TIM HARVEY
How wonderful is it to have racing back after what seems like an age without motorsport?! Thank goodness for irrepressible HAAS F1 team principal, Guenther Steiner, on Drive to Survive for keeping us amused during lockdown. He’s a breath of fresh air in an otherwise corporate paddock and I urge anyone who hasn’t seen the series to tune in.
We’ve now had circuits operating for just under a month with new guest column, I signed up to race in the increasingly popular EnduroKa endurance series in order to fulfil the long-held dream of racing alongside my son and one of his friends, David Tan. We, therefore, took part in the very first meeting organised by MSVR at Snetterton post-lockdown, and what a blast we had. It was never my expectation to win, thinking of the event as simply an opportunity to enjoy ourselves, but, after Friday testing, we were running quick times and qualified seventh out of thirty-six cars. All of a sudden, competitive urges were flowing. In every championship, there will be the regular, knowledgeable front runners, many of whom probably would have been terrific professional drivers had opportunity and finances permitted, which is why one should always remember past achievements are no guarantee of success. It seldom happens where one ‘parachutes’ into an established series and is competitive from the off. This is why, just a few laps into the twelve-hour race, when we found ourselves lapping as fast as anyone and moving up the order, we started to take things more seriously. After four hours, we were running second and had the pace to win. Sadly, the racing gods brought us down to earth with a broken exhaust and a compromised gear linkage, costing us ten laps and no chance of a good result. It was time to revert to plan A and head back out simply to enjoy ourselves! The little Ka proved to be a wellbalanced, fun car to drive. Having really got to grips with the compact Blue Oval, all three of us were lapping quickly, with David setting the fastest lap of the race. Not bad with more than 145 drivers in the field across the full twelve-hour event!
