Andover’s Girl Racer Dawn Boyd was on track with her Finsport prepared Honda Civic Type R at her home track of Thruxton recently.
Dawn races in the CTCRC (The Classic Touring Car Racing Club) in the ‘YourITMan Pre03 Championship’. The Pre03 caters for cars produced before 2003, with up to 2000cc engines, split into 4 classes. Class A have sequential gearboxes and slick tyres, Class B are non-sequential with slicks, Class C non-sequential with treaded tyres, and Class X are by invitation. Dawn races in Class C.
The Pre03’s who were merged on the grid with Pre93’s brought a real mix of touring cars together, from BMW’s to Fiestas, Golfs to Hondas. The weather was perfect, a nice sunny day, and qualifying was the first time some racers had seen the circuit so it was difficult to get a full clear lap in. Dawn qualified 13th overall and 2nd in class.
Race 1 began on the Saturday afternoon with a Dawn had a good start and fought for places right round the circuit. Thruxton is very fast and you need to be brave in the 120mph corners! The grid began to spread out, but a crash at the chicane brought out the safety car which brought the racing closer again. The infamous Church corner caught a few drivers out and Dawn managed to gain a few places, but as the fallers from qualifying found their pace she was overtaken by some fast BMW’s. Dawn made some great lap times, beating her qualifying time by 1 second and she came home 11th overall and 2nd in class.
Race two was on the Sunday and it was still sunny! With a good start Dawn found herself locked in a battle between a Mk2 escort and a mk2 Fiesta. They exchanged places several times, often meeting at the chicane, creating quite a spectacle for the crowd. On the penultimate lap the constant fast right hand corners began to cause problems with fuel flow and the car began to cough. Dawn had to concede the battle and just bring the car home safely. It was a great race which resulted in another 2nd in class for Dawn and 12th overall, and lots of happy smiles in the parc ferme.
There are only 3 more rounds in the CTCRC, the next being Brands Hatch, then Snetterton and the finale at Silverstone. Dawn currently lies 3rd in class and 4th Overall across all championships.
Dawn would like to thank Jay and all of the Finsport family for a great start to the year. Dawn is currently searching for a sponsor to support her and the growing team, for more information about Dawn’s racing or to get involved through sponsorship please see dawnontrack.co.uk and finsport.co.uk.
