BAS Round 5 Debate!!

Well BAS Round 5 due to take place this weekend at St Neots has been cancelled due to the weather conditions but who knew the cancellation could spark off such a heated debate!! The whole debate stems around the proposal to reschedule the round for a fortnights time.

Reasons to reschedule the event for a later date:

• Those class titles that are undecided will have a chance to be decided on the track

Reasons not to reschedule the event for a later date:

• People have commited to the series based on the dates set before they entered and will have made other commitments around these dates such as work and holidays. Some people will not be able to attend the final round as a result of a date change therefore they do not get to fairly complete their BAS challenge. It's not their fault the date changed!
• Other clubs have meetings scheduled to avoid the BAS and these might now clash with the revised date thus putting clubs and their members in an awkward position. Do they support their club and the club points scheme or abandon their club for the BAS?
• BAS rules state that if a meeting is cancelled the results are taken over the best 3 of 4 rounds. It does not state the cancelled meeting will be rescheduled!
• What president does it set for the future? How many rounds next year can be rescheduled when the time comes because the weather has been poor? What is the point in setting the dates if this can be done!

I think my opinion is clear to see from the above!! Some will win and some will lose from not having a last round but at least everyone is in the same boat. If you lose because you haven't collected enough points at other rounds then that's your own fault/bad luck really, harsh i know!! If you lose because you can't make the rescheduled date due to other commitments then that is certainly not your fault and it's unfair! And if you can't make the last round then all the money and time spent on the last 4 rounds was a waste!

From what i gather today, NASA and BAS are both in favour of rescheduling the event and so now it's up to St Neots to make the decision. How wrong is that!! Surely NASA should have the best interests of all clubs in mind (particularly those running on the rescheduled weekend) and BAS should have the best interests of it's members in mind, therefore St Neots have no decision to make as it should have been made by BAS and NASA.

In reality, the only ones to really lose out from this are St Neots. They have invested time and money to put on the event and it's not their fault it has had to be cancelled. But surely the better way for St neots to recoup some of their costs is to reschedule their East Anglia Open meeting as planned on 27/28 September and encourage people to support this. There is just no need for it to be a BAS round though. As Helen Richards has pointed out on the forum perhaps it needs to be looked at as the needs of the many (clubs and members) agains the needs of the few (St Neots). Well said Helen!

Ladies Nationals 2008

What a weekend!!!! You are reading a post written by the Double National champion!! Believe it or not, considering the last post, i won the Nationals in my car AND my brothers 8. I'm over the moon and still smiling almost a week later!

I think the Nationals is about the only meeting i experience full on nerves and boy did I have them last Saturday morning. Following my crash at the Fastest Man i was already in 2 minds about whether racing the 8 was the right thing but too late to back out now. I just needed to get that first heat in both cars under my belt and then i would feel much better. Well the first heat couldn't have gone any better, the track was great and the cars were superb, nothing faltered and I won quite comfortably in the 5 and very comfortably in the 8. Now i could settle!

Heat 2 brought another win in the 5 but a dodgy start in the 8 due to a very dug up start line meant i could only manage a 4th. To be fair though, the first 4 of us, Sandra, Sue, Clair and Me, were all bunched up and as fast as eachother. I new i didn't need to do anything stupid though and was happy to sit on the back of the other 3 and just bring the car home in 1 piece. Even in fourth the confidence i felt in the car was amazing, i knew i could race it 100% as if it was my own. The comfort and set up was spot on.

2 more wins in heat 3 took me into the final as joint top qualifier with Sandra in 5 and 2nd qualifier in the 8 with Clair Horner just in front of me by about 8 points.

Sat on the start line of the final in the 5 i felt so much pressure. I feel like people expect me to win because i ususally do but in all honesty it's probably me that most expects myself to win! At first i was glad to avoid Sandra during my heats in the 5 but come the final i realised i had no idea where i stood against her and really i would have felt more confident having had at least a heat against her. Well there was nothing that could be done now so all i could do was give it my all, drive to win the race and hope it was enough. I got a cracking start and was into the bend first and just threw myself in with the confidence i knew i had to have. Looking at photos now i see i was only slightly ahead of Sandra into the bend and so there would have been no room for hesitation, i needed that confident fast entry into the first bend to get my lead and pull away. I stayed about quarter of a lap infront of sandra for most of the race i think and took a good win.

