Zandvoort 2023

For rounds 9-11 we crossed the North Sea to Zandvoort, home of the Dutch Grand Prix. It was the Mini 7 Rcaing Club's first outing there since a redesign, with extra steep banking and larger run-offs. It's a great circuit.

We qualified P2 early on and brought the car in early to save wearing it out.

Race 1: With changeable conditions, we went out on wet tyres, but before the green flag lap came straight in to the pits and the team swapped for dries. 

Being the only car in my class to do this was a massive gamble, we started from the pitlane, but battled through a number of cars and managed to grab P2 on the line by 0.080 hundredths of a second.

It made an exciting race for the crowds!

Race 2: Tyre selection was easy for this race, fully dry. Getting in to the lead pack early, we eventually broke away with three cars all together.

Leading on the final lap, I thought I had the win in the bag with only three corners to go, but contact from a competitor with my rear left demoted me to 3rd place on the road.

Afterwards the stewards looked at the race footage, and I was awarded another 2nd place.

Race 3: The reverse grid meant I started from 7th for this race, running right round the outside of the first corner and I was leading by the second.

There was only one thing for it - set qualifying laps to break away from the cars behind. I lead for the rest of the race and won P1 by a healthy 8.3 seconds. What a weekend!

You can see the race here on Youtube;

And race two;