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Aimee Woods back in Mondello for Leinster Trophy Weekend

Sep30

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Aimee Woods back in Mondello for Leinster Trophy Weekend

Posted by Aimee Woods on Sep 30, 2016

Aimee Woods back in Mondello for Leinster Trophy Weekend

Aimee Woods was back in Mondello to compete for the most famous trophy in Irish Motorsport The Leinster Trophy weekend is the most prestigious weekend of the Irish Motorsport calendar in the realm of car racing as well as the wider motorsport community. The elusive trophy, once coveted by racing gods Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen was awarded to the BOSS (Big Open Single Seater) class which enticed a flurry of new spectatorship. Every class is appreciative of new interest and hope to put on their best show of the year which in turn often decides the fate of their respective championships. Practice on the Friday was pressured and uneasy. The chaos stemmed from the huge numbers entered with very little track time to go around. I found it difficult to achieve a lap that was hadn’t been tarnished by traffic or some form of incident. Even so, with the further refurbishments to my Formula Vee I managed to scrub two seconds from my previous best time last June on the International circuit. I was completely annoyed by this which in turn leaves me feeling very content. I’m delighted to feel frustration because I now realise I am better than this. Qualifying saw 21 cars taking part in which I qualified 17th for the Vee final. I was understandably agitated by this as there had been 3 red flags during a fifteen minute qualifying session. The Vee drivers were not in the mood to keep in on the black stuff which entirely messed up any strategy I had in mind. I would only be taking part in the B&C race on the day due to family commitments so immediately I was relying on a sprinting start to give me any chance of a decent outcome. For the B&C race I started 13th on a grid of 17. Following a decent start and first corner chaos I found myself in fifth and holding on to it. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the handling of the car as I felt oversteer was an issue. Thankfully I’ve learned to manage this and continued defending regardless of a misbehaving car. Another red flag led to a restart from our original grid positions – back to 13th for me. It wouldn’t be a Vee race without a few cars being eliminated in the first lap so there...

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Formula Vee Festival in aid of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice

Jul21

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Formula Vee Festival in aid of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice

Posted by Aimee Woods on Jul 21, 2016

Formula Vee Festival in aid of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice

Formula Vee returned to Mondello Park last weekend for a festival meeting which raises funds for Laura Lynn writes Aimee Woods The Formula Vee festival resurfaced this year marking the halfway point of the championship, where has the season gone? It was set to be a particularly busy weekend for the Formula Vee class with two championship rounds taking place on the Saturday. For the first time since the opening round, we were also afforded our B&C championship races before the main A championship race. In total, a qualifying session and four races in one day lay ahead. It was also the first weekend out with my newly revamped Vee thanks to my sponsorship from www.sweetpost.ie I was well prepared heading into the festival weekend having spent a significant amount of hours on the setup of the car. During testing, I managed to find a second of time on Mondello Park’s national circuit and felt very comfortable. I’ve always been aware that any form of track time whether racing or testing brings different learning experiences but this weekend brought learning new heights. Quite simply, I’m an idiot for not running an on-board camera every time I have been out on track. I did this all through testing and realised that I was missing track limits all over the place. In a saloon, you’re positioned higher and have the ability to see the limits more clearly, not to mention you can generally feel the track limits as you hop over the kerbs. Not so clear in Vee! I had almost two feet on the exit of some corners and it felt like such a “d’oh” moment with so much extra space wasted. Back in the arms of Daddy Woods’ SWR racing team I had no choice but to learn about the setup of the Vee and “what does what” if you will. From watching the footage, I was able to see when I was most comfortable driving and what were my quickest times. Learning the mechanics (as in basics) of the car was a massive step forward as I was finally able to provide some real feedback and felt that I knew what I was talking about. You’d think that this should be implied but there’s so much to learn in terms of driving style, this had taken a back...

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The Inside Track with Aimee Woods – Formula Vee Debut

Jul18

The Inside Track with Aimee Woods – Formula Vee Debut

With testing and qualifying over Aimee Woods joined the Formula Vee grid in part two of her blog Race 1 The weather had been slightly unpredictable throughout the day and as luck would have it, the miserable Irish weather raised its ugly head just in time for the Vee race. My Father, Sean Woods is a true hero in the rain and always manages a podium in the difficult conditions. I am the polar opposite and whatever chance I have of...

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The Inside Track with Aimee Woods

Jul17

The Inside Track with Aimee Woods

In the first of a two part blog we catch up with Aimee Woods as she prepares for her Formula Vee debut at Mondello Park Testing.. Testing.. Leaping out of bed at 6am on a Friday morning generally means one thing. It’s race weekend. Having built up to the event for almost two months, I was pretty ecstatic to get behind the wheel again. Upon my travels to Mondello Park in the early hours, the butterflies (not the good kind, the nervous...

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The Inside Track with Aimee Woods

Jun03

The Inside Track with Aimee Woods

Buckle Up! Aimee Woods joins us as a regular contributor with her own column, the Inside Track, we follow her progress through Formula Vee plus Aimee will be sharing her tips and advice, as a racing instructor. It’s almost June and the mid-season madness that every championship brings is in full swing and I’ve deemed this the appropriate time to dive straight in. Having been certain last March that the 2015 season was not my year to...

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