weds 30th april - Well done to Alex Gassman in his first race

I've coached Alex in his MR2 race car several times over the last year or so and have known from the off that he would be quick. He's learns very quickly - When I told him about heel + toe braking he learnt to do it in 6 corners!

An email from Alex's dad Jeremy:

Ben/KatieAlex had his first race at Silverstone on Sunday and did really well. I feltI had to let you know, and we both want to thank Ben for all of his coachingover the past year, it has been a great foundation and inspiration for Alex.

Brief race report:Alex qualified 5th. Off the line he was a bit tentative into copse - as hehad been advised to avoid an early incident- and as a result fellimmediately to 9th. However he steadily worked his way back up and finished5th. In this first race his best time was within 1 hundredth of a second ofthe fastest lap time (1:15:711).

In the second race he started 5th on the grid, and fought his way right upto 1st place, overtaking even Sam Maher-Loughnan! He and Sam then swappedplaces a couple of times. Unfortunately another car lunged in front and gotout of shape so Alex had to take avoiding action and immediately slippeddown to 5th. He then had an excellent scrap for 4th, swapping places anumber of times before finishing 5th. We are all incredibly proud of him andhe has been going around ever since saying how much he enjoyed it.

The racewill be televised on Men and Motors and Channel 5 in 2-3 weeks time and Alexis sure to feature as he had a tremendous battle for leading places. He has6 more meetings this year so I am sure he will earn himself a podium finishbefore long, the next is Mallory on 27th.You can see the in car video from race 2 at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcXkZg8Am-s&fmt=18

You can see on the video that his car was a bit slower on the straights thana number of the others, but he was faster through the corners.We have also been following Ben's progress and are really impressed with hisachievements, especially given the incredibly bad luck he has had so far.What an achievement getting the car rebuilt after the fire and then gettingthe 4th places! Sorry we didn't have more time to catch up at Brands theother week, another hectic day! We both had a ride in the Ariel Atom, my Godthat was fast, 0-60 in 2.8sec!

All the best

Jeremy and Alex