It was strange sat on the line in the 8 for the final. I wasn't sure whether i felt pressure to win or not. On one hand i was 'just having a go' in the 8 because i could, no-one would expect me to win and so i was pleased to make the final, anything else would just be a bonus. On the other hand, i'd won 2 heats, i was 2nd qualifier, and i wanted to win!! I sat there knowing i could get the good starts and the only downfall i might have against Clair was the confidence into the first bend. That's what let me down last week at fastest man, i could get into the bend first but not commit like she could and thats where i lost out. This week was a little different though, i had the confidence in the car and the track and so i sat on that line just bullying myself to commit into that first corner.
Another amazing start saw me first into the first corner and boy did i commit. It felt amazing, i threw it in and came out a few car lengths in front already. What a world of difference that half a lap had made! I never looked back from that moment, just kept up my speed and confidence through to the end. I won class 8!!!

It felt great to win in 5, but as mentioned before the pressure is on me to win that anyway. It was a totally different feeling in the 8. The moment i crossed that line i just cried, and all the way back to the pits i cried, and sat in the car and cried! Yeah ok i'm meant to be a tough racer and racing is in my blood, but even i can be overcome with emotion at such an achievement as this! And what's kind of ironic is that my mum won the nationals in 5 and 8 in 1994, so it definitely is in the family!

Fastest Man on Grass 2008

I think we may have given racing a miss this weekend if it wasn't for me needing a practice in Mark's 8 before the Ladies Nationals. There just seems to have been so many weekends in a row packed with racing and travelling far and wide!

It was nice to have Saturday to do a few jobs at home, make my way down to Lincoln in my own time and then chill-out when i got there. Nigels bar (see pics) was a welcome addition to the event and i have to admit to spending a bit of time in there on Saturday afternoon!

This weekend I was racing the 5 to test the set-up for the Ladies Nationals and also having my first go in Mark's 8 for years! In fact, 2 years ago the nationals it was his old 8 that i raced so this would be the first time i this particular car. I needed to get plenty of practice! With my seat in the 8 there was no way Mark could get in the car so my partner in the car for the weekend was Phil Cooper, and what a good partner he was!

Sunday started off good with a nice win in both cars, i felt much more confident with the 8 straight away. Over the weekend things stayed pretty much the same in the 5 with another heat win, final win and winner of Fastest Saloon on Grass, beating the 7 of Charlotte Pugh. Things got worse in the 8 with a Black Flag for a hige wheelie (see pic), a 5th or something in final, 3rd in Fastest Special on Grass and a big crash in the Fastest Lady on Grass!! I braked hard to avoid someone and spun (my own fault) then got collected by a 7. It hurt!!!

2 very bent wishbones, broken shocker and stearing arm, lots of bruises and aches, and a very demotivated me took a slow and sombre drive home on Monday night. I was ready for giving up, in the 8 at least, and seriously questioning whether to race it at the Nationals. Was it just going to interfier with my confidence in the 5?

An Irish Adventure

We set off for the English port of Holyhead on Wednesday morning with the sun shining all the way. Our ferry sailed on schedule at 3pm and the crossing was relitively smooth and fast, docking in Don Louaghaire (just south of Dublin Docks) at 5pm. The sun was still with us in Dublin but we went through a few showers on the journey up North to Belfast.

The track at Maghberry had clearly suffered from lots of rain over the last few days and weeks so we were relieved to have all the old airfield concrete to park up on. This was probably a life saver for this weekend! Fortunately, with just 260 drivers, the concrete hard ground was enough to accomodate everyone with very few chosing to venture onto the grassy areas.

Thursday and Friday were both decent days. Rick and I went out on our bikes on both days and did a few miles around the country roads. There were lots of hills though and i have to admit that i ended up pushing my bike up them a couple of times! Meanwhile the Down Autograss track crew worked hard on the track all day on Friday and created a great looking race circuit.

