May
11
Hi Everyone,
For those who don’t already know me let me take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Daniel Cammish, I’m 20 years old and come from Leeds. This is my first season of car racing as I make the step up from National and European Karting. The 2008 season was a great end to my Karting career with some good results at home and in Europe. However after much debate we decided that it was now or never to give car racing a try and here I am. In 2009 I am part of the Kevin Mills Racing squad in the Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain.
After winter testing it was clear to us that Kevin Mills and his team would give me the best opportunity to excel in 2009. We were fairly late to sign and this meant I missed the first team test at Oulton Park, although I was out only a week later with at Rockingham. I am eligible for both the Scholarship and Championship classes this season as I have no prior car racing experience as well as driving a car which is over a year old. The team run the Australian made Spectrum chassis which is proving to be a great car and one I hope will carry me to podiums this season.
Oulton Park was my first meeting and it took place over the Easter weekend. It was a great weekend and a big culture shock coming from Karting. I have never raced in front of so many fans and the addition of British F3 and British GT provided a great spectacle. More importantly the sun was shining all weekend long, which is unusual for Oulton Park as testing had been mostly a washout.
The biggest difference between the Karting life I had left behind and the car racing one which was just beginning was the lack of track time. You really don’t do much and when you do get on the track red flags can often put a halt to consistent running. It was really starting to get to me I must admit. Here we were the Friday before the meeting officially began and I had done maybe eight laps all day. I wasn’t happy and it didn’t give me a lot of confidence for Saturday’s qualifying. You don’t get a warm-up in Formula Ford, you turn up Saturday morning and the first time you turn a wheel is qualifying. This is the hardest thing to adapt to as you have to have full belief in the car and yourself to get the best lap time possible. Thankfully, I did just that, qualifying 2nd at my first ever attempt and only a tenth shy of pole. This really gave me confidence for the weekend’s three races and after numerous battles, safety cars and first corner incidents I emerged with a 3rd, two 4ths and Scholarship wins all round. A truly great weekend.
Now as I write this I am looking forward to Rockingham at the end of the month. It was unfortunate we missed Donington due to their current license problems as it would have been great to carry the momentum to a track where we will feature strongly. I am glad Donington has been re-scheduled instead of cancelled as this would have been a big disappointment.
I hope to bring you more blogs as the season progresses and now the introductions are over I promise it won’t be this long!
Speak soon
Dan
