Will Hunt column: Radical times... I am a winner

A disappointing and uncharacteristically scrappy start to the delayed 2020 season at Snetterton in July left me with a lot of questions, and a deep analysis into how that weekend unravelled highlighted an urgent need to change my mindset.

I realised I was over-driving, placing myself under immense and unnecessary pressure to win every race in my bid to become Champion.

Guidance from driver coach Charlie Hollings and Motorsport UK Academy mentor James Wozencroft had a profound effect on my approach to race weekends on and off the track.

I travelled to Oulton Park in for round two of the SR1 Cup feeling relaxed and in control and I qualified on pole position and achieved a maiden victory in view of the high-profile drivers, teams and manufacturers from the British GT Championship.

I was lost for words and it felt incredible to cross the line and secure a first victory under the British GT spotlight.

Leading a race taught me that a little extra energy and focus – that extra ten per cent – is what’s required to win.

I always believed I was giving my all when on the limit in the pack, but I now realise I’d been leaving something on the table, because at Oulton Park I drove so smoothly and the car behaved perfectly.

Not letting my mind wander meant I kept the opposition at arm’s length while out front, varying my simulator programme by training in faster, high-downforce cars gave me confidence to carry more speed through corners, and diarising the weekend in great detail helped me store and more information.

Basically, my preparation, attitude and driving style were at a race-winning level for the first time, and I learnt more about myself in that one race weekend than the previous two years combined.

The monkey is off my back and I feel I have momentum to carry into the next round on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in October, but I also felt it was time for a well-earned family holiday.

Soon after Oulton, we sailed to France and drove to a beachfront hotel in the northern coastal town of Trouville, before moving on the Waldorf Astoria Trianon hotel, opposite the Palace of Versailles, where the peace treaty that ended World War I was signed.

We spent much of our time exploring the Champagne region, with its winding roads through spectacular scenery.

It was my first experience of driving on the ‘wrong side of the road’, and I really enjoyed being behind the wheel on what felt like one of Top Gear’s epic road trip.

Unfortunately, news that the government had added France to its quarantine list broke just as we arrived in Versailles, to the amusement of all the British tourists we met.

That means we’re having to isolate for two weeks. I’m being proactive, working through a new lockdown fitness programme devised by Sports Conditioning Coach Tom Archer of Performance Elite, while completing hundreds of laps of the Brands Hatch circuit on a simulator.

I have some work to do, but I know I can extract more from myself as a driver and quarantine isn’t enough to stop me doing all it takes to carry my winning form.