On Friday night the rain came and boy did it come! In fact it didn't stop until late on Saturday night. On Saturday morning we were all relieved to here the start time had been postponed until 10am, and after the rain didn't stop we were even more relieved to hear of a further delay until 12pm. At 12, with the rain still beating down, all the drivers took a vote to cancel Saturdays racing and start the meeting on Sunday at 8am no matter what.

For the rest of the afternoon the world of autograss hit the local pub and i don't think the pub knew what had hit it! Needless to say there were some sorry states by early evening and a wise move made by most to come back to the field at around 8pm for the beer shed disco.

A promt 8am start on Sunday saw the first heats over by 11am, the second heats over by 2pm and the third heats by about 4.30. Time may have been tight for those catching the 9pm ferry but I think it was a wise deicision by the BAS committee to give everyone a 3rd heat and we did indeed still have time to run the finals. The track turned out incredibly well considering Saturdays rain, the slope of it allowing the water to run off albeit creating a very muddy pits!

We made the decision to set off to Dublin on Sunday night even though our ferry wasn't utill 11.30am Monday. With all the local weather warnings and stories of roads closed and ferries cancelled, we just couldn't risk leaving it too late. So we parked up just North of Dublin for the night and set off again at 8am for the ferry. We set sail a little late at 11.50am and took slightly longer to arrive back in Holyhead but with the company of Shuke and the Price clan we couldn't complain about a boring journey.

So it was a long, expensive weekend, for weather that we could have got back in England but it was an experience, and an adventure that was well worth it. Even with only 260 drivers no-one ever expected us to complete 3 heats and finals plus champ of champs in just 1 day after all the rain on Saturday, but Down Autograss and all of the other clubs helpers pulled it off and did grassin proud.

Mens Nationals 2008

I feel like it's a bit late to be writing about the mens nationals considering it was 5 days ago but i've just been too busy to write anything before now. That's no excuse really considering MY BROTHER IS A NATIONAL CHAMP and i should be shouting it from the roof every day!!

The nationals hosted by the Wiltshire league at Stroud was as well organised as we all expected. They've hosted enough nationals on their spectacular venue now to know excatly what is required of them and once again they didn't fail to come up to scratch.

My brother got off to a fantastic start on day 1 with 2 wins in his own class 8 and 2 wins in our dads class 5. He was on form and the cars were just amazing. It was a fantastic buzz at the end of Saturday and everyone i spoke to was congratulating Mark on a successful day and putting their money on him for at least 1 win in the finals. Was that good or bad luck? He's joked about it before saying 'I don't know which car i'll race in the champ of champs if I win both finals' but all joking aside, I have to admit for the first time i actualy thought it was just possible he could win in both classes.

Both feeling a bit rough on Sunday morning (self inflicted), Diane and I were on form in Pits Control. Plenty of banter on the PA to liven things up a bit and to humour our hangovers! The racing was again fast and clean and we were ready to start finals at 1.30.

With Mark as one of the favourites to win class 5 I was seriously nervous as the race began. The usual carniage in the first corner caused by Ryan Griffiths was to be expected but fortunately Mark kept his head and made-up for this set-back by coming through to 2nd in about 1 lap! Waiting on Antony Jacksons rear bumber he made his move when Antony slipped up slightly and through Mark went. Now all Antony could do was sit and wait for Mark to do the same but fotunately he never and Mark took a fanatstic win from Antony and Dan Lewis in 3rd. I was nearly in tears at various points throughout the race. I've been in Marks position and i knew exactly what it was like for him during the race, i was just willing him to stay calm and keep up his winning driving. The cheers and congratulations from the crowds and all of our racing mates were fantastic, a well and truly deserved win to a well liked, nice guy.

The family are all really proud of him but i have to feel a little bit sorry for my dad who has tried for this title for tens of years and still not won it! Mark then goes and borrows his car for the year and is winning the BAS and claimed his first National title!

