After 10 years of ownership which has seen the 7 used for blatting, touring, trackdays and all manner of club activities, I decided it was time to try a new challenge and that this was the year to try my hand at sprinting and hillclimbing.

So, after much encouragement primarily from Mike and Tam Calvert , I set about getting my licence and preparing the car. Many thanks also to Mark Durrant who spent time exchanging emails and 'scrutineering' my car before the 1st event. I'm aiming at competing in around 7 or 8 events in my first season. My 7 is an 1800cc 140bhp x/flow and for my first season I'll use 32Rs for the dry and keep a spare set of wheels with 21Rs for the wet. So that means Class 3 for me.

Although Goodwood is my nearest venue for this year's championship, Maggie May and I decided to B&B it the night before to save on an ungodly early start on Saturday morning.

Strangely enough, I didn't feel too nervous about my first event (I guess the only things going through my mind were: don't make a fool of yourself and hoping for good weather). Unfortunately the weather forecast was not looking good, heavy rain in the morning!

Anyway, at 5.30am the alarm goes off and it 's not raining. Phew! However, at 6am the heavens just open up and I get drenched just hitching the trailer onto the car. This most definitely isn't helping my nerves now!!.

However, on the way to the circuit the weather starts to improve quite quickly and we arrive at 7.20am in sunshine, broken clouds and a gentle breeze. We find our allocated garage quickly and in no time we have unloaded the car and all accessories from the trailer.

So far so good. Next, off to registration, which is so much easier and less time consuming than trackdays (is it always like this?) and then as I get back to the 7 I'm next in line for scrutineering. All goes well, but I have to trawl around the paddock to find a scrutineer to sell me my helmet sticker. Now I'd better go for the noise test. Now, I've never failed a noise test but with the x/flow I'm always slightly apprehensive. My rev limiter is set at 6,500 revs but the power tails off at 6,000. So I tell the tester max revs is 6,000. So I'm instructed to bring the revs steadily up to 4,500 and hold it there. Oh, the embarrassment a x/flow at only 94dB. The exhaust recently had some work done on it by Powerspeed who also repacked it with a ceramic blanket which obviously works very well.

Next up, drivers' briefing, again, so much less formal than trackdays. Still no nerves (something must be wrong, what could I have forgotten?).

It's soon time for the first of two convoy runs. I've already decided to do both as I've never driven Goodwood before. First point to note is that the track is still quite damp and there is standing water on some corners. Now all of a sudden I start to have second thoughts! Especially as these runs are not that fast.

So back to the garages and find that Symmo, Tango Tart, Prangerman, Myothercarsa2cv, K16TOY, Crudders,Rich Watson and Clive & Yvonne from the Kent meets and also Brent & Tricia and Andy Webber from Hants have blatted down to support me. 'Twas very thoughtful of Brent to text me earlier that morning with "Don't bin it 'til we get there".

Meanwhile I get talking to Mike & Kate Sankey and Graham Wardall in the adjoining garages and say hello to a few other seveners that I already know. Everyone is so friendly, it certainly didn't feel like it was my first event.

Now it's time for practice, 2 laps, the first from a standing start for a practice time and the 2nd lap will therefore just follow on. Waiting at the red light I set the revs way too high and slither and squirm away from the line with too much wheel spin, I change to 2nd very quickly and I'm still spinning. Too much enthusiasm on a slightly damp grid. I fly round at breakneck speed and find that Mike Calvert, despite starting some 20secs after me has caught me up at Fordwater! Reality check; I'm too slow

My practice run was timed at a sedate 118.62 secs. Back at the garages, the 'fan club' amass and want to know my thoughts. Then it hits me, I haven't checked my tyre pressures and I realise that they are probably too high. With pressures adjusted downwards by a few PSI all I can do is wait for the timed runs to start for the L7C after lunch.

Within no time it seems we're called for our first timed run so back to the car and off towards the mass of 7s waiting for the call up to the grid. After practice I set myself a goal of getting down to 110 secs. Green light, and again too much wheelspin, but the track is now bone dry and that really helps my confidence to push harder. I still don't really know the circuit and find myself backing off too early for some of the corners. Nevertheless 1st timed run 111.76 secs. Wow, what an improvement. Now I want to go again now! But alas it doesn't work like that at sprints so it's back to the garages and time to reflect. I'm sure I can go quicker.

Later, we all line up for the 2nd run with a good chance that we may even get a 3rd run. I'm in the queue for the 2nd run and the timing equipment goes AWOL and we wait for what seems like an eternity (20 mins I think?) and all I can think is that a 3rd run probably won't happen. Eventually, the equipment is back up and running and I'm now on the grid. Green light too many revs again, squirm away from the line but I feel more confident but can I go quicker; It certainly feels quicker and as I exit the chicane I'm probably carrying too much speed and end up with the offside wheels well and truly on the grass. Quick decision required; does car feel 'planted' or should I back off. Planted so I keep my foot in and head for the line. Best time yet,109.75 secs;. Great another improvement.

Just get back to the garages, get out and we are told that anyone in the L7C that wants a 3rd run should make their way to the holding area asap. Excellent, another chance to go quicker and I'm sure I can.... This time I use less revs away from the line. Bugger! This time too few revs and the car bogs down a little. I'll get the hang of this starting lark one day.

Anyway, I'm sure my lines are better and although I get a bit of a wiggle on exiting the chicane I cross the line for my best time of the day 107.82 secs.

I'm well chuffed, my first sprint and I manage to better my times on each occasion by a reasonable amount. I'm also beginning to wonder why I didn't try sprinting before. I think the best time in Class 3 was around 97 secs and I've no idea of the other times in Class 3 but I would expect to be the slowest on the day after all it was my first sprint and I guess I'm probably down on power compared to a few others, running with less stickier tyres, and have no experience of this type of event.

All in all, a great day out, can't wait for the next event and I'm more than happy that I didn't make an arse of myself!!!