Col St. Pierre: Un Bon Début

The first race of the season in the Norma, my first time at Col St. Pierre & first race with Team Schatz Competition. As weekends go this one had plenty of scope for drama and unknowns, admittedly the weeks preceding it had been pretty relaxed as I never had to think about preparing the car or van, but even so…

The pre race butterflies were doing their little dance around my stomach 

I was well prepared though having spent two days over Easter driving the course back to back with my friend & team mate Sarah Louvet, I’m so used to doing things on my own that being able to share everything with a friend was so much fun! Turning up on Thursday evening with the course already mapped in my head helped immensely, I felt less pressure to cram it all in and this relaxed pace carried right on through until Sunday evening when I missed my flight home (oops!).

I’ve got a clear set of objectives this year being as I can now focus purely on my driving and get the full benefit of working with a driver coach throughout the season – it’s exciting but it also means that the pressure to perform is on…

Although still cold at night, we were blessed with 20+ degree sunshine all weekend and I’ve got to say that if I’ve ever a place was worth waiting for it’s Col St. Pierre. I’ve always had a romantic vision in my mind of the perfect European hillclimb, with big elevations, azure blue sky, pine trees, and stunning views … this is that place. Every year I’m over the moon to see all my friends and be back out racing in France again, and to be somewhere as special as this just felt mega!

Class CN2 was packed with no fewer than 24 cars this weekend, without doubt the largest hillclimb category I’ve ever competed in. I took it easy in the first practice, posting a 2:50:785 without any drama before taking off 9 seconds on the second run to place 10th on a 2:41:663 – I was as surprised as anyone.

Sunday morning gave us the best conditions (cooler track temperatures) and I took another 3 secs off moving into the lead in as fastest lady, the car wagged it’s tail off line once coming out of a right hand compression but otherwise just felt planted. Julien Francis, David Guillaumard & Damien Chamberod were a long way ahead around the 2:30 mark, and clearly I had no expectation to be at the sharp end of the class right now, but dipping under 2:40 felt really encouraging. My second run was a disaster, I’d tried to remember to many things to improve on and ended up making mistakes and loosing my rhythm. 

With temperatures dropping a little by 5pm, the final run offered a last chance to improve. We’d all added extra tape to our sun strips as Belvedere corner now threatened to blind us all with the sinking sun – fortunately we’d experienced it on Friday reccos and knew what to expect. I thought I drove harder, taking higher gears in a few corners and using all the road, and I was faster, but only by two tenths.

Still, it was good enough for 9th in a 24 strong class and 22nd overall, I won fastest lady too!

It’s been a perfect start to the season, I really couldn’t have hoped for more and the entire weekend with the team was just a joy and huge contrast to working alone – here’s to a great year ahead (and no more missed flights!) :D

Photos: Clément Luck