Sunday was the first round of the Daniel Ricciardo Series DRS40 Championship at Three Sisters Circuit in Ashton-in-Makerfield, close to Wigan. Around an hour from home it is one of her nearest tracks but she hadn’t driven here before this weekend.

She took part in the Academy Sessions on the Saturday for some extra practice and had a positive day, finishing just 4 tenths of second of the best time of the day with a 55.414.

On Sunday, Jess started with Pre-Event testing and set the 5th fastest time overall out of a field of 22 drivers.

With larger grid sizes this year, the field was split into two groups. The race day proper started with the warmup sessions and Jess got her Championship off to the best possible start with a 1st place finish, her 54.59 being her best time of the weekend, and quick enough to be the fourth fastest driver across the whole day.

In qualifying it was extremely tight at the top, with the top 4 separated by less than half a tenth of a second. Jess set a time of 54.92 which was just .047 off the pole position but it was only good for 4th place!

In the heat race, starting from 4th, Jess got caught up in a first lap incident that dropped her to 15th but then put on an amazing recovery drive, getting past 8 drivers in the next 10 laps to cross the line 7th and gaining time on everyone except the leader whilst doing so.

In the Pre-Final, starting 7th, she had a much less eventful time, gaining a couple of places across the course of the race to cross the line 5th, before a penalty awarded to another driver saw her promoted to 4th.

Her earlier results put Jess 9th on the grid when the two groups were combined for the Grand Final. On the opening lap she was slow coming out of Dunlop and perhaps showing a lack of race experience didn’t defend into Paddock Bend. She found herself on the outside, three wide, which didn’t fit. There was some contact and with Jess on the outside of the three, she span out and got beached. She was helped back on but a lap down and very little she could do to make any headway, finishing 20th in the A Final, and out of 33 overall.

A disappointing end to the day but there were lots of positives to take, particularly how well she raced and being so close to the front on pace.