My last two rounds for 2011 were at Donington Park and Silverstone and both tracks I had gone well at in the past and was looking forward to hopefully rounding the year off on a high as I still had a chance of getting 5th place in the overall championship.

Testing on the GP track at Donington went well and the team really found a sweet spot with the car that meant I could drive it quickly and Saturday qualifying proved this by me being 3rd on the grid and the first Golf too. The weather left a little to be desired on Sunday though and the rain came in for the day. For race one I started off hopeful that I could be on the pace as I had had good pace in the wet earlier in the year but this changed shortly into the race where the car started to handle extremely badly and I dropped to 7th. A few laps from the end I had a small gravel excursion dropping me down to 17th, but the worst was yet to come. I was excluded at the end of the race for a technical infringement as my wheel rims over hung the wheel arches. I lost all championship points which was a huge blow to my efforts to attain 5th place by the end of the season and I had also opted to play my joker (which doubles any points) after my brilliant qualifying. This also meant I started last (24th) for race 2 and even my best efforts to move through the pack didn’t quite pay off. I carved my way through past 10 cars and finished in 14th place but I was disappointed and down in 7th place in the championship. I looked on to Silverstone where 5th place was still possible but very optimistic.

Silverstone saw us take to the new Arena track and I hoped for dry weather so that I could really prove my pace again and the weekend started off well as on Friday I finished the day being 4th quickest on a drying track. Qualifying was also dry and I knew that I had a strong chance of being on the front row of the grid but to my dismay hitting traffic on my last lap left me just 5th but with a theoretical best time of 3rd which I knew I could repeat consistently, I was confident I could turn it into solid race results. Race 1 was difficult as the track was damp so I decided to put 2 slicks and 2 wet tyres on the car hoping that I would be able to at least hold my position but I found myself dropping back and although I had a good battle I finished in 11th place and made it extremely hard for myself for later in the day. Race 2 however was dry and I had a lot of work to do but I loved the track and knew it was a long race. I made a good start off the line overtaking 2 cars and as I lined up another in the Maggots/Becketts complex, the competitor I was side by side with slid as his rear tyres were cold, coming across the front of me therefore forcing me into a slide which resulted in me hitting the tyre wall and causing too much damage to continue with but I guess that’s racing for you!

I have had a great year and proved my raw pace in qualifying and I finished 8th overall in the championship out of 32 cars. The support from my sponsors Supagard, Awesome GTI, Geometric Manufacturing and Fadal CNC have been a key part to my success this year and I cannot thank them enough. I hope for 2012 I will be back out racing but now is the waiting game whilst I try and raise the money I need to continue. Keep your eyes peeled for press releases when all may be revealed for next year’s challenge.

Until Next Time,
Zoe x

www.zoewenham.com

Images: Jakob Ebrey and Marc Waller

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