Top qualifier in class 8 Mark managed to achieve 5th in the final after major understear in the first corner. Still, he had a good battle and got as high as 3rd at one point, and he is very pleased with his performance and the performance of his car. Roll on BAS 4 in Ireland next week and then all pressure on me for the Ladies Nationals!

T-shirts for racing

With my husband being in the design and sign industry it's great for getting freebies in the way of stickers and print. The latest phase for me is printing t-shirts! Rick has the facility to print the actualy lettering and logo's for t-shirts and his brother has a heat press to press the print onto the t-shirts. My role is to order the t-shirts and bring all the processes together!


Earlier in the year we did a couple of t-shirts for me, my dad and my brother and this week i've done a couple more for us and also some for the Almond family. Check out the cute little pink ones that i've done for Shelby and Erina to wear this weekend at the nationals.

The t-shirts are great for wearing at racing. They're fairly cheap so it doesn't matter if they get mucky and worn and the design can be updated easily every time new ones are printed.

Now that Rick has a big new vinyl printer and cutter we might be able to do actual photo-prints on t-shirts instead of just 1-colour lettering and sillhoute logo's. We're also probably going to get our own press so that we can keep all of the work in one place and i can do the whole job myself rather than getting Rick and Dan to help. I'll be a t-shirt printing expert in no time!

Ten of the Best - 27th July

One huge advantage of having family living right next door to an old airfield is being able to sneak on to see events for free! Today we managed to dodge the £20 gate fee to have a look round the Ten of The Best show. Some of the cars there were pretty awesome!

Ten of the Best is a performance road car event, aimed at finding the best all round car in Europe. Handling, top speed, and the 1/4 mile drag strip are used to determine the results. Check out http://www.totb.co.uk/home/ for more information about it and to take a look at the results and the galleries.

Rick does some work for one of the exhibitors at the show, RE Motorsport. The RE Motorsport stand was designed by Rick and the car stickers were created by Rick too. One of RE Motorsports customers, Simon Walker, has the Lotus Exige in the picture and he took part in the event. It turns out that Simon is actually a tenant at the place where I work. Small world!

There were some amazing cars competing, on show, and in and around the car park. What with the glorious sunshine too it was a fantastic event with lots of noise, burnout smells and fast action.

Bug Jam 22 - 19/20 July

This weekend, Rick and I went down to Santa Pod in our VW camper for Bug Jam 22. This is a huge VW festival where loads of people turn up for the day or weekend in their VW's of any sort to exhibit, race, buy, sell, get drunk, etc, etc. If you ever get the opportunity to go then you must do it, it's fantastic.

The journey down to Santa Pod was a test in itself for us. Our faithful 1972 Bay runs around all over the place during the week as Rick's main means of transport but it's never done more than about 20 miles in one go, let alone 170 miles! We stook to 60mph and stopped half way down on Saturday morning to let the camper have a breather before continuing on our 4 hour journey. We made it without any problems.

The whole Bug Jam experience was fantastic. It was amazing to see so many VW campers and beetles all in one place. There must have been thousands. The numerous camp sites were crammed full of the old VW's and it was great to be parked up amongst them in our own camper. Ours is no way the smartest camper in the world, Rick's only done a little bit to it to make sure it's road worthy and that we can sleep in it, but it really didn't matter at Bug Jam. There were vehicles of all state of repair and restoration, from pristine £30k jobs to rusty old £300 jobs that we have no idea how they passed their MOT! This was only the 2nd time we'd camped in our camper and it fet much better than the first. I think we've got our heads round what works and what doesn't when trying to live from such a small space all weekend!

On the drag strip there were races of 'run what you brung' as well as specific demonstrations from a VW jet car and 2 other Jet Cars that reached speeds of up to 260mph in just 6 seconds!! The heat from their jet flames could be felt as they passed by at some 100 yards or more away from us.

The live arena provided demonstrations from the likes of Terry Grant (stunt artist), Monstor Trucks, Motorbike display teams, and lots more. Round the rest of the site were stalls selling new and used camper parts, clothing, gifts, etc and also an auto jumble and Auto-Trader sale section.

