Alice Hughes had the latest rounds of the 750mc Royal Purple Hot hatch series last weekend at a sunny Silverstone.
The weekend would be the first time that she could try out the full potential of the car after the team had fixed the issues she had at the first rounds at Donington, five weeks earlier.
The car had undergone several upgrades with the standard H pattern gearbox upgraded to a Quaife Sequential racing box and the brakes improved with some upgraded discs and pads supplied by BG developments.
Alice decided she could do with an “upgrade” too! She had never even been to Silverstone before the weekend, never mind actually raced on the track so she booked herself a session at the iZone driver performance simulator who are based in the Technology park at the circuit.
The team at iZone really helped Alice, giving her confidence to be able to attack the real Silverstone circuit and lots of advice so she could be on the pace as soon as possible.
So it was onto testing on Friday and straight away it was apparent that the upgrades were working well. Setting early lap times over 1:10.00 (soon the be reduced to 1:09.00) and finished the day in 1.08:00s. Alice was feeling confident that she could qualify well.
In qualifying, we had some technical issues which only allowed us to get three laps in, setting one good lap time. We were pleased as this was good enough for the second row of the grid.
By the time she lined up on the grid Alice was ready to go. As the lights changed she made a great start to move up into third place behind Matthew Howarth and Alistair Camp. She was now feeling very confident in her car and around Silverstone despite a lot of her running being at “Virtual Silverstone”!
She sat on her rivals tail, trying to learn their weaknesses and where she might be able to make a move. Howarth then went quite wide going into Luffield, giving her a chance to pounce and she moved alongside, completing the move as they came through Woodcote.
Alistair Camp was now three seconds ahead as she’d lost time in her battle with Howarth. Alice concentrated on staying smooth and fast to try and reel the leader in. In only two more laps she was on his tail but the end of the race was close. To complicate things still further, they were now lapping the back markers. Unfortunately for Alice, this gave Camp the break he needed to stay ahead. Alice crossed the line in second, just one second behind the winner. Alice though, took the fastest lap of the race showing her preparation including the virtual testing at Silverstone really paid off!
Although disappointed with missing out on the second race, Alice was pleased with what she had achieved and she’s certainly shown that she is one of the quickest drivers in the championship. She heads to Mallory Park net on the 12th June and she’ll be hoping to continue her impressive pace from Silverstone but hopefully this time with a car that will last for the whole weekend. By Marc Waller
