The first race of my guest drives in the 750MC Toyota MR2 Championship this year is coming up in a couple of weeks and given its on the the GP variant of the fabulous Donington Park circuit, which I’d never driven before, I decided to enlist the help of my trusty coach Malcolm Edeson to introduce me to the intricacies of the Melbourne Loop. This was also to be my first chance to sample the actual MR2 I will be using, which is a new-build car from Rogue Motorsport – and this was the first time it had been driven on track.

Malcolm has coached MR2 drivers before – as well as racing in the series himself – so he had a target for me in mind and by the end of the day, I’d achieved it, albeit only in “theoretical best” which is where you sum the fastest sectors using the analysis software. Here is in-car video of my fastest lap of the day, with just me in the car – previously I’ve normally been slower without Malcolm (or Rebecca) goading me from the passenger seat, but this time I did actually produce my best time on one of my solo laps late in the day. Click through to view this on YouTube as you can select HD.

Whilst I was extremely pleased with my pace, I was also happy to find the significantly improved feedback I was getting from the car and that I was able to not only correct the odd breakaway of traction but also to four-wheel drift out of some of the corners, particularly McCleans. The car itself was also very impressive – no remotely serious issues at all – just my glasses steaming up!