At night time the 4 music arena's provided music of all types with at least 3 different bands or DJ's playing throughout the night in each. It was a great atmosphere, and very calm considering most people had been drinking since well before lunch time!

Before leaving on Sunday we walked around the Auto Glym show and shine display where the vehicles on display were just amazing. There was pretty much every VW vehicle you could think of in various states of repair, colour schemes, interior fit-outs, and numerous different conversions.

The 60mph journey home took us just under 4 hours again after a short break to rest the engine. And might i just add that we didn't see a single camper broken down at the side of the road all the way there or all the way back!

Bas Round 3 - Scunthorpe

I've just sat down after a well deserved long hot shower and big fat chinese take-away! This weekend provided some great racing at a very well run event.

I intended to go to the field after work on Friday but seen as my sister-in-law and her hubby were in York, having just arrived back from a year long round the world trip, i took the afternoon off to catch up with them. It was great to see and catch up with them after their year away and so i wasn't in a particular hurry to get to the field any earlier than originally planned.

The weather was a little unkind to us for the start of the weekend - rain on Friday afternoon, through the night and early during Saturday made for a muddy start but, all the same, a great track to race on. The Scunthorpe club have this great relaxed but extremely organised approach to their meetings. The members pull together and push through the negative factors and always put on a great show.

I took 2 wins on Saturday but wouldn't say my driving was anything special. It was good and i enjoyed my races but just felt i wasn't quite on the level that i left Cwmdu on. Maybe that was just pshycological. Maybe it was just as fast and good as Cwmdu, but the big smooth track and great set-up of the car just made it all feel a little easier. We played with the suspension settings on the car this weekend and it really made a difference, it felt great.

Sunday was much better weather-wise. The sun came out and the track was superb albeit slightly lacking racing lines come the end of the finals. There only seemed to be a really grippy race line right in tight and so probably wouldn't have allowed for much passing. Fortunately a flying start and absence of Sandra Jones allowed me to take the lead from the start and achieve a good win.

Straight after my final my brother went in the mens champ of champs and straight after that i went in the ladies champ of champs - my poor car!! We both came 2nd in the champ of champs to the class 8. Mark drove far better than me and was so unlucky to just get pipped to the post by Lee Waldron. In my race it took me ages to pass the 4 and then the 2 as they don't leave an inch up the inside and there was no grip round the outside of them - by the time i eventually got passed the 2, Clare Horner had tried the outside move and it worked so she was well away. All good fun though and £100 prize money for 2nd was much appreciated even if it does go into dads pocket and not mine!

One final thing to mention about the weekend is my brothers excellent driving and results to show for it. What he suffered in his own class 8 (blown engine) he made up for in the class 5. He had 2 1sts and a 2nd in the heats and led all 3 attempts of the final to eventually take the win. Excellent driving in a car that was trully on form this weekend!

New Stickers

I said in an earlier post that the stickers on the side of the car were ruined and i'd pulled them off. Today i nipped to my mum and dads in my dinner hour and put some new ones on.

The numbers are compulsory, we must have them and they must be a certain spec of size, colour, etc. Just to freshen things up a bit we put some different stickers on too; a bit more advertising on the side for our engine builder, Exon Race Engines and a Vision Plus sticker on the bonnet.

Vision Plus is run by Lynn Cooper who races mens class 9. Lynn has a great range of racewear and accessories that she brings to all big race meetings and also sells on line at http://www.visionplusuk.com/

An Inspirational Drive

I don't know about you but i thought Lewis Hamilton drove an amazing race yesterday at Silverstone. Under the track and weather conditions he kept his cool and outdrove the competition by far.

I am well and trully inspired by Lewis's drive and his buzz from winning his home Grand Prix. It reminded me of the buzz that i feel when i have a great drive and a great achievement. I can't wait now to get on the track and do some racing this weekend at Scunthorpe BAS 3. Hope the weather pics up though, I need a dry meeting to have some proper full-on racing!

