---

---

For my 25th birthday Hannah had bought me a racing package with a choice of various driving sessions to choose from. I had to choose from driving a Ferrari, Lotus, Rally Car, Stock Car or single seater and of course since I was so into Formula One I just had to choose the single seater experience. I had booked myself in quite some time ago and it was unfortunate when I woke up to see a miserable rainy winter’s day. My session was very early beginning at 8AM so after an hour and a half driving to get there I was very tired and very nervous. There were about a dozen of us driving today, we heading into the briefing room to have a chat with race director about how to drive the singer seaters, rules of the track and what to do to avoid causing an accident. I was getting more and more nervous just thinking about it, but even still could not wait to get started. After a 30 minute briefing we headed over to trackside where the Single Seater were waiting for us, lined up in the pits. We each jumped into a race suit and were given gloves and a helmet then one by one were shown to our car, mine was red, number 9.

This was awesome, I jumped into the car and was strapped in by the pit crew, I had a quick look around to find all the buttons and was ready to go. To start the car it was simply a press of a button, and when changing gears it was all one motion, push the clutch, change the gear, never ride the clutch. I started the car, then began to move and I stalled it instantly, it was harder than first thought. I tried again and was well on my way, for the first few laps we followed the safety car around to get used to the driving conditions. The track was quite wet and slippery due to the heavy rain overnight and there were plenty of huge puddles waiting on the side of the track for anyone who lost control. It was amazing fun, really, really good. We completed 5-6 laps under safety car then headed into the pit to make sure we were all ok to continue. Next time we left the pits we were free to drive on our own and step up the pace. I was quite cautious for a while but eventually I was flying around the track. These single seater race cars could go 0-60mph in around 3 seconds, they were incredibly fast, average top speed on the short straight was 130mph. I was absolutely loving this, every single minute.

Eventually the chequered flag was waved and we were asked to come into the pits, there was no particular winner or any times but I think I did pretty well. It was hard to explain how much fun it was to drive these things, I could have continued all day but unfortunately it had to end. We left our race suits and helmets and headed back for our de-briefing. There were a few incidents where people ran off the track, one guy was completely soaked after driving through a puddle. They were quite impressed as they didn’t disqualify anyone, there is usually at least one person they have to pull over. We were each given a certificate then that was about it, Hannah and I headed back to the car and took the long drive back to London.

---