Welcoming back John Sheridan to the Fiesta Championship
The Scottish Motor Racing Club’s Fiesta Championship were pleased to welcome back driver John Sheridan during the Ferrari Club Competizione event earlier this month. We asked John to write a short rundown of his first event back with the Club, this is what he had to say:
“A quick recap on my first race weekend at Knockhill for about 12 years in the Fiesta STs. I’m John Sheridan and was running in car #88. Well, what can I say? What a weekend! I last raced with SMRC at Knockhill in 2011 or 2012, I can’t remember for sure. I’ve been living in Australia for around 10 years and returned to the UK in early 2021. It’s been tough settling back and being short on funds, I haven’t been able to race since I landed. A recent change in jobs has led to a few more spares coins in my pocket and so the only right choice was to ‘go racing’! This wasn’t quite so easy though. Living in England (I know, don’t hold it against me!), not having much free time or mechanical know how meant I needed some way of getting a car, getting it properly prepared and not having to worry about towing it to a different track for every meeting. This is where SMRC and the ST Championship played its trump card. I gave Paul Curtis at PCR Motorsport a call, had a chat about options and bought a pre-raced ST. Paul agreed to get it fully sorted for the meeting, even though it was only 2 weeks away. All I had to do was turn up on the Saturday and fit my seat. Registering for the championship was a piece of cake. Steve Burns led me through the process and Becky (ST drivers’ rep) introduced me to the ST drivers fold and was always on hand to answer my questions. Saturday came around and right enough, Paul had the car race ready, and I just sorted my seat as planned. Then it’s Sunday and the nerves start a little. So, what can go wrong? It’s only reverse direction (never driven this way before), only a new car (never driven it before), brand new brake pads & tyres (never driven with either brand before)… Plenty of potential code brown moments here I thought! But I shouldn’t have worried and as soon as I was back on track all the nerves disappeared. Qually turned out well finishing 8th, which I was very happy with considering it was my first time out. Race 1 saw a 5th & race 2, 6th. I was properly stoked! Then I somehow won the Toyo Tires Driver of the Day, taking home a brand new Toyo R888R…total winner! What an awesome re-introduction to Knockhill and SMRC. It was great to see the familiar faces of the more seasoned campaigners and also to see that there are some seriously quick young steerers on the grid too. Knockhill in the reverse direction certainly was a challenge and the racing was competitive, but fair. A big thanks to Paul at PCR Motorsport for providing me a quick, well sorted car. I can’t wait for Anglesey, bring it on!”
It’s never too late to join in with the fun on track, if you’re interested in taking part in our Fiesta ST Championship, contact fiestas@smrc.co.uk for more information, or check out the championship pages of our website at https://www.smrc.co.uk/
Photo Credit: Lee Fisher
