Disastrous day shadows Grand Prix dream

For the first time, the Formula Ford cars of the BRDC Championship and Stars of Silverstone Championship ran on the full Grand Prix circuit. With no past experience or benchmarks for this track, Thursday practise proved to be a vital opportunity to learn the tricky 3.2 mile circuit. "The chance to drive on my favourite track was far to tempting to resist although it would have been nice to go a bit faster! We were having quite a few problems in the sessions with what felt like a fuel surge on the fast right-handers of Stowe and Club corner. The problem seemed to worsen through each session but I felt it was more important to maximise the track time than to keep bringing the car into the pits".

The BRDC and SOS cars were first out on Sunday morning for qualifying, which made things difficult for Michael, as the problem he encountered in practise was still occurring and in fact, much worse. "The car simply had no power and felt as flat as a pancake! I was really struggling to pull anything higher than 5000rpm". This meant that Michael had to start right from the back of the grid and with nothing to lose, he decided to switch cars, hoping the problem was restricted to the first car. However amazingly, he had worked his way up to first place at the end of the first lap! "For the first couple of laps the car was so slippery, as it was the first time it had run today. At the end of lap two, I had a bad run out of Luffield which let the others get alongside going over the start/finish line". Michael managed to hold them off through Copse around the outside and just had his nose in front on the entrance into Maggotts. "As I turned the car into right-hander, I took a little bit too much curb and on cold tyres, the car broke away". Michael should have been able to continue but was instead collected by another car. "I feel a bit upset because there was enough room and time for the other driver to go around the car but it seems as though he would compromise by giving up a bit off track. The accident was definitely avoidable".

To make things a little worse, the second race was cancelled due to time restrictions, following a number of incidents during the course of the day. This is not the way that I want to remember my first time on the Grand Prix circuit but unfortunately that is motor racing. However, it was fantastic to be given the chance to drive on this incredible track".