Jack Mitchell – Wet and Wild

Brands Hatch, England (October 24, 2012) – I have been in the UK now since Saturday and it has been an amazing experience. Even though it is cold and rainy most of the time, Brands Hatch is a beautiful racetrack. When I first arrived I had the opportunity to watch Matthew race, and I got a preview of the track. My first impression was that it is quite small and technical. There should be a lot of close racing this weekend at the Formula Ford Festival because of those qualities.

We began testing today (Wednesday) with a wet session. I took my time to learn the track and get acclimated to the car. At the end of the session I was up to speed and comfortable with the car. Brands Hatch requires you to be very smooth and patient in the wet, and I think that a rain race would be really interesting to compete in. The next session was damp. The track progressively got faster as it went on because it was drying. It was interesting to see how the racing line was altered as the sun dried the track. The session was hectic because of the changing conditions but at the end I was right where I needed to be. The last session was completely dry which was awesome. I really got the car moving and brought my times down significantly. I felt really comfortable with everything at the end of the day and I look forward to expanding upon what I learned tomorrow.

Overall, the past few days have been fantastic. I have learned so much about driving and how a team operates, and the Cliff Dempsey Racing crew is extremely nice. The track is fantastic and it has been great to drive out of my element, and learn a new car. I look forward to testing more tomorrow.