A stupid early start to the day wasn’t helped by the clocks having gone forward the day before. That meant 4:30am when the alarm went off felt like 3:30am – and that’s just entirely unreasonable. 2 hours of towing later and I arrived at a very cold and rather bleak Rockingham Raceway.

I like getting to the track early to give plenty of time to get all the normal morning duties done. Unloading, V Box installation, fuelling, signing on, sound testing, briefing and life giving cup of tea.

It was great to see so many Academy cars in the paddock. Group 1 and 2 were both well represented. Nearly everyone had instructors on hand to help the learning. Things are really getting serious now! Lots of concentrated faces and nervous sideways glances.

For me, it was a mixed day. I got up to speed quickly and working with Ben Clucas we identified where I needed to concentrate to improve further. However, I ended up frustrated that I never fully fixed some of the technique/lines and so never fully realised a lap time.

I did do a very solid lap two’s up with Ben on board but then couldn’t replicate it when solo. Times weren’t helped by making the decision to start scrubbing in a new set of tyres after lunch. The car does feel incredibly different with one and two people on board. Having a passenger settles down the car and makes it feel more stable. It also stops the inside wheel from spinning up so readily. However, it does understeer more and is obviously more sluggish. That all means you have to learn to drive 2 cars through the day!

However, the frustration was completely offset at the end of the day when I had a great on-track session with Henry Heaton. Sadly, Henry’s in my group as he’s annoyingly quick – but I’m not so far off his pace and we had a great set of laps chasing and being chased. It was only a very quick taste of what this season is going to feel like but I can’t tell you how brilliant it felt. From the grin on Henry’s face back in the pits, I think he agreed.

Next up on the calendar is a track day at Silverstone next weekend. Then it’s the official Academy test session at Castle Combe. Ahead of Silverstone, I’m booked in for a bag seat with Caterham. It’s all go go go still!

Finally, a massive thanks to dad for his great support throughout the day. He put up with my endless demands and strops. Loved having him along and hope I haven’t put him off from being my pit crew again in future!