RAY THOMAS
Legend Driver
Car No 58
Last year I competed 2 rounds of the National Championship, one round in March which was tarnished by a first race, first corner incident and a below spec car and the other meeting later on in the year in October which was much more successful having some good races towards the back end of the grid. Over the winter we worked hard on the car and got a team mate (Martin Gadd in the #68 car) who I convinced to make the transfer from karting.
The first meeting of the year was Brands Hatch which is my local track just 30 mins from my house!. Round 1 I took the decision to start from the back of the grid to build my confidence. I had some good results from this position and made up some places and had some really good races with those around me and finished okay through the heats. In the final after making some changes to the car I found a little more mojo and finished 15th out of 29 drivers. The thing with Legends is that the drivers are all very very good and close with many drivers competing for over 10 years. Therefore I was very pleased to finish in the top 15.
Sunday for round 2 I woke up (after a good night’s sleep in the van) with my mind set on building from what turned out to be a good Saturday. Sunday I was put into the mix and finished my heats in 15th and 16th after having a nerve racking front row start in the 2nd heat. The starts in Legends are nothing short of adrenaline fuel’ d excitement. Brands saw 29 cars entering the first corner after starting from the rolling start – it really is something to experience with cars going 4-5 wide all after getting past one another. The final race of the day saw the rain clouds open up dumping rain onto the circuit. We fitted the wet tyres and after only ever driving the car in the wet once we headed out on track. These cars in the wet are absolute animals to drive. The engine will easily spin the wheels in every gear you like and it realty is about being very gentle on the throttle. After getting a reasonable start I got a tap into Graham hill which left me pointing the wrong way on the grass watching the whole field go by. Luckily I recovered and quickly picked up some reasonable pace to finish 24th. Not an awesome result but I really felt like I learnt a lot in the race about car control so was equally as rewarding as finishing a bit higher up.
After having some good mid field results at my local circuit in Kent (Brands Hatch) we made the trip North to Silverstone for the first time for rounds 3 & 4 of the championship. After we eventually got set up on Friday we were all set for Saturday morning when I first got to drive this circuit with so much heritage. Again in the mix of the legends we have good heat finished maintaining our mid field running with finishes of 14th and 17th. The final saw a frantic start and after keeping my nose clean and having some good pace finished 8th which we was really over the moon with. The first heat on Sunday saw me come home in 16th but after having to take aversive action on the heat 2 I only managed to get back up to 20th. The final saw me on the second row (due to the reverse gird) and I managed to maintain 3rd for the first lap. However after being bump drafter and bump drafting across the start finish line I think my inexperience led to me being spun off into copse corner which in itself was an extra short of adrenaline – spinning at over 100mph!. I managed however to get back going again and catch up with a recovering Martin Gadd (my team mate) to have a dam good race with him swapping positions on nearly every lap to come home in 18th with both massive smiles on our faces! Every meeting we are improving which is the main thing at the moment and I cannot wait until the next race meeting!
Legend race cars are so much fun to drive and be a part of which good organisation and friendly drivers and teams. There super cool looking cars all have personality with their retro styling and individual colour schemes. Racing these cars is another level of pure adrenaline filled fun! They have purpose built race chassis and a powerful bike engines coupled up to a fixed rear axle making them absolutely awesome to drive and rewarding when you get it right. Due to the fixed rear axle and revy bike engines driving these cars is about throttle balance which I am still learning as they are so quick to bite you and swap ends. So far with the championship we have had so much fun and hope to continue moving up the grid (which will be both challenging and rewarding!).
Kind Regards
Ray