up twenty places by the time the chequered flag went out. For once a stroke of luck at the subsequent scrutineering meant that the kart that finished ahead of him was disqualified from the heat for being underweight, thus promoting Ash into second place.

The grid positions for Heats 2 and 3 saw Ash drawn at tenth, although by the start of the second heat. Again Ash drove a skillful heat, pulling himself into third place by the final lap. Unfortunately when dropping down into Ashby bend on the final lap Ash took a line into the corner and exerted his authority to steal second place, but as the two karts exited the bend they came together Ash being impacted to the rear left corner, lifting the rear of his kart and the heavy landing distorting his axle. Unfortunately, the other kart involved spun out and was then further involved with the following karts making the contact look more severe than it was. Ash managed to make the finish line and take second place despite the bent axle.

An unsuccessful protest was lodged regarding the incident at the end of heat 2, and at that time it was found that an administrative error had resulted in Ash not being correctly signed on that morning for the meeting. In accordance with the MSA rulebook Ash had to be excluded from the meeting by the Clerk of the Course, so that bought about the premature end of the days racing. An unfortunate end to what promised to be another exceptional meeting for Ash.

Mike said that "Ash had bounced back from his disappointment at PFI the previous week and was convinced that another podium was a probable outcome as both the Kart and Ash were as quick as anything out there. It's PFI again this weekend and providing there are no administrative hic-ups, lets plan for another podium for Ash".

STARS CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE NOW AVAILABLE

Sorry that the table is so difficult to read, but here we have the top 20. There are over 50 registered and as you can see Ash is currently 14th and his team mate Matt is leading the championship. It's hypothetical, but had Ash not been penalised in Round 1, he could have gained another 30 points and have been 7th. Mike says "This is a clear indicator that if Ash keeps getting top 10 places in the races, and as others suffer similar bad luck, he can aim for a top 5 place."

THE NEXT RACE MEETING WILL BE AT WHILTON MILL THIS WEEKEND 26/27TH APRIL

Having won the meeting the last time Ash attended Whilton Mill, this meeting will be excellent practice for the June Stars round. Hopefully the weather forecast is fine, so we should be ble to make a sensible attempt at the lap record. Pictures will follow in due course.

THE NEXT RACE MEETING AT PFI WILL BE ON 4th MAY

Mike says "Our next race meeting at PFI in May will be another benchmark on Ash's progress. Following on from Stars this weekend, we have to get his time down to 49 secs dead, as Matt Parry his team mate achieved this time on similar equipment, and Ash was 4/10th's off." If time can be found mid-week at PFI, Mike thinks that for the next step, it would be useful for him to drive the track with Ash following, and then to do some practice overtaking moves to build more confidence. Pictures will follow. "Rowrah will be round 3 and we visited there once this season and it would be nice to get another club round in as Ash has very little experience there. Then in June off to Whilton for round 4 - where we can do very well as it's our home track. When I won Super 1 in 2006, I won all the heats and the final at that round, so hopefully Ash can get close to that and get us into the top 10 of the championship table."

STARS ROUND TWO AT PFI

Round two followed on Sunday, with the same format of three selected heats, a 'B' final and an 'A' final. Ash was slightly disappointed with his first round as the aim had been to get a top ten finish, but Mike said " There is a lot of pressure on you for the first round if you are regarded as a top driver. Ash has only been driving a year so I was pleased he won a heat and then made the 'A' final, he can build on this and aim for a top ten today". Well heat 1 Ash started 7th and ended up 10th - not the planned start as the track was very slippery and plenty of drivers were spinning off.

Heat 2 was next and this time Ash was 17th on the grid, and surpassed Mike's expectations by getting into 5th after the first lap and got up to 4th before once again a charging Andy King slipped past. Still an excellent result wih just one heat to go.

Heat 4, Ash started 11th and made one place, but that was enough for another 'A' final and a better grid position than Saturday.

On Sunday in the rain Ash was 12th quickest, better than on the Saturday, so more signs of progress and reinforcing his final position. On a slippery track those with more experience could take more of an advantage, and Ash was 1/10th from being in the top 10. In conclusion good progress has been made.

