Lydia Walmsley continued her first full season in car racing last weekend as she was at the Norfolk circuit of Snetterton for the latest rounds of the Junior Saloon car championship (JSCC).
She hoped to be one of the front runners again as she’d managed for every other round so far this year. The practice session saw Lydia deliver on her promise once again with a fourth quickest time, far further forward than someone with her experience would usually be. Things looked good for qualifying and she was again quick but on her best laps she found other cars spinning in front of her but despite this she still managed an excellent sixth on the grid for both of the weekend’s races.
The first race was on Saturday and she got a great start only to find the red flags coming out almost straight away. A non starter had caused a crash on the grid and so the race would need to be restarted.
On the restart, there was a further incident at the first corner, moving Lydia up to fourth. But her two rivals behind slipstreamed past over the next few laps. Lydia battled hard but crossed the line in a still impressive sixth place. She was over nine seconds ahead of her next nearest rival behind in seventh.
Lydia felt confident for race two, knowing that she was on the pace for a potential fourth place at least if things went her way. She got another great start and was up to fifth at the first corner after a rival ran off the track. She then joined the train fighting for the lead with first to fifth crossing the line as a single train of cars. But then disaster struck. Over to Lydia to explain;
“I was on lap three when some oil was dropped on the track. This caused drivers in second and third to slide off the track. However, at this point, I never saw anything on the track and there were no slippery surface flags, which lead me to think that contact had been made between the two drivers in front resulting them going off. Obviously I realised that this was not the case when I hit the apex perfectly and caught the oil at 70mph!. The back end started to slide but when I tried to save it, it suddenly snatched back causing me to slide onto the grass and crash sideways into the tyre wall.”
Lydias car has scrubbed off some speed by the time it hit the tyre wall but it was a big enough impact to squash the side of the car in and put Lydia out of the race.
It was a disapointing end to what had been another positive outing for Lydia in the number eighty two Saxo. There’s a lot of damage for her family team to fix before they make the long trip up to Knockhill in Scotland for the next rounds. Lydia will be hoping for a successful weekend without any visits to the tyre wall. Knockhill is usually enjoyed by everyone who races on it but it’s a track hat can really bite if things go wrong. Lydia will be pushing for her best result yet, and will be aiming for the podium.
Find out on GR if she’s successful! By Marc Waller
