First race of the season! felt good to be back in the hot seat and it looked fantastic to see both Sakari Racing cars in the same colour scheme for the first time.

Qualifying
With 40 cars out on a less than one minute circuit it was fairly busy! Still managed to get a couple of half decent laps in as Chris and I were working together to give each other space to get flying laps in. The session got red flagged because of a spin at the hairpin and most of the cars were sent back into the paddock, we thought that was it but then they opened the circuit again! I had already got myself undressed and so didn't go out agian. Would have been nice to have been directed into the pitlane to go out again but oh well. I qualified well down in 22nd, I had hoped for something just outside of top ten. Chris did better just outside the top ten but still hoped to have been further up the grid.

Race 1
I made a really good start and got past Jason Jesse just in front of me very quickly and made up several other places. Got stuck into a really good battle with several cars in the first few laps and made a few more places up. Unfortunately Chris didn't have such a great start and made a mistake somewhere which meant I was able to get past him on the first lap. He followed closely behind me as I struggled to find a way past Simon Lockey in the Gulf car. Then as I was about to make a move an incident up ahead made Simon slow unexpectedly and as I was unsighted I had to take avoiding action onto the grass. Just managed to keep hold of it but Chris just managed to get past me and thats the way we stayed until the finish line.
Chris finished 13th and I made up 8 places to get up to 14th so it was a pretty good race for me.

Race 2
Chris and I lined up side by side on the grid which looked really good! But that would be the last I saw of him in the race cus I made an awful start and lost a couple of places, this did however give me the oportunity to do some overtaking! Managed to make several manouvres mostly coming out of the hairpin and along the start finish straight, the new engine is working really well. Also made a move on the back straight into the esses and another last minute decision going up the inside into Gerrards from about 2 car lengths back! However this all happened in the first half of the race and I then started to stop catching the guy in front and dropped back into the clutches of 6 cars. I had got my tyre pressures all wrong and really struggled around the corners so it was just one long defense to keep the cars behind me. Very tiring work but I managed to keep my place. Me and the 6 cars behind me all finished within 2 seconds of each other, thats how close it was! Chris had a much better race this time getting up into 6th and making a good move to pull up into 5th breifly down the start finish striaght but pulled out going into Gerrards and Simon Lockey made a daring but very well timed move up the inside to take another place.
Chris finished 7th in the end and I made up 4 places to finish 10th.

Both of us in the top ten on the second race was a good team result particularly as niether of us rate Mallory as one of our better circuits, roll on Snetterton!

Matt Smith, Team Principal / Driver #30

Seeing as the next race is nearly upon us I thought I had better update the blog! Mallory Trackday saw a total of 13 MR2's dominating the day, really good hot sunny weather all day and enjoyed by all. We provided a BBQ for all the drivers which went down well and the discount on the day, I was able to negotiate, was also appreciated!

Chris had a reasonably trouble free day providing passenger rides and getting used to being back in the seat, he also gave me a few passenger laps and I returned the favour to see if we could learn off each other, heal toe does actually seem to work although I can't do it!
My day was a little busier as I had a new engine to run in. To start with the engine really didn't sound good and I was getting a bit worried but then someone pointed out the ignition leads were the wrong way around, changed them and it sounded great! First time out oil was everywhere creating lots of smoke, so we tightened a few bolts, topped it up and went out agian. Still lots of oil everywhere so my master mechanic Kerry set to investigating and found the cam seals used were too thin; luckily one of the other drivers at the day had a set they let us have and once these were installed we had no further problems for the rest of the day.
I gave several passenger laps and had a session out by myself, the scariest moment came when I let Dad drive the car! Sorry but never again!

All in all a very useful day out that set us up nicely for the first race at the same venue the next week.

