It was a disastrous start for Andover Girl Racer Dawn Boyd at the first round of the Dunlop Great & British MINI Challenge at Snetterton. Norfolk provided some great weather for the weekend and Dawns expectations were high with a newly serviced car for the new season. Unfortunately luck was not on her side. With the new competitors this season Dawn used the testing/practise day to see what her rivals were up to and got some good lap times in.

Saturday was qualifying in the morning. Dawn managed to qualify in 7th 5th and 5th in class for the weekends races, her best ever positions, despite the cars power cutting out part way through a 100mph corner, leaving her with no engine and no power steering…

Race 1 and Dawn was disappointed with her start but soon found herself battling for 5th place, when suddenly and without warning, on about the 3rd lap, her gearbox failed leaving her with nothing but 2nd gear.. still managing 70mph! but losing places rapidly.. Suddenly after ¾ of a lap the gears returned and Dawn finally finished in 10th place in class.

Race 2 and although Dawn still couldn’t get her standing start perfected, ahead all hell was breaking lose and Dawn had to take avoiding action to avoid an incident, this put Dawn in a strong 4th place before the first corner! Elated, Dawn continued to charge for the top 3 when on lap 2 utter disaster.. the gear box failed completely. There was no return of the gears this time and she had to return to the pits distraught, her race was over, giving away her 4th place. Very disappointed, Dawn left the car in the hands of her magician mechanics who replaced the gear box in just over 3 hours! With just 20minutes before the 3rd race Dawn was downhearted but defiant and the rolling start proved very successful for Dawn. She was hot on the heals of the car in front but couldn’t find a clear way through, she held firm in a gap but the closing cars around her hit on the first corner and she was sent into a half spin, across the track 3 times and was hit across the front bumper by another car taking avoiding action. After recovering herself she was able to continue and battled with the bruised car to come home in 7th place.

Although Dawn suffered her worst weekend ever on record, she is in good spirits as she prepares to return to the location of her first ever race in Pembrey (South Wales). She has high hopes for a strong weekend as there are 2 qualification rounds and 4 races to get some good points in the bag. Dawn is still looking for sponsorship for her racing and if you would like to get in touch or learn more about her racing see her website www.dawnontrack.co.uk

Picture courtesy of Derek Binsted