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2012 Season...
 

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June 2011: Alex starts planning for 2012. Alex has completed the first academic year of his apprenticeship achieving distinctions in all units of his HNC in Mechanical Engineering and is now putting together a plan to get him racing again in 2012. He will move up to a different series of saloon or sports cars and intends to compete for the whole year, allowing him to contest for the championship. A number of different series have been looked at, and Alex now has his sights set on what he wants to be driving for next year and is actively seeking sponsorship to help him achieve this goal.

Watch this space...

January 2011: Alex takes a year out from racing. On the back of winning the Mk1 Mr2 series in 2010, Alex has made the decision to take a year out from racing in 2011 for a number of reasons. The main reason is that in September 2010 Alex secured one of only 5 highly contested places on BAE Systems Surface Ships Portsmouth’s Engineering Technician Apprentice scheme. This is a full time, four year scheme that will move Alex into a working, engineering environment whilst achieving strong qualifications. The heavy workload over the first academic year is what made Alex decide to hang the boots and overalls up for a season.

October 24th 2010: Brands Hatch, the final race of the 2010 season. Once again, qualifying took place on a wet track. Alex again showed his skill in the rain by qualifying on pole.

In the first race it was another lights-to-flag victory with his team-mate Adam Lockwood never more than a few car lengths behind.

Moving on to the final race of the year, which was starting on a damp track with Alex on pole. To win the title, Alex only needed to finish somewhere in the top 15 drivers. Too much wheelspin off the line saw Alex leave Paddock Hill in 3rd place. Everyone was fairly cautious into Druids, when out of nowhere a car locked up on the wet track and t-boned Alex, spinning him into the wrong direction. Just managing to keep it out of the gravel, Alex had to wait for the whole pack to pass before he could eventually rejoin in 30th place.

Alex was now on a mission to regain his title hopes and set about passing most cars as if they were standing still. 3 laps in, two cars came together in front of Alex and blocked the road, leaving him with nowhere to go except into one of them and onto the grass. The car survived, but more time had been lost.

Alex once again got his head down and by the time he reached the chequered flag he had no idea where he had finished. It turned out that he’d passed 26 cars in the 15 lap race to finish 4th overall! The best drive of Alex’s life, and no better way to win the title.

Watch the mesmerising drive for yourself from Alex’s in-car camera here.

September 19th: Mallory Park, the second time the MR2 series has visited here in 2010. Alex was just out-qualified for pole position by David Pittard, putting him 2nd on the grid for race one by a mere 0.04 seconds.

Alex got a decent start in the first race and tucked in behind the #9 car of Pittard. He was right on David’s bumper from the first corner and put the pressure on straight away, getting alongside out of the hairpin and through Devil’s Elbow on the first lap only to be outdragged slightly down the start finish straight. After hounding Pittard for a few more laps, Alex dived up the inside just as David hit the brakes coming into the Esses and shot up the inside, taking the lead. From there on he tried to get his head down and get on with his own race, all the time watching for David only a few feet from his rear bumper. Alex kept his head to win the first race of the day, very satisfying.

Alex was starting on pole for race 2 with Pittard alongside. This time Alex got the better start and led into the first corner with his teammate Adam Lockwood #51 right behind. Pittard fell back leaving Alex and Adam to break away from the pack. Alex had to defend hard from Adam for the first few laps, but as soon as he was just far enough ahead to get back on the racing line he managed to pull out a few car lengths. An oil spill and waved yellow flags made things interesting towards the end but once again Alex held on to take another win.

August 22nd: Cadwell Park, Alex’s favourite circuit. Alex went out in qualifying on a brand new set of tyres but after a couple of laps he had worn them in nicely and they were performing well. He managed to find a couple of clear laps and qualified on pole by 0.4 seconds over the 2nd placed driver.

In Race 1 it was a straight drag to the first corner, Alex was neck and neck with the car next to him but he had the outside line for the first right-hander leading onto the back straight. However, he kept his foot in it around the outside and emerged from the first corner in the lead. From there he managed the gap to the car behind throughout the race to take the first win of the day.

In Race 2 he was starting alongside his teammate Ross Stoner. Ross used the advantage of a paddle clutch to get off the line slightly better than Alex and Alex tucked in behind him. From there on Ross was determined to hold onto the lead and was being incredibly defensive, sitting on the inside line for every corner and making his MR2 as wide as possible. With Cadwell being such a tight track this made it very hard for Alex to try and pass, despite being glued to Ross’ bumper for the entire race. At one point Alex tried to go around the outside of Ross but Ross held the racing line and forced Alex to take to the grass. On the final lap Alex tried a similar move, this time getting fully alongside Ross at Mansfield but once again Alex was forced on to the green stuff to avoid contact. In the end he had to settle for second, not a win but a great result none-the-less.

July 17th 2010: Lydden Hill, a circuit Alex had never driven before. Thankfully within a couple of laps of qualifying he knew where the track went and the right lines to take. He managed about 3 clear laps throughout the session and felt pretty happy with how he done. He was surprised to find out he managed  to qualify on pole, only 3 hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate  and only 7 hundredths ahead of the 3rd placed driver, it was very tight at the top!

