Rhubarb Racing - Competing in the Mighty Minis Championship

End of Season Review

Tuesday, 20 November 2007

So I've completed my first season of racing in Mighty Minis, and I thought it would be a good plan to review the highs and lows of the season, as well as how I've fared against the objectives I set myself earlier in the year.

First race: Finish the race with clean overalls and no significant damage to the car. - Achieved
By mid season: Consistently finishing somewhere other than last, and ideally on the same lap as the leader. - Achieved
End of season: Somewhere vaguely in contention for the novice championship. In the top three would be wonderful, but that's probably a bit audacious. - Achieved

So I think that's a pretty fair performance really, well above expectations, and we'll definitely set ourselves some tougher challenges for next season.

What's been good

The teamwork and general vibe at the race meets
The friendliness and helpfulness of the other competitors
The racing!
The car - it's behaved really well all season
Cadwell Park (especially the Gooseneck and Hall Bends)
Oulton Park (especially running in 2nd place)

What's not been so good

The trailer being unreliable
Working on the car without any protection from the weather
Camping when the weather's crumby
Mid-season blues when I ran out of time and money and the car looked a wreck
Rockingham - lousy track, lousy facilities, lousy race, lousy result

I also thought I should take a moment to recognise all those people who've helped me out during 2007 - cos there have been quite a few of them!

Anton and Nick for following me around the country, fixing the car up, reminding me not to bend it, and giving up god-knows how many weekends for the love of motorsport.
Laura for giving up most of her weekends through the summer, making a bazillion cups of tea, and soaking up my tantrums when things don't go right.
Tim Harber for always having the right spare parts at hand (especially the steering rack at Cadwell), giving endless good advice, and generally being a complete diamond geezer.
Dave Yardy for setting the car up, sharing his hard-earned trade secrets, and always putting a grin on our faces with his never-ending supply of obscure catch-phrases.
Sue Norfolk for use of her garage and for awesome hospitality when we're tinkering with the car, not to mention the loan of the trailer to get us home from Snetterton.
Neil Fearnley for holding an umbrella over us for god-knows-how-long at Pembrey, when we were trying to change an exhaust manifold in the peeing rain. You wouldn't believe how valuable a bit of moral support can be.
Andi Hluszko and Calum Law for helping us get the car fixed up in time to race at Cadwell. We'd have still been in the paddock when the race started if it weren't for you two.
Mark Burnett for helping out with spare parts at Snetterton, and providing me with some of the best racing of the season.
Kean Shearwood for loan of the spare trailer wheel. Would have been a looong night without that!
Rich at Mini Spares North for making a fool out of me each and every time I call him up.
Stuart Coombs for helping me realise that no matter how much agro we have with the car or how dented it gets, it could be a LOT worse.

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