Ash started 10th in the final and on lap 1 managed to get bumped down the field to 16th, but over the next 9 laps recovered to 11th. Just outside Mikes predicion, but still a good second result. Perhaps in rounds 3 & 4 a top 10 will be possible. The championship table has yet to be produced, but we think Ash should be in a seeded top 15 position, which is a good base to work from.

STARS FIRST ROUND AT PFI

Saturday was overcast, but having seen Ash in practice on Friday, he looked to be about 2/10th's off the quickest, which indicated a top ten finish was possible provided Ash kept the Kart on the track and nothing fell off. With a field of 50 top young drivers the heats almost went to plan. Heat 1: 10th to 6th - 4 place gain and a good start to the meeting.

There were 6 heats, but Ash was next out in heat 4, missing heats 2 & 3, so a long wait of several hours. Ash was 6th on the grid and as you can see from the chart, drove through to record his first Stars heat win in only his second Stars race - impressive. Matt Parry his Ultimate team mate drove well from 14th on the grid to make it a 1-2 for the team.

Had Ash been able to count Heat 5, he would have been near the front of the grid for the final, but even with his penalty, he still managed to make the 'A' final, leaving a further 24 drivers to battle out places in the 'B' final. Mike was confident that Ash had the pace to win a 'B' final, but better to get straight into the 'A'. Mike was hoping for a 10 place gain, getting Ash to 14th and at the end of his first Stars final Ash managed 17th - gaining 6 places, and effectively beating over 30 drivers.

Ash then competed in heat 5 and was allowed to miss heat 6. This time he had his worst grid position at 22nd and over the course of the race managed to get to 6th before Jordan King just passed him on the 10th and final lap. Sadly Ash had missed seeing a yellow flag during his push and received a warning from the clerk and was subsequently disqualified from the heat and given a 4 point endorsement .

This is a graph showing the fastest laps for the top drivers, and on this evidence Ash was the 14th quickest 3/10th of a second off the pace of the quickest. He needed to be a 1/10th quick to break into the top 10.

PF International Stars this weekend

PF International

The next meet is at PF International April 18th Practice and then 19th/20th race meeting.

This meet is the first of the Stars of Tomorrow and undoubtedly the competition will be strong.

Ash is confident that he will be there amongst the front runners and will have his eye on at top 10 finish - hopefully a podium. The plan will be to get a good start in the Championship to build on as the season progresses. The Championship can't be won at the first round, but a poor finish in the first round can put a damper on the season.

As the saying goes, "To finish first, first you must finish". Making 5-10 places in each heat ( about one a lap) should gain Ash a decent grid position for the final. Nothing too rash, just smoothly picking drivers off as he did at Whilton Mill a few weeks ago will do the trick.

BACK TO EARTH AT PFI

Following our high flying recent successes, this was not the best of weekends for Ash & Mike. It happens at all levels of racing, just look at Lewis Hamiltons weekend! True to form, Saturday practice was as expected, with mixed weather and Sunday was a combination of wet and dry making tyre choice difficult and setting Ash a new experience at PFI of a different set up for each session.

It was a good meeting to get out of the system otherwise the first Stars round could have been a disaster. Unfortunately Brendan Hand had to fly off to Dubai on business Saturday evening, and Ash really missed his dad's presence on Sunday. The first heat went to plan, but during the rest of the day the conditions made it difficult for Ash to gain a consistent rhythem. Considering he has only been driving a year, this is bound to happen and in Mikes experience, the key is to sit back and learn from it and focus on getting it right next time.

Most of the top drivers were absent doing Super 1 at Shenington, so Ash was a little dissapointed to just gain a 7th place for the final in the circumstances. Being so far back, the aim was to go out on a greasy track on wet tyres and grab a lead while the track was wet and the clouds were still gathered over head ready to unload. Unfortunately Ash got bogged down at the start and then the track dried, so he was understandably getting left behind. Mike rightly pulled Ash in before the end as there was nothing to be gained from staying out there any longer. Another time and it would have been a winning strategy but better to experiment now rather than at the next meeting when the anti is much higher.

Mike said "Glitches like this happen as you are developing a driver. I had a few in my time racing with Maranello and ARC, so I know that Ash needs to listen to the experienced advice from the team and put this weekend behind him. Ash can focus on the good points we have achieved over the past month and have total confidence in himself for Stars in a couple of weeks. Ash can get back to form and as his mechanic and driving coach, I know Ultimate will do all they can to support his development."