Tuesday 2nd April 2024
Round 1 of the GB4 Championship took place over the Easter weekend at Oulton Park on Saturday 29th March & Monday 1st April.
This was Alisha's debut in single seater racing with lots of positive's for Alisha to kick off her career in the GB4 Championship.
SATURDAY 29th MARCH:
Qualifying:
Race 1 = P2
Race 2 = P2
Race 1: P2 - P1
After a very close qualifying session that saw Alisha within hundredth of a second off pole she lined up on the front row to start her first single seater race. After a great launch Alisha was able to ease into the lead and close the door on a hard charging car from behind. From this point Alisha immediately began to build a gap and at the end of lap one had a 1.7 second lead. As a battle built behind Alisha was able to achieve some consistently fast and improving laps to increase the lead. By mid distance, Alisha was over 3 seconds clear of second place and went on to post 6 consecutive laps on the bounce within 1 tenth of a second. Alisha went on to record a dream maiden win in her single seater debut, crossing the line with a lead of over 3.6 seconds, achieving an extremely confident and dominant opening race.
This race can be viewed at the following link:
MONDAY 1st APRIL:
Race 2: P2 - P5
The second race saw very different wet weather conditions which Alisha has limited experience in driving the GB4 car. Starting again on the front row in second place, Alisha unfortunately had trouble getting off the line and dropped back to 9th place briefly. This was a really unfortunate start to the race but she immediately focused on charging forwards and made up a few positions on the first lap and then set about chasing the pack ahead. She then made further places before getting stuck behind a driver that was slightly slower but very consistent and able to place the car well to make an over take extremely difficult which allowed the leading pack ahead to build a lead. Alisha crossed the line in 6th but after post race penalties was promoted into 5th. This was an excellent recovery given the start but she did have the pace to run within the front pack and potential to have achieved another podium but it wasn't to be on that occassion.
This race can be viewed at the following link:
Race 3: P13 - DNF (reverse grid)
The final race of the weekend again saw dry condition, albeit with some damp areas off line. Race 3 in GB4 is always a reverse grid from the qualifying times. This meant Alisha started in P13 with other faster drivers around her. She got off to a great start making places up into turn 1 and by the end of the lap had jumped all the way up to 7th which was amazing. Alisha continued to charged hard through the field and progressed up to 4th position. As she entered lap 5, the car in front got a poor exit out of turn 1, whilst by contrast Alisha got a very strong exit and with it Alisha was alongside going down into turn 3, where she was ahead at the braking point but on the outside. Alisha held a good wider line but contact was made from the car on the inside and both drivers went off onto the infield area. No damage was sustained but due to the extremely wet and boggy conditions following the earlier rain there was no chance to set back off and as a result she was unable to finished resulting in a DNF. This was so unfortunate as another podium finish was on the cards, possibly even another race win.
This race can be viewed at the following link:
Overall an extremely exciting and promising opening round for Alisha, where she demonstrated raw pace, consistency and the ability to cut through the traffic even though the races didn't all finish the way she would have liked. Very much now looking forward to Round 2 at Silverstone (GP) on 27th - 28th April.
A huge thank you goes to Elite Motorsport, Ed Ives, Chris Hodgetts, Sarah Moore, Oil Bailey & Demi Belt for all the hard work and support throughout the weekend!