After a tough 2 days of physical tests, interviews and a small bit of driving, we did not make it through to the next part of the Pirelli shootout in Austria. I am incredibly disappointed with the result, as I felt I had made the necessary improvements to what cost me in the Pirelli Shootout in Austria last year where I was the fastest but did not do a good interview and as a result did not win the prize drive.

The first day of the competition consisted of a physical test, which I felt went well. There was also a private interview and a media interview. In preparation for this year’s event, I had got media training and all the interviews I had to do throughout the event went well for me. Overall, I was happy with the way everything went on the first day.

The driving element of the competition took part on the second day. That is the whole 15.2KM of it! The stage consisted of a 3KM gravel section and .8 of a KM of a tarmac section around a karting track, done 4 times, twice in one direction and then the same piece of road twice in the other direction. We went well on the gravel section and we were fastest on the clocks, although we might not have looked it as I always try to drive as neatly as possible as I find that it is the quickest way on the clock! The tarmac section consisted of 3 hairpin bends and on every run over the stage we dropped a lot of time on this tight tarmac piece of road, as the car that I hired just didn’t have the power to pull out of the bends. I thought it would have been pretty obvious to the eye that the car had no power, even some of the spectators noticed how dead the car was(Marko Martin was one of those to remark on this). Nonetheless, it wasn’t to be, we didn’t make it into the top 5.

The next event for me will be the Ulster rally on the 21st and 22nd of August. It is the next round of the British championship and I am really looking forward to a good event.