Driving a Race Car Aged 15

Recently I was given the opportunity to drive a Ginetta G40 Junior race car at Blyton Park and it was the most incredible experience.

The car is relatively low powered; producing 100hp from a 1.8 Ford Zetec engine which had been tuned for racing. Despite its minimal power, the G40 race car is a very light car, weighing in at only 830kg and with the addition of racing brakes, racing suspension and a very sticky set of Michelin tyres, it can corner absurdly quickly. All of this and the most satisfying 6 speed sequential gearbox to ever grace this Earth, made this an extremely fun car to drive.

This opportunity came upon the day of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship. A competition that 13-17 year olds can enter, irrespective of previous driving experience, with the prize being a fully funded season in the Ginetta Junior Championship; a support series for the BTCC.

The day consisted of three elements: a media assessment, to prove that it is possible for you to speak in a likeable manner towards cameras, a fitness assessment from hell, being judged by Richard Chessman, who specialises in the training of Moto GP riders and F1 drivers and two driving sessions alongside professional racing drivers determining whether or not your car control, ability to change gear and whether your capability too improve is good enough for the world of motorsport. As you may imagine the two driving sessions were my preferred parts of the day, having said that I still gathered valuable knowledge from the other parts of the day.

Having previously driven karts, (I have a separate blog on this subject and I strongly suggest you check it out) driving the car at speed seemed very familiar. Car control came naturally to me behind the wheel and although adjusting to the extra weight found in a car compared to a kart was at first a struggle this too became a normality.

In fact I only had two main struggles with driving the G40 Junior. The first of which was pulling away without stalling. Without a standard pneumatic clutch in the car, there was no progression in the releasing of the clutch, it was either on or off. This would mean that it would be necessary to build the revs up to 4000 rpm, just to pull away, which was difficult to get my head wrapped round. The other difficulty I faced was calming my aggression when driving at speed. For whatever reason I couldn’t refrain myself from pushing my self to the limit when driving. This lead to some very quick lap times, but also some spins, well three and one miraculous save to be exact.

This constant want to go quicker and quicker in such an encroaching manner lead to some terrified instructors and therefore points being deducted and me not making it to the final day of the competition. It was my demise in the three assessments, I feel, but I just simply could not drive any other way.

Despite not winning the competition, I still enjoyed the day immensely. Its a day that one I shall certainly not forget in a hurry, whether it be that I was able to push myself to my limits on a track at just 15 years of age, or be that I was able to scare the crap out of some professional racing drivers. Either way I want more of the rush that I felt on that day.