5 months feels like a very long time to have waited to get back in the car. It all felt a little “foreign” at first but the time out from racing has been positive. I feel more confident again now after a strong finish to 2005 and I’m really looking forward to getting back out there.

It was a dull, cold day but at least it was dry. My main aim today was to bring my previous PB from last year down substantially. In the first session, it took a while to re-familiarise myself with the feel of the car and to refresh my memory of the circuit. Even so, I was within one second of my previous best time.

In session two, I built on this time straight away and was in in the 1min 05 secs quite quickly. The National circuit is fast and getting Luffield right is the main key to a good lap time. In the following sessions I concentrated that and ended up with a new PB of 1min 04.5 secs - some 2 secs quicker than last year. This was a good start to the season, although I knew that when we race here in 3 weeks time, I’ll have to go quicker still to compete.