On Sunday, I returned to Silverstone with my new bag seat to try out the International track… the one we will be racing on at the end of the season.

With a wedding reception the night before and one too many G&Ts involved, I can’t say I was on top form getting up at 6am to drive over to the track.

I spent a couple of sessions getting re-familiarised with the track and seeing the new corner that completes the shorter international track. However, what became clear is how quickly the memories fade as to how it feels to drive round particular corners.

The corners always feel tighter in radius than you remember and The car feels more unsettled and squirmy than you recall. Braking points seem FAR later than you think possible again!

A quick blast around with Ben driving soon put that to bed though and I realised I had to get my race head on and get down to business.

I did eventually get back to a good pace and although I’m still making technique errors that are annoyingly consistent, I did feel I was at least getting near the pace I need. At one point, I even got a smily face on my analysis sheet from Ben – this is at least as good as a gold star from you teacher at school…

It was an incredibly busy day on track so there wasn’t great opportunity to get in a lap time. Sadly, I never reached my ultimate aim for the day but I wasn’t far off and so feel relatively happy with where I ended up.

At Castle Combe, it will be a whole day of one up driving. Although we don’t race at Combe, we will be on track, with timing allowed, alongside our competitors for the first time. That’s bound to bring out everyone’s competitive nature. Who knows what the outcome will be. The weather could also throw a massive spanner in the works!