It was the grand finale of the Golf Gti Championship lat Brands Hatch for Andover girl racer Dawn Boyd and a final chance of a trophy for the season.

Brands Hatch looks an easy circuit to the untrained eye, but has the infamous Paddock Hill bend which sees many a great racer in the gravel trap at high speed, and this would be no exception. During qualifying Dawn found herself bogged down in a pack of cars and a car in the gravel tipped over causing a stoppage to the session. Her goal was to get a lap time inside one minute, and after the restart she showed that Brands is her favourite circuit as she improved her times and put in her best on the last lap of 1.00.09, putting her in third in class on the grid, just 0.889 seconds behind the leader, her best ever qualifying position.

The Golfs were the final race of the day and the sun was already setting and with no green flag lap there was a nervous start to the pack of 28 cars on cold tyres but everyone made it round the first corner. Dawn kept her third place as the pack began to spread but as she went for an overtake, the car in front turned in earlier than before, as Dawn braked harder she locked the wheels and hit the car. She continued but there was a vibration on steering, which lost her some speed. On the ninth lap, at Graham Hill Bend she went wide onto the curbs and the car behind managed to get along side and they continued all the way down the start/finish straight inches apart, seemingly locked at the door handles at 115mph, but at the Paddock Hill Bend Dawn had to yield and third place was gone.

Soon after a red flag halted the race leaving no chance of fighting for the place back, no chequered flag and still no trophy.

However, looking back over Dawn’s first season in the Golf makes happy reading.

Records include her highest ever qualifying position of third, highest ever result of fourth, no mechanical failures, very little damage, and finishing the championship fourth in class and eighth overall out of 46 racers in her most successful season so far.

Dawn now looks forward to 2010 and her second year in the Golf Gti with the prospect of further progression and the hope of sponsorship development.

www.dawnontrack.co.uk