So onto the first race, the lights caught Alex out a bit as they went out  almost as soon as they came on and he had dropped down to second coming  into T1 but had the inside line so left the corner in the lead. He had to push for the first few laps to get away from the second placed man but after that built up enough of a lead so he could just manage the gap between himself and the car behind. He managed it all the way until the end to take the win.

For the second race he was on pole again and this time the driver behind in third place got a great start. Alex tried to hold onto the lead but car #9 used all of the grass to get past Alex and he managed to get ahead. The two of them managed to pull out a bit of a gap over the third place car, so Alex sat behind the leader for a few laps to gauge where he was quicker than him and where he was likely to be able to pass. About half way through the race Alex got a good run out of a left hander up a hill which led into the hairpin. #9 went defensive, Alex moved back across onto the normal racing line to make it look as if he wasn't going  to try and pass. #9 then moved back onto the same line thinking he  didn't need to defend but just as he hit the brakes for the hairpin Alex dived up the inside and got past. Alex compromised exit speed for the next corner so had to defend but managed to hold him off. He had to push for  the rest of the race to stay ahead, most of the time having no more than a couple of car-lengths between himself and the 2nd placed car. Alex managed to hold him off until the chequered  flag, a really really pleasing win and the 5th of the season so far!

June 20th 2010: Castle Combe, the third round of the 2010 season. Alex hadn’t driven the track for a couple of years but after one lap of qualifying it all came back to him. He found some clear track and managed to continue his run of being the fastest qualifier, taking his third pole position of the season (from three meetings)

Race 1 and Alex lined up on the front row next to his Celtic Energy teammate Adam Lockwood. They both got a very even start but their other teammate, Ross Stoner, got a brilliant launch from the second row of the grid and was ahead coming into Quarry. However, he got it very sideways but just managed to hold onto it, in the process he lost a lot of time, handing the lead back to Alex with Adam in second. Lap after lap Adam was no more than a few car lengths from Alex’s rear bumper, Alex was struggling slightly through Quarry but was slightly quicker in other places so the gap between the two stayed even until the chequered flag, where Alex won by 4 tenths of a second, and the third place car was over 15 seconds behind.

Race 2 and Alex again started on pole with Adam next to him and they again got an even start. It was three abrest coming into Quarry but Alex came out in the lead, again with Adam behind. This time, Alex had sorted out his line through Quarry and was able to match Adam’s speed through there meaning he managed to pull a bit of a gap out after a few laps to earn himself some breathing room. At the end of the race Alex won over Adam by almost a second, and their other teammate came home in third. A 1-2-3 for Stoner Racing / Celtic Energy!

So it was the perfect weekend for Alex, pole-position in qualifying and two race wins at a great track.

May 30th 2010: Snetterton, the second round of the season. Alex struggled in qualifying with understeer on the new track surface on some of the corners, and with a grid of 40 cars finding a gap for a clear lap was very difficult. Despite this he managed to secure pole position by 0.08 seconds from his teammate.

Race 1 had to be restarted twice before it finally got underway. Alex lost out to his team mate who had a slightly better run onto the back straight than him, and he was then passed by the #26 along the same straight, dropping him down to third. He was then caught by the #40 car which was much faster than him along the straights but was slowing him down through the corners. #40 outbraked himself at one point allowing Alex to retake 3rd place which is where he finished.

Race 2 and Alex was starting in 3rd. The same top four cars broke away and the superior speed of #40 meant he kept passing Alex on the straights and was slightly faster over an entire lap. Alex did a late lunge up the inside into the final chicane to retake 3rd place from him, but a lap or two later he lost out again. With one lap to go Alex managed to pass #40 on the inside at Coram and managed to hold him off for the final lap to finish in 3rd place again. So two podiums, a very strong result.

April 18th 2010: Mallory Park, the first round of the 2010 Mk1 MR2 Racing series is held at Mallory park. Alex manages to qualify on pole by 0.4 seconds and is one of the only drivers ever to get a sub 57 second lap (56.84).

Race 1 and Alex got a great start but for the first few laps had Adam Lockwood right behind him. However, as the race progressed and the leaders entered traffic Alex managed to increase the gap between himself and 2nd position, in the end he won with a 2.5 second advantage.

Race 2 and Alex was once again on pole. For this race Alex had swapped the tyres around from side-to-side to get the most out of them, this shouldn’t matter in the dry but unfortunately it did and Alex struggled for grip right from the off. 5 or so laps into the race and he had slipped down to 4th place but was hanging onto the back of the leading trio. Alex managed to go around the outside of Adam Lockwood into the hairpin, and then coming onto the last lap the leader span at the same place, promoting Alex to 2nd place for the flag. A brilliantly fun race and a good result considering his fastest lap was .5 seconds off his pace in the first race of the day (57.7 opposed to a 57.2). Still a very good start to the season.

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