30 August 2008Progress Report

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my new site, I am really grateful that people are dropping in and it means a lot to me that people are showing support for what I do. I decided that I wanted to contribute fully to this site so that I could keep it quite personal. Mostly because I wanted to show everyone that I am not just passionate about my racing but also about putting back into motor sport after what it has given me. As this is the first article I am writing, I don’t know how it will be received, so please let me know and give me feedback.

I am a firm believer that what goes around, comes around; this is never more true than in motor racing where you get out what you put in. This section of the website is my newsletter; I will update this as and when the time is right. So that could mean that I will write weekly, quarterly or after every race. I’m sure you’ll understand that I have a hectic schedule so I will not always be able to update it in a frequent manner.

So what is there at lukejonesracing.com? Well there are many things, my calendar is available for all to see; there are frequent news articles and also a gallery that will hopefully be full to bursting by the start of the new season. I though that the best story to begin with should be relevant to the website content so will begin by explaining some of the images in the gallery part of the multimedia section. The early photos all came from Round One of last year’s Super One championship at the Clay Pigeon Raceway in Dorset. They have a particular significance to me because they remind me of one of the most important races in my career thus far; and the one that I can identify as a turning point in my career.

It is fair to say that I was not as fast as the front-runners at that meeting; in testing I was repeatedly rear-ended and fired off track. This was incredibly frustrating and fired me up to try harder to prove a point. However, come race day I proved that I was still competitive. After having an issue in practice where another driver nearly ended my weekend on the run into Billys, I was even more determined to excel in the heats. As a result, I performed consistently in my first two heats; and come the 3rd, the effort proved worthwhile; or so I thought. I was starting 6th; and overtook the three karts immediately in front of me around the outside before I was unlucky enough to be pitched head first into the barriers by another competitor. That is the last thing that I remember before being laid on the run-off area by paramedics.

I have no intentions of looking for sympathy with this story; I have moved on and am now a better, more resilient competitor for what happened on that day. The meeting was, in some ways, a good point in my so far short career. The incident resulted in three broken ribs and my breastbone, as well as cracking every other rib, detaching my rib cage from my spine, a concussion, mild whiplash, compressed c-spine and some damaged vertebrae. I was fairly beaten about when I hit the wall, and was out of action for just over a month.

Without doubt, the next few nights were largely sleepless and painful; to be frank, I have never felt so low with sleep deprivation, and a heavy heart after thinking what might have been. In the almost year and a half since that day, I have gone over those events almost daily and know that I could have done nothing to prevent that happening. Things like this happen as a result of two competitors going hammer and tongs into a corner. If both of you are fully committed to the move, either one of you will concede the place, or you will clash. After these “racing incidents”, when you are able to calm down and stop being angry with the other driver for what happened, you begin to see things clearer. I can’t say whether it was intentional or not, but there was plenty of track for both of us and not on my side of the tarmac; I had no room to move or to pull out of the pass. This said, I do not blame the other driver for what happened, and I actually spoke to his Mum about an hour later and we went over things. I told her that I wasn’t angry, just disappointed that I didn’t have the opportunity to finish. She was really apologetic, but like I said, these things happen and I have moved on.

So with this story in mind, the captions on a few of the pictures may make a little more sense. I have to admit here, that I wish I had more photos of last season, like my performances in Larkhall; which I feel were probably the best of my career. I had gone to a track I had never driven before, and with minimal testing, I passed several of the championships top 5 drivers; and beat the circuits club championship drivers with a few impressive outbraking manoeuvres. Then there was the final round at Buckmore Park where I lapped 3 tenths of a second faster than the then British Champion.

I really hope you enjoy this site, I thank the people who have and continue to help me with it; keeping the content up to date where possible, and giving me the opportunity to use the web as an outlet for advertising my sponsors and keeping people up to date with my career developments. Most importantly though, I thank you, for the support you have shown, and for which I am deeply grateful. I hope to write within the next few weeks, as they should be very exciting. Unfortunately, I have to miss the penultimate British Karting Championship race meeting; which may even have be my penultimate kart race. If all goes to plan, I should have my first two residential blocks with the RDA and Loughborough College; as well as the commencement of my preparations for the 2009 season. I know that racing doesn’t start until March but I am hoping to get a fair few Formula Renault pre-season test sessions in this side of Christmas and maybe some European testing too. So for this I need to be up to fitness levels in adequate time and have to be committed to it 100%.

Thanks again for all the support and speak soon