Kieran Vernon's blog

Brands Hatch is one of my favourite circuits. It’s the place where i won my first car race last year in the Junior Ginetta Championship. From that i went on to win a further five races, all of which on the Indy circuit.

Now in 2008, in the senior class, the ginettas prepare to race on the full GP circuit, something i have been waiting for, for a long time.

Having only done about 45 minutes on the track in total, qualifying went well. I managed to qualify on the front row once again, alongside Julian Barrat, an experienced Ginetta driver.

I felt confident for the race, I was only 2 tenths off Julians lap time, and had my other championship contender Spencer McCarthy back in 5th place.

Race one – A good start put me 2nd at the end of lap one, trading places with Julian. i chose to sit behind to try and pull a gap from 3rd.

Mid distance Spencer McCarthy joined the battle and the usual three way battle had started once again.

Going into the final stages, Spencer lead, a squirrel decided to join in the fun and cross the track in front of the lead trio.

On the second to last lap, Julian and i passed Spencer, dropping him down to 3rd, having peaked to early.

The last corner, with Spencer too far back to challenge, I made a move on the last corner. Julian went defensive, so I opted to switch him back on the exit, a drag race to the finish line saw us seperated by 0.029 of a second, although the winner was Julian, just!

Race two

Not as exciting as the first, I lead the first couple of laps, however Spencer lead the majority of the race. I sat behind in 2nd, trying to save the car for the end as in race one. However a clutch problem in the closing stages left me stuck in gear, but a big gap back to 4th allowed me to still being the car home in 3rd.

A good but bad weekend. points lost in the championship to Spencer and Julian, but another stong result with my 7th and 8th podiums of the year.

The next round is a Silverstone on the 16th and 17thy of August

Photo courtesy of AE Photography.

My name is Kieran Vernon and i am 18 years old. I started racing when i was 13 in the Junior Royale Karting class in Formula 6, the South East Championship.

I won my first race at the end of the year having learnt alot, and decided to move up to the Junior TKM 4 Stroke series. This is where i had all my success in karting, my achievements in this class can be seen on the profile page.

A highlight of my career was winning the TKM Festival back to back in 2005 and 2006, and Super 1 in 2006 and 2007 both as a Junior and a Senior.

i then moved into cars in 2007, into the Junior Ginetta Championship. This was a crucial move for me and taught me a lot about myself, and also about my abilities, and that racing was what i wanted to do as a career.

An eventful and successful year led to winning the winter series at Brands Hatch, which won me a Senior Ginetta which i am racing in 2008.

It is my ambition to be a proffesional racing driver, idealy in single seaters, so who knows what the futher holds for me.

If you have any questions you would like to ask me you can contact me by email: k_kieran20@hotmail.com