What i've been getting up to in June

What does a grasser do when they're not grassin? Well here's what i've been doing...

Instead of going to MAP on the first weekend in June, Rick and I went up to Glasgow to visit his Gran who is not very well. It was a lovely weekend with Rick's mum and Aunties and Uncles all back together in Glasgow for the first time in about 20 years. Many of the family are now living in Australia and Uncle Jim is in Germany. We hope to go over to Australia in the near future to stay with the family out there, it's a place i've always wanted to go and from the family photo's it looks every bit as amazing as i thought.

There was lots of paintwork to touch up on the car after the North of Englands so i did that ready for the Cwmdu BAS. There is now more hand-painted white paint on the wheel arches then there is original spray paint! If you look closely there's also lots of nice orange dribbles down the inside of the car where the paint has run through the holes in the bodywork!
We only usually run a shell for 1 season and then over winter dad will re-shell the car or at least re-panel it if he hasn't time to do a complete new shell. This winter however, dad was ill with cancer and so we have kept the same shell for a second season. It's looking a bit worse for wear now and, following a nudge in the door at Cwmdu, the doors panels and numbers are a bit of a state. I decided to pull the door numbers off last weekend and so after dad has straightened the door nicely i'll put some fresh stickers on for Scunthorpe BAS.

Last sunday we went to Dalby Forest, a local forest and visitor centre, with lots of friends from Church and had a great BBQ. Dalby Forest is a fantastic place for bike riding, adventure sports, chilling out, and even has the odd rally there. (pic above is the forest)

Bus Rennovation stage 1

The first job was to strip out all of the seats and sell them on ebay - an opportunity to make a little money back! The picture to the left shows the upstairs area with seats removed.

Dad has also now cut out the back section (right) to plan the layout for taking 2 cars. This really determines how the rest of the living area can fit. While planning this back car area dad is also enjoying the rain (must be the only one!) as it's allowing him to find the roof leaks and make the bus water tight before building in it. I'll keep you posted on further developments or maybe i should start a bus conversion blog?!

Check out my Flickr site for more Bus conversion pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicjesse/sets/72157605953030998/

Our new bus

Sleeping accomodation at racing can vary from back of your car, tent or caravan, to a great big motorhome or even a bus. The Grice family have a bus.

We had a couple of standard 52 seater coaches when we first moved up from the caravan but since about 2002 we've had a Volvo B10M High level coach, much like the one in the image. The coach is converted, by dads own good hands, into a motorhome/living area at the front and a car carrier at the back. Mark's car drives onto a ramp which lifts up on hydraulic rams to allow for mine and dads car to fit underneath it. From that point forward, in the living quarters, is bathroom with shower, double bed, bunk beds, kitchen area, 2 sofas and viewing seats. It realy is prefect for the job - no towing, no expensive carpets and upholstery to get mucky, and plenty of room in the luggage lockers for tools and tyres!

A couple of months ago dad bought a new coach (the one in the pic) which is very similar to the current one. It's still a Volvo B10M but its about a foot taller and the upper deck comes all the way to the front, over the drivers compartment allowing for a further 5ft of living space. In our current bus the top deck stops just behind the driver and the drivers area is all open to the bus (if you can imagine that)!

The coach is as it would be on the road and so dad will now start rennovating it.

2008 Season so far

So far this season we've had 2 BAS rounds, the North of England Championships, and lots of local club events. Here's how i've been getting on...

BAS 1 at South Wales brought sun, wind, rain, and sea fret! Sat on the line for my 3rd heat, the sea fret came in like a thick fog and within 10 minutes we couldn't see the track! We had to hang around for about an hour before racing could re-commence. Although I came away from this round with the results i needed, it wasn't a particularly good round for me. I wouldn't say i'm a perfectionist but i have high expectations of myself. If i make mistakes it's not the end of the world, but i do get mad with myself! I want to be the best driver i can be, and that means mistakes need to be kept to a minimum!
Anyway, i had 2 heat wins and a 3rd and went on to win the final but only just. My car pushed on (tried to go straight on rather than turning) in the first bend of the first race and that was a huge mental set-back for me. I didn't drive the way i should, i was being far to cautious, all because i was subconsciously nervous about the pushing-on problem. I came away leading my class and the overall BAS but certainly wasn't satisfied with my driving.

