Jay Arikar (GBR) E-Rain Racing suffers a destructive accident at the Old Chicane. Shark rFBMW Round 3, OldRing International Junior, Tuesday 12th August 2008.

Not happy with my performance really - I think the picture tells most of the story of my race!

Practice
I had absolutely no idea on how to setup the car, took a few tentative feeler laps (kept spinning at Variante Alta!) and started to tweak the car. I had a safe setup that wasn't too hard on tyres after a while, and one which was well-balanced between speed and grip I feel. It wasn't perfect, as braking into the Old Chicane still wasn't right, and the car was rather understeery through turn 6 and through Fangio bend, which is rather nasty and bumpy. Other than that, a productive practice.

Qualifying
I just couldn't find the groove in Quali compared to practice, and I kept making mistakes on my flying laps, especially the two troublesome chicanes, Old Chicane and Variante Alta. I didn't really get a good run until my last flying lap, where I managed to pull something together for 6th, but I feel I could have gone faster.

Race
Oh dear. The start was okay, I think I only lost one position, and I'm not the world's greatest starter, so I'm happy with that aspect. I was running well in about 4th I think, then a couple of people passed me, which I wasn't too fussed about as I was trying to save the tyres for a push at the end. However, I was close behind McRoberts into Fangio bend when I thought he braked (turns out it was a bit of lag) and I lost control of the car and brushed the wall - no damage but a few places lost - my fault. Rueing my mistake, I pushed on the tyres I had saved, and posted my PB on the next lap round. However, all was lost when I broke a little too late and too hard into the Old Chicane - the back end of the car started to rotate around, I tried to counter it but it was too late, and the car slid into the wall at about 100mph (see picture) which completely destroyed the nose, front and rear wings, and tore off the left-front suspension and wheel. Race over.

It was fun while it lasted though.