As newcomers to the club, we (David and Geoff) brought our recently acquired Avanti along for our first participation in historic Formula Vee. After pooling our gold sovereigns and purchasing the Avanti from Kevan Peters towards the end of 2016, we have basically spent time getting familiar with how the car works as well as squeezing in a track day and having a drive each. David rapidly achieved a competition licence while I am aiming to progress from an L2S as time permits.

Saturday offered reasonable conditions and David qualified the car in 9th, and in respect of track position, was able to stay with the second group of cars over the races. Sunday went smoothly for David while he got into the competition groove and tried the limits of the old tyres we were running. Meanwhile I took what opportunity there was to do my normal routine behind the camera but that will come to a halt when my Ranger completes restoration later in the year.

It will be interesting to see how David goes with a bit more experience in the Avanti and fresh set of tyres.

So what do we think as our first impressions? We had a great time - the quality of the cars is excellent, there is a distinct camaraderie that reflects a healthy and engaged club membership, and the welcome that we have received has been heartening. The category is reasonably affordable to get into, advice is readily available and the cars appear to be quite reliable. What is even better is that my dear wife visited Wakefield Park on Sunday to see what we were up to and I appear to have achieved a renewable leave pass to get along to the next meeting, but I'm really not sure if it was Steve's birthday cake or the smell of fuel and oil that impressed her the most.

Geoff Russell and David Clark