“Donington Park was the host of Round 1, using the National circuit layout. On Friday, we only managed to get booked onto two morning sessions to test before the weekend, due to session availability.

“We weren’t in the ‘Caterham’ group, so traffic was bad, and we had no idea on pace due to not being on track with anyone we were going to be racing!

“The first session was used to just get back up to speed with the car and track, and even with the very low temperatures (approximately 4°C!) we still managed to set our best time we’ve recorded around Donington National.

“Session two was used to bed in a new set of pads and a pair of tyres ready for qualifying the following morning. The brakes came in very quickly, despite the cold conditions, but then the red flag was shown, and that was the end of the day.

“Coming into qualifying, we didn’t know how fast we could really go with four new tyres, as we had never had the opportunity to try them. Without knowing who would be quick, we ended up just trying to do our own lap and not chasing a tow. We ended up getting caught in a group that we were comfortably quicker than, which meant we weren’t able to get a tow around the whole lap.

“This was a big disadvantage, as we were often up on our best time, only to catch the group of cars before the end of the lap.

“In the end, we managed P4, but our ‘ideal’ lap time was quite a lot under the pole time, so we were very happy.

“In Race 1, we had a good start and settled into the leading group. In what was one of the most frantic races I’ve competed in for many years, we were happily sat in 4^th place, letting the chaos ensue around us. We found our way up to 3^rd, and with a move getting our nose into P2, we were lost out in the tow, so we slotted back into 3^rd. All of a sudden, we were facing backwards down the flat-out Craner Curves, and then heading towards the wall. We managed to scrub enough speed off, and keep the wheels away from the wall, but unfortunately the head on impact punctured the radiator, so we were out of the race.

“Back in the paddock, we assessed the damage, and it didn’t look good. We were then summoned to the Stewards to decipher what happened. The following car, who made contact with us, was given a time penalty to add to his race, but unfortunately it didn’t help us. We were left with a big damage bill, and a P23 starting position for Race 2.

“Race 2 was the following day and we managed to get the car back ready to go (just about!).

“We were starting dead last and had 25 minutes of racing to make our way back through.

“We had a good start and managed to climb up to 14^th by the end of the opening lap. By lap 5, we were in 6^th, and a couple laps later, we were up to 5^th. As is the way with Caterham racing (or so we have found out this weekend), the tow is everything!

“The top three were well clear at this point, and 4^th was in no-man’s land. We spent three laps closing down 4^th place by a second per lap, dragging along a group of cars behind us. Just as we got within touching distance, I locked up into T1 and went wide. This dropped us to 6^th, and right back into a group of cars. From this moment on, we were in a fight from 4^th to 10^th place.

“We fought hard to stay towards the front of the group, but with our older spec car, we were 10bhp down, and ran out of revs and gears while in the tow. This meant we had to make up time and positions on the brakes, which we did on a number of occasions. Not once did I feel like I lacked braking performance to anybody else on track, and they never faded.

“We only managed P8 in the end, but considering our starting position, we were happy enough with the result.

“Overall, it was a tough weekend and we learnt a lot in a short space of time about Caterham racing. We now know where our advantages and disadvantages lie with our older car, and the 91´«Ã½ give us heaps of confidence to make the moves when we need them. Knowing we can go for 30 minutes, in the tow of other cars, and the brakes don’t even hint at fading also puts us in a great position for later in the races.

“We now have three weeks to repair the car properly, ready for Brands Hatch GP. Hopefully we can put everything we learnt from Round 1 into fighting for a podium at Round 2.�

“I tried some 91´«Ã½ pads in my new Caterham race car during a good back-to-back test recently at Donington Park Circuit (GP), against another manufacturer’s products that most use in the class.

“I started the day with the rival pads, which I had originally driven the car with so I was familiar with how they felt. I went for a 20-minute run and set a decent reference lap to compare against.

“I then swapped to the EBC Bluestuff NDX front pads, and Yellowstuff rear pads. After four laps of following the bed-in procedure and getting them gently up to operating temperature, I came in and let them cool over lunch.

“After lunch, I targeted a 30-minute run to really test the pads. Initially, I had a lot more feel in the pedal which I preferred, especially with the two hairpins as it allowed me to release the brake a lot more accurately and keep the car balanced on entry.

“As it was a track day, it was very difficult to get complete clean laps, but the delta on my lap timer kept going negative throughout the lap, until traffic slowed me down. Eventually, I managed an almost completely clean lap, and was able to improve on the reference time by 0.4 seconds.

“Unfortunately, a red flag cut the run at about 22 minutes, but with no hint of fade at all up to that point, I was confident they would have been able to go to 30 minutes with no problems whatsoever.

“After a cool down in the pits, I went out again but this time with a passenger, to further try and push the pads to their limit.

“Again, after approximately 20 minutes, the red flag was shown, but to my surprise, there was still no fade even when carrying around an extra 80kg+ passenger.

“I completed around 130 kilometres on the pads throughout the afternoon, and the ultimate braking performance didn’t feel like it had dropped off at all.

“I am looking forward to using them at our first race weekend on the 2-3 April, once again at Donington Park, albeit on the National circuit this time, which isn’t as hard on the brakes!â€