The two month break allowed me to really concentrate on my fitness and be ready to tackle the second half of the season with full force in my newly ‘Awesome’ sponsored Golf GTI. To check out Awesome and all their GTI products visit www.awesome-gti.co.uk. My testing at Rockingham on Friday was reasonably successful and I was only a few seconds off the front pace which considering I hadn’t been in a car for a long time was promising and by the end of the day I was around a second off on old rubber.

Qualifying on Saturday was dry and I was fully prepared to be going for the front couple of rows on the grid for the races, but after just 3 flying laps my brake disc cracked all the way around the weld stopping my qualifying session and leaving us with a bit of work to do on the car before the races. Despite this I had qualified in 8^th place which was promising for the Sunday races and I knew that I could get a good result by the end of the weekend. The top 8 championship positioned cars were taken away and power tested that evening and my car along with 5 others was deemed to be legal so I retained my qualifying position.

Race one was a wet and even though I hadn’t run much in the wet it was a great leveller for the drivers and I was looking forward to producing a good result. Unfortunately after being hit at turn three on the left rear wheel and this altering the amount of toe on the wheel, my race was made extremely hard as everytime I turned through the right hand bends the car would step out at the rear meaning I had to control the car rather than just driving it as hard as I could. I finished in 12^th place where I would start race two from and unbeknown to us the race was going to be completely dry! I made a good start and was up to 9^th place by turn two and then into 8^th by the end of lap two with my other close championship rivals being just in front or just behind. I took 7^th place by the chequered flag and this was a better end to the weekend than I thought especially as I took 6^th place in the championship and catching 5^th extremely quickly. Thinking back to last year this was a huge step up and I am so grateful from all the support from my team, sponsors and fans for the support in what is turning out to be a brilliant season.

My next outing at Donington Park is on the 24^th September and I will endeavour to take 5^th place in the championship here and claim another podium result as I like the track even though I have never driven the GP complex yet!

I would also like to make you aware that on the 29^th August I lost a friend to a motorbike accident at Cadwell Park. He was an extremely talented and dedicated rider who lived his life to the full and I will be carrying a sticker for the rest of the season on my race car to show my support for his tragic death. Rest In Peace Ben Gautrey #25

All The Best

Zoe x

www.zoewenham.com
http://twitter.com/#!/ZoeWenham