At our next club meeting at York i did as i always do at club meetings, use the track time to practice and improve my driving. Club racing for ladies is generally fairly quiet, there's only usually 5 or 6 people in my races and there's nothing at stake. I use this time to test myself and the car, to see what we can both do and when we've gone too far. At this club meeting imparticular i was throwing the car about so hard, as if to shake out that mental issue i had over the pushing on in Wales. It did the trick and i had a good days racing.

The North of England Championships came at the end of May Bank Holiday weekend and it was an excellent weekend. The weather was good to us, there was a good number of cars to make plenty of racing, but not too much hanging around and waiting. Complaints and re-runs were few and far between so all in all an enjoyable weekend, even though i was working hard as a committee member and doing my usual bit in Pits Control (Where we control the cars to come up for races).
In the end there was only me and Julie Dean in our final but it was an awesome race. Julie got passed me on about the first lap and i fought and fought to eventually pass her back on the last lap. She almost got under me again in the last corner but i grit my teeth even harder to just hold onto it. It was a great challenge from Julie and i thoroughly enjoyed it. Even if i hadn't won i would have felt exactly the same. We were both well and truly buzzin after the race.
I took a comfortable win in the Champ of Champs to be crowned North of England Champion. (Pic above is of me collecting my trophy from Marcia Jackson of Jackson Coaches http://www.jacksonscoaches.com/ ).

BAS 2 came in mid June at the Cwmdu track near Hereford. The weather was a bit hit and miss; sunny and windy on Thursday and Friday, a good amount of rain on Friday night and Saturday to make for some muddy racing on day 1, and then sun and wind again on Sunday to dry it all out and bring up a great track for the finals. My first race went disasterously wrong. I don't know what happened but i thought the bungy was lifting (this is what starts us off) and so i went, only the bungee hadn't gone and consequently i'd jumped the start. I was disqualified and so nil points for me on that one - fine start! To be honest, i still haven't got over it now! I might be winning my class still but it's well and truly ruined my challenge for the overall BAS. But the show must go on!
A win in my 2nd heat and a 2nd in the last heat secured me a place in the final where i had a great race. I had a rubbish grid on the start line and so my start was poor. I was 3rd into the corner and it took me a couple of laps to get passed Julie Dean. By this time Sandra was well ahead and i didn't fancy my chances of catching her. Somehow, somewhere, i seemed to find another level to my driving. I was going faster than i can ever remember driving before and i caught Sandra with about a lap to go. I managed to sneak under her on the last lap to take a well earned win. It felt good from inside the car and the comments i've had from other people since have been great. People genuinely seemed to have been impressed by my drive which is very encouraging. Bring on BAS 3....!

Memorable Races

Without a doubt, winning a major a title will certainly make a race memorable. But i find that some of my most memorable races have been ones where i've not necessarily won a major title, perhaps not even won the race at all, but all the same i've really had to fight and push my driving to the limits to achieve my end result. Here's a few i'll always remember...

Winning the Nationals in 2003 in my class 1 mini was incredible, it was my first major title and i'll never forget it for that reason, but the highlight of that meeting was most definitely winning the overall National Champion of Champions race. Every class winner enters the race whether they stand a chance of winning or not and as a class 1 just doesn't win the champ of champs (unless it's incredibly wet which it wasn't) i was just entering for the sake of it, because i could!
I had the lead due the the handicap of the race as my car was in the slowest class. As the race went on i started to realise that the other cars weren't catching me half as fast as i expected them to. Going into the last lap I was coming out of a bend as the others were all going into it and for the first time in the race i actually thought i could do it. I think i even said out loud in the car 'you can do this Nic'. On the very last bend i could see the class 9 of Kate Feathersone coming up behind me fast, to my suprise she looked like she was going to come up the inside of me (class 9's shouldn't be going inside a class 1 they should go round!). There's no way i was fast enough to beat her except by defending my line and the line she wanted to take. By closing in tight Kate had to back off and that moment of hesitation from her allowed me to win the race. Over the line the front of Kate's car was level with my door, i literally won the race by a bonnet! The sense of personal achievement for me was amazing, and made a whole lot better by the utter amazement of the crowd and spectators too. A class 1 just doesn't win the champ of champs!

