Lydia Walmsleys 2017 season suffers a knock at Knockhill

Lydias poor car needs a lot of workLydia Walmsley made the long trip north to the Picturesque circuit of Knockhill near Dunfermline in Scotland last weekend for the latest rounds of the Junior Saloon car championship (JSCC)

Since the Snetterton round where the car had an oil assisted trip to the wall, her small family team had totally rebuilt the car including an eye catching new green colour scheme.

Friday saw her have three sessions with her coach Joe Tanner and it all looked very positive with her times always putting her in the top five in each session.

Saturday morning saw a further practice session. Lydia went out for an initial run and then called in to consult with Joe Tanner. Eager to implement his advice, she was soon back out on track. She ran a little wide on the exit of Scotsman corner which caused her to go into the gravel. She fought to return to the track but her car went across at just the wrong moment, straight into one of Knockhill’s unforgiving “sausage” kerbs. The car flipped end over end before barrel rolling four times! It was possibly the worst crash ever seen in the JSCC. This bought out a red flag and soon all the recovery crews were on the scene to help Lydia. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt but the same could be said for the little green car which was very heavily damaged. It looked like she was out of the weekend before it had barely began.

Fortunately Dave Beecroft, the boss of the JSCC threw Lydia a lifeline and lent her a spare car. This meant she could take to the track again in the Knockhill weekend.

Unfortunately mechanical issues saw her further down the grid than she would have liked but hopefully the races would go better.

Initially things looked good but soon she was forced to retire with fuel pump issues. The problem sadly ruled Lydia out of the second race as well, her weekend was now finally over.

With the replacement carIt had been frustrating with Lydia showing what she could do on Friday only to have bad luck strike not once but twice the next day. Lydia was pleased that she got the chance to try and compete after her huge roll though;

“I’m extremely happy that I got the chance to take to the track again after my accident to gain my confidence back again!! Thanks to Dave Beecroft lending me his spare car. I’d also like to thank my amazing, amazing team for working so so hard to try and achieve the best results!! Unfortunately luck is not quite on our side at the moment but I’m hoping this will soon change. I’m sure that our first podium is certainly in sight! I hope to be back at Croft, my dad and Dave Barber will be working incredibly hard to get me back out there!” By Marc Waller

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