After over 3 months away from the Lotus, I did 1’56 at first testing session. 1.5 seconds faster than the best ever lap time in the past. I gain a very important factor on my racing skill in the 3 months, that is, the confidence on my driving ability. I start to know how to trust myself and trust the car I drive. The confidence gains me 1.5 seconds. And only when I do 1’57 or 1’56, I start to feel the excitement of racing a Lotus. I mentioned this kind of feeling at the beginning of this article, it is like an effort to achieve orgasm.

Since it is a FIA GT weekend, and as a support race, there are 28 cars on grid in Lotus Challenge this time. There are even some pure racing cars on grid, such as Westfield Megabusa and Mallock Mark 6. Alan told me that I have to ignore those cars because they are much lighter than the road car I drive and they are using motorcycle engines. This combination will make them very fast and will just disappear from our sight in races.

Although there are 3 pure racing cars on grid, I am still the 3^rd fastest car in free practice, with a lap time of 1’55.842. Then 1’54.516 in the qualify for round 7. I am already over 3 seconds faster than 3 months ago. It is obvious that confidence is very importance in racing. However I only qualify 5^th in qualify 7. It tells that the drivers are much more competitive and many drivers made much improvement. Alan is very happy with the result because 3 cars in front of me are pure racing cars. We can see a big difference from the dashboard: the highest rpm on their dashboard is 12000, but the Lotus I drive is 8000.

The whole team becomes extremely happy when I qualify 3^rd for round 8^th. The mechanic boys have been cheering on me. They comport with infinite pleasant whenever I make any improvement or bit other drivers in a race. Alan is the happiest person. It is him who modified the car, who has been taking care of the car. Still, when we unfortunately have a sick engine, our car becomes the fastest Lotus in the qualifying, with ignoring the 2 pure racing cars in front of me. That is the excitement of racing too.

Many drivers come to congratulate me on my surprising performance. They shake hands and talk with me. Everybody can see I gained much respects through the 2 qualifying.

However, just before the race started, Alan drove the car to the pit and told me he found a gear cable was broken and he did not get enough time to fix it. The mechanics are still working on the gearbox at the last minutes that I have to go on the track.

Race started, I find very difficult to get into 3^rd and 4^th gear. The rpm dropped dramatically whenever I could not get into the gears, while speed dropped down quickly. Sometimes I have to ignore the middle gears and shift to the 2^nd directly. God, the 3^rd and 4^th are most frequently use gears in the Zhuhai track. I could not slow down properly without those 2 gears. Other drivers can easily overtake me when I could not get into the 3^rd at exit.

Alan tried to fix the gearbox after race 7, but still, same thing happened in race 8. We just got no luck in the races.

Alan and the sponsor Clayton drive the car 2 days after the race. Alan said he could not get any gear before slow corners. Clayton also agrees with the gear problems. Alan said it is because the gear cables twist the way to connect with the gear handle, so it is difficult to control the gears.

Alan planed to replace the gearbox with a more efficient system for the next season’s Lotus Challenge. And I, of course, believe that I shall have a much better year in 2006, because now I indeed know about the fun of driving a Lotus. I shall no doubt enjoy it – the orgasm.