Another memorable race was a final in the class 5 at South Wales BAS 2005. It was the first year in the mini and the track suited the car so well so i'd had a perfect set of heats with 3 convincing wins. As the final was set off my car jumped out of 1st gear and i was left sat on the line. In a panick, i was desperately trying to get it back into gear but by the time i did the rest of the pack were going round the first bend. Sheer determination and frustration took me through the rest of the race, i passed a couple after 2 or 3 laps, then a couple more and a couple more. On the last lap i went up the inside of the remaining cars and took the win. I can't remember every single detail of the race, i just know it was a fantastic drive to come from last (half a lap down even) to win the race. That felt good!

In 2006 i raced the class 5 in the Champion of Champions at the Stroud & District Ladies Nationals. I had qualified for the race by winning the ladies class 5 and along side me as reigning Champion of Champions was Sandra Jones, my main class 5 competition. Neither of us won the race, once the class 8 was passed she was well away, but i enjoyed this race so much as Sandra & I fought none stop from start to finish. Most of the race she was in front of me and i was all over the back of her, then we'd swap and then swap back again. I don't think i've ever raced so hard and fast and close to someone yet never touch them. We pushed and pushed eachother harder than ever before and were physically drained by the end of it. It was a great challenge though.

Major Achievements to date

Here are the National and BAS results i've had to date:

Nationals
2002 - 6th in class 1, 4th in class 4
2003 - 1st in class 1 , 4th in class 8
2003 Ladies overall National Champion of Champions (racing the class 1)
2004 - 2nd in class 1
2004 Ladies overall National Champion of Champions (racing the class 1)
2005 - 1st in class 1, 2nd in class 5
2006 - 1st in class 5
2007 - Didn't compete at Nationals

BAS
2003 - 2nd in class 1
2004 - 1st in class 1, 4th in class 8
2005 - 1st in class 5
2006 - 1st in class 5
2007 - 1st in class 5 and Ladies overall BAS Champion

Background Info

Well grassin has been in my blood since the day i was born. My parents had raced for years at the York Autograss Club, so had many of my uncles, and so too had my grandparents before them.

Mum and dad were and are pretty well known, they've been in the sport for a long time and they've generally been at the front in the classes they raced in. Mum has been more fortunate than dad with her results, winning many a national and BAS (British Autograss Series) title. Dad, always a front runner, tends to be unlucky come the big finals. He's been 2nd at the nationals a few times but finally managed to pull off the BAS class 5 championship in 2006.

In 2000 i raced a mini in ladies class 1 with my brother (Mark) racing it in the juniors. This is where my racing career really started. I was always a front runner in ladies class 1 but it maybe took a couple of seasons to polish off my front wheel drive racing techniques, and also for us to achieve a car on par with the top level class 1 racers. The highlight of my class 1 career came in 2003 where i won my first National Championship and went on to win the prestigious National Champion of Champions race. It's a race that i'll never forget but i'll save all the details of that for another post.

In 2005 mum retired from racing and so i stepped into her shoes to share the 5 with dad. In my first year i won the BAS in that class and was 2nd at the nationals. I have continued to run at the front in class 5 winning the national championships, BAS in my class, and Ladies overall BAS championship.

The class 5 mini that we've had since 2006 is awesome, i love rear wheel drive racing, and i am so fortunate to have a very quick, well built and competative car to race. Thanks must go to dad on that one (and Exon Race Engines for the crackin engine)!

I've raced a couple of other classes alongside the 1 and 5, mainly at the nationals, which have included: a class 4, class 6, and a few different class 8's. This year i'll again compete in class 8 (my bro's) at the Nationals alongside my class 5.