Since I landed in Europe in March, until the chequered flag fell at the Spa 24 in July, I could count on one hand how many weekends I have had at my apartment in London. Heading into the summer break we were hoping to do a repeat of our Spa 2018 performance, however by the end of the second hour we were already out of the race when a broken wheel speed sensor resulted in an 8min pit stop. Game over.
We tried to stick it out for a few more hours in the hope that strategy could bring us back into play, but when the car landed in the gravel around 2am we called it quits.
But instead of heading to bed, we turned our attention to the Sister #33 car, entered in the AM category, which went on to win their class and cross the line as the highest classified Ferrari!
Bitter luck for our car but a sweetener at the end of an intense 24 hour race for the whole team.
With ‘the big one’ behind us I took a trip to Italy to chase down some sun and attend a 4 day training camp with my mate, Nick Foster. It was a intense couple of days but I already started to feel refreshed after a physically and mentally draining first half of the season.
The season is long… and never ending?
The month of September will be my busiest yet with five race weekends in a row. Initially we will be 100% focused on the GT World Challenge Sprint Championship when we head to the Nurburgring and then the Hungaroring for the final two sprint races of the season. We are currently second in Pro-Am Championship with first place only a few points ahead. Our competition is tough but we will be ready for the fight.
Straight after that we will make a one-off appearance in the Italian GT Championship, as we prepare Rinat and Denis for the Nations Cup, in Vallelunga. I’m really looking forward to returning to the Championship where I made my GT Racing debut.
The following week I’ll be making my debut in one of the best Endurance Championships in the world but I cannot announce anything yet. “Stay tuned” as they say. Pretty excited for this one.
And finally, straight after my yet-to-be-announced race, we head to the final round of the Blancpain Endurance Series, in Barcelona, where will will close out the entire Blancpain GT Championship. As we are already out of contention for the Silver Cup honours we will use the race as a test-bed for next year.
The month of September looks like this:
- GT World Challenge Sprint – Nurburgring GP – 31 Aug – 1 Sept
- GT World Challenge Sprint – Hungaroring – 7 – 8 Sept
- Italian GT Championship – Vallelunga – 14 – 15 Sept
- To Be Announced – 21 – 22 Sept
- Blancpain GT Endurance Cup – Barcelona GP – 28 – 29 Sept
Following on from that I still have at least 3 more events lined up but I will share details about those closer to the time. For now I think there is more than enough to keep track of.
Until then, see you around the next lap!
