TCF's newest addition - GP2 rising star Jon Lancaster - Photo: GP2 Media
Jon Lancaster has become the latest recruit to the the TCF blogging team for 2012, you will be able to follow the young GP2 star on his travels across the world playing a supporting role to arguably the biggest motor racing series in the world – F1.
Purely the most stressful and emotionally draining 9 months of my life. Since my last drive at Donnington in Auto GP last June I have been though so many ups and downs in my quest for sponsorship or investment to get a chance at GP2. The funny thing is I bet the amount of money spent going to meetings and phone calls etc I could probably buy my own GP2 drive! Never the less I have kept my head up, continuously training and learning more and more just in case a opportunity should arise.
Over the last 9 months there has been a huge joint effort from my manager (dad) myself and eventually teaming up with BAM Motorsports to find the budget and get a deal done. I suppose the hardest thing has been how many times I’ve had broken promises, the ups and downs emotionally really made me learn to have broad shoulders and thick skin.
At the start of 2012 I discovered a new type of training that’s growing fast in the UK called Cross Fit which has been a huge boost to not only my training but morale as well. So with my new combination of triathlon training and crossfitting I am hugely confident in coping with the strains and forces of GP2.
Pretty much until about 10days before the GP2 testing in Barcelona I said to my dad ‘why don’t we call around the GP2 teams with available seats and see what deals are going around’ so being pretty confident we had a very small start budget we managed to speak to Tiago Monterio at Ocean Racing Technology and explained what we could do and thankfully he agreed to take the risk based upon my known speed to get me in the car at Barcelona.
Jon in pre-season testing - Photo: GP2 Media
Having not driven for 9 months at all I cannot describe the feeling of pulling out of the garage and going down to turn one at Barca the relief was amazing and through the first afternoon I managed to get in a rhythm again and sensibly adapted my back into race mode. Over the test we got some great work done I especially learnt a lot about the Pirelli tyres and how to make the best of them mainly on the race runs I think my smoothness will pay off when I get to Kuala Lumpur.
The greatest news I can share is my sponsorship deal with OHS a health and safety company owned by a Mr Martin Penny and also sponsors of my be loved Leeds Utd, so a huge huge thank you to Martin and everyone at OHS for their support.
So here we go on my way to Kuala Lumpur ready for the heat and excitement of my first GP2 race weekend supporting the Formula 1 GP.
Jon
