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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.

November 2009: The 2009 Mk1 MR2 series awards ceremony, and Alex received the award for the Red Dragon Race & Track Club Most Outstanding Driver. This is out of any driver from any series within the club - Nippon Challenge, Subaru Cup, not just the MR2 series, meaning this was a brilliant award to win. As the MR2 series is not a championship they do not use a points system, however if it was a championship and they had used the MSA scoring system Alex would have won by a fair margin as he won 9 races during the 2009 season.

October 2009: Alex took part in a Formula BMW single-seater test day with Raikkonen Robertson racing at Pembrey in Wales. Alex has never driven a single-seater before, nor anything with downforce. The day started out with a damp track in the morning and Alex started cautiously, just getting a feeling for the car and how it behaved. The 2009 European Formula BMW champion Felipe Nasr was there on the day to give Alex some advice and also set benchmark times for Alex to set his sights on. Towards the end of the day once the track had dried up, Alex was getting quicker and quicker with every lap. The toughest part was having faith in the downforce of the car, especially on Honda Curve, the last corner on the track. By the end of the day Alex had closed to within 2 seconds of Felipe’s benchmark time (which was one of the fastest ever lap-times around Pembrey in a FBMW) which was a brilliant achievement considering this was his first time ever in a car like this.

24th October: Brands Hatch, final event of the season. Alex only got one clear lap in qualifying, due to traffic and yellow flags, but managed to qualify 2nd on the grid.

Race 1 and it was still raining. Alex got a bit too much wheelspin off the line and dropped to third where he remained for the next couple of laps. An incident on the last turn brought out the red flag and the race was restarted. This time Alex got no wheelspin and got a perfect start and was leading coming into the first turn. He had to defend up Hailwoods Hill and coming into Druids but covered his position and was soon building up quite a lead. Despite the conditions slowly worsening, Alex continued to pull out a gap and backed off a bit as there was no need to push. he brought it home 1st with a 5 second lead.

Race 2 and the track was drying out. Alex once again got a bit much wheelspin off the line and dropped down to third coming into the first corner. He then retook 2nd place coming into Druids but got a bit sideways coming out of Graham Hill Bend allowing the 3rd placed car to get back past. The next lap round Alex was challenging for 2nd again and coming into Paddock Hill he did a very late out-braking manouvre up the inside to regain his place. He was then right behind the leader who a lap later spun coming out of the last turn. Alex managed to avoid him and got his head down to create a gap between him and the 2nd placed driver. He did so and once again could afford to back off towards the end of the race, bringing it home 10 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed car.

So the perfect end to the season. Two wins and two fastest race laps with a car that ran faultlessly, bringing his total season race-win tally up to 9! Click here to watch the video of the second race of the day.

20th October: Grand Prix Shootout. Despite losing out on the voting competition by a mere 40 votes, Alex managed to secure a deal to gain entry into the Grand Prix Shootout, and competed in the first round. This day consisted of driving a Fiat 500 Abarth around Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground at race speeds, being coached and assessed by three instructors; Danny Watts, Stephen Jelley and Rob Wilson. Alex got to grips with the car and track very quickly and even when it started raining he coped well. All the instructors made positive comments about Alex’s driving, pointing out a few minor alterations that could be made to find that extra tenth or hundredth of a second. At the end of the day Alex did his final 3 laps with Rob Wilson (widely regarded as one of the best driving coaches in the world) and Alex came away from it saying they were 3 of the best laps he’d ever driven. Rob summed it up by saying it was a “Very high quality drive”.

We now have to wait until around the 8th November to find out if Alex will be one of the 8 from the 45 entrants to have got through to the final round of the competition.

September 27th: Mallory Park, penultimate event of the season. Alex managed to find a couple of clear laps in qualifying and despite a very oversteery car qualified second on the grid, only 0.07 seconds behind the pole-sitter.

Race 1, and Alex got a brilliant start off the line and was leading into the first corner. However, at this point the engine completely died, the revs dropped and Alex coasted off the track, tried to restart it but no luck. He had to watch the rest of the race from the banking. After the race it turned out one of the coil leads had come off, something relatively simple but very frustrating, at least it could be fixed so Alex could get out for Race 2. We also found out at this point the front ARB mount had broken, explaining the very poor handling car in qualifying. We compensated for the second race by loosening the rear ARB.

Race 2 and Alex had to start from the back, 23rd, due to his DNF in Race 1. He set about working his way up the pack and made up around 7 places in the first lap. He soon worked his way well into the top 10 where he had his work cut out getting past some of the other cars, but eventually finished 5th despite the very poor handling car. A great result considering his starting position! Click here to watch the video of the second race of the day.

August 22nd: Snetterton, the fifth event of the season and not one of Alex’s favourite tracks. He did a test day on the Friday with help from Dan Eagling who we are very thankful to for sparing some of his time to help Alex with lines and car setup. Come race day and Alex managed to qualify 2nd, behind his main rival and team-mate Adam Lockwood.

 Race 1 saw Alex leave the first corner still in second, but the leader was the highly experienced Jody Firth, the British GT4 champion and LMP2 racer who was new to the series. The safety car came out at the end of the first lap due to a T1 incident and when racing resumed Alex had a chance to try and overtake Jody. However, twice he managed to miss a gearchange going up the pit-straight, dropping him off the back of the leading car. He managed to close right back on to the bumper of Jody but at that point the chequered flag came out.

 Race 2 and Alex started 2nd, with Jody on pole. Alex came out of T1 in third place after a great start from car #37 but within a couple of laps he was back into second and looking to pass the leader. Coming down the back straight into the Esses he did a late-braking manoeuvre up the inside of Jody and made it stick to take the lead. From here on he managed to resist constant pressure from Jody right behind him and led to the chequered flag to take a very impressive and pleasing win. It turns out that Jody’s car was 13kg underweight in the first race, so Alex inherited the win, making it two wins out of two races Click here for videos of the two races.