Matt Smith, Team Principal / Driver #30

The day turned out to be a lot better than it looked first thing in the morning! It took us 2 hours just to get the motorhome and trailer off my Aunts drive, problem was trying to pull 4.5 tons up an icy road. Eventually got going by purchasing 7.5kgs of table salt from the local shop and deicing the road and finally by me pushing!
We eventually made it to the circuit about 10am just in time to unload, attend the shortest briefing ever (have you done trackday before? - yes, do you know flags? i'm a marshal, off you go then) and do the sighting laps so didn't actually lose any time in the end.
It was quite nasty and greasy for the morning and I managed a 360 at the end of the start finish straight, still unlike spins before I remembered to get the clutch in and got going straight away. The track conditions got progressivley better throughout the afternoon and I would say that for my last two sessions the track was virtually dry. I felt a lot quicker than I had before (even with passengers) but still room for improvement on a couple of corners, track knowledge really is key.

Credit to Chris for the Sakari Racing BBQ idea, when he first told me I had wondered if he realised what time of the year it was but it turned out to be a really good idea. Although with the amount of support we are now getting between us i'll have to remember to bring a second BBQ next time!

Good time had by all and I think a bit of good promotion for the series.

I know its a bit late but I thought I had better put something up here before the new season starts!

Qualifying
Useless would be a good word to describe my qualifying place! It was very wet and raining all through the session and I was well off the pace, eventually qualifyed 24th out of 26.

Race 1
Had a very good start and made 6 places off the line but then got nudged wide on the second corner and lost them again! Still very wet so my tactic was to just keep the car on the track; I was overtaken several times only for that driver to then spin off and rejoin behind me. I did have one off myself when I broke slightly too late got onto the wet part of the track and headed off onto the grass. Rejoined just behind the leaders (one lap down) and only lost one place eventually finishing 17th.

Race 2
Again another good start to make up a couple of places but then the race turned into a defensive one as I had one car right behind me the whole race. He managed to get past me once on the entrance to the start/finish straight but I held in there and out-braved him into paddock hill bend around the outside to ge the palce back. Shortly afterwards he made a mistake and I was able to pull away and catch the guys in front. Started to make a move up the inside of them both going onto the start/finish straight but had to back off quickly as one of them closed me out; probably would have sent him sidewides into the pit wall at about 60mph if I hadn't of backed off. Had another oportunity on the penultimate lap to get past but due to Ross Stoners spin the yellow flags were out and so I couldn't make my move.
Finished in 13th due to others falling off the circuit, definately need to work on my wet weather driving but not too bad for my first time at Brands.

Qualifying: This is the first time I would be out in the car after getting its third engine of the year so I was just praying it would last out. Spent the first few laps under 3,ooorpm to warm the engine up and then tried to get some fast laps in. With such a short circuit and with so many cars out it was hard to get any kind of fast lap in. Qualified in 21st which was about what I expected, still it leaves me with more cars to overtake!

Race 1: made a poor start and lost several places but managed to get a couple back quite quickly. I was realing in 3 cars just ahead of me until I noticed a plume of steam coming from the front of the car, I started to loose power and then got passed by everyone behind me so decided to pull into the pits. Turned out that a stone had punctured the radiator so that was the end of the race for me. Managed to find a spare radiator in the paddock (thanks Coggy) and got it fitted before the second race.

Race 2: got off to a great start (so I thought), I managed to get past Nina in front of me on the inside very quickly then switched to the outside to get past another car. When I look back at the video footage seems I then went and lost most of the places I made by the start of the second lap. As the race played out I had a good tussle with the light blue car, then Chris Shackle spun off from the front of the pack and rejoined just behind me. He got past me quickly then past the light blue car a couple of laps later. I shortly followed up with my move on the light blue car; I took a slow entry into the hairpin to get a quick exit and managed to get up the inside, we then went down the start finish straight side by side but I was endging ahead and had the outside line going into Gerrards, we had a slight overlap coming out of Gerrards and I was sent slightly sideways but held onto it and came out ahead. I then started to pull away and was surprised to find I was catching Chris. I followed him around for a couple of laps right behind him and noticed he was braking very early into the hairpin so next lap around I had a faster exit from the esses and dived up the inside into the hairpin braking very late. I manged to keep in front of him (but only just) coming out of the hairpin and then started to pull away. At the end of the race I was catching Seb Fisher up ahead and would have been right behind him after another lap but the chequered flag came out.
Not a great day out finishing in 15th but on a positive note I did make several overtaking manouvres which is something I had failed to do previously.