Emily Glanvill had her most recent races in the Junior Saloon car championship (JSCC) recently as they headed to Brands Hatch in Kent. It was another new venue for Emily in her first season of car racing so she had to learn fast.
As she went out for qualifying, she decided to warm up her tyres before going for a time as well as making a gap for a flying lap. Unfortunately, on her third lap as she was starting to go for a time, rain started to fall. What started off as a few spots on the windscreen turned into a torrential thunderstorm within seconds including lightning flashing in the sky! There was now no chance of setting a quick time although despite not being able to go for a fast lap, Emily still found herself in seventeeth and nineteenth for the two races so it wasn’t a total disaster. It also gave her a chance to practice her wet racing skills!
Unfortunately, due to a penalty picked up at the previous round after a collision, Emily started nineteenth for both races. Emily was okay about what had happened;
“This year’s a big learning curve for me and I fully respect the clerks decision and apologise for my mistake”
Race one proved to be uneventful for Emily. She got a good start and was on the tail of the car ahead but was unable to find a way past and instead found herself under attack from behind. Sadly she succumbed and fell back to twentieth place at the flag.
She hoped for a better race for race two in the afternoon. She made an even better start and then just avoided a big incident on the first corner. As she crossed the line at the end of the first lap she was in an excellent twelfth place. The safety car had been scrambled as marshalls dealt with stranded cars and so for the next few laps everyone held position. Emily hasn’t done many safety car restarts yet and found that she was passed on the restart. She then found another rival going up her inside which left her on the slippery outside line. Over the next few laps a bit of a chain reaction followed with her losing pace on the outside as a rival passed allowing the next one in the queue to then get a run. Sadly this dropped her down to nineteenth by the flag.
Emily wasn’t too downhearted by how the weekend had gone especially as she’d managed two finishes this time after a nightmare weekend at Donington;
“Ah well, all in all a decent weekend. Thanks to my team and mechanics at OREX and Junction1 Graphics the car looked stunning. This was due to their hard work to repair the damage we sustained at the previous meeting. Off the track I had a good laugh as always. We stopped off at iZone based next to Silverstone circuit on the way home on Monday and that topped off what has been a surreal weekend for me. The amazing feeling of being a driver rather than a spectator at these meetings still hasn’t worn off and it was particularly apparent this weekend.
Thanks to my sponsors Vantage Motor Group, Junction1 Graphics, Purple M Photo, Custom Cages, GAZ Shocks, Fuel Safe, Silverstone, Haymarket Media Group, Tockwith Motorsports, PhotoBox, Yokohama Tyres Europe, House of Hearing, Fabletics, Ian J Brown and Company, Walero Motorsports and Jays”
Emily’s next races are at Croft, another new circuit to learn in her first season. By Marc Waller
