A really mixed weekend, including the best result of the year but also the biggest yield of damage to date. The weekend started with a very frustrating Friday test session as Croft have to adhere to strict noise restrictions. Three sessions were all that was acheived; enough to learn the track but not enough to give an indication of our speed because we were told to coast around some corners on the track to keep the noise down!
Qualifying was done on Saturday morning with some corners still slightly damp from the overnight rain. The car was handling great and the setup changes since last time out at Brands Hatch had worked brilliantly. I came in feeling as though I’d missed an opportunity as I couldn’t find myself some clear space and set my fastest lap on the only clear lap I had. So when I picked up the results sheet and found myself in 6th I was quite surprised. It was nice to see my name up there at the top and I’m glad that it’s starting to worry people.
Race one promised so much but made for a horrible end to the racing on Saturday. I started from 6th and was aiming to break away with the lead pack. All looked fine until lap two came around and Rhys tried a move up the inside into the first corner. He didn’t completely commit to it and we both braked very late. Ileft him space on the inside as we turned in, but being off the racing line there was less grip. The car slid wide and as soon as it dropped the back wheel in the gravel I lost the slide and it started to spin. Unfortunately it spun into the path of Rhys and bounced him into a tyre wall and turned me round the wrong way facing the rest of the grid. I was able to rejoin but the wing wasrubbing really badly on the tyre,I finished 16th.
With the thoughts of race one in my mind overnight, I just wanted to secure a solid finish during Sunday. Thankfully race two was much more promising. A good start saw me hold my position up the front. I found it difficult to pass other cars in this part of the grid as it seemed the engine was easily matched by the others and I was probably being a bit cautious after the incident in race one. Still, after some very close battling and losing my first wing mirror of the year I finished 6th – achieving my best finish of the year.
On the second to last lap of race two the engine had cut out in the hairpin. Concerned that it was a fuel surge issue we put about five more litres of fuel in, but we had never had this issue ever before even when we ran the tank on nearly empty for trackdays. The car just felt slow, and even after a good start to get up to 4th I started slipping back down the order. The engine started cutting out regularly on left handers toward the end of the race. The worst one causing me to clip a tyre wall, as I unexpectedly lost drive. Frustrated, I finished in 12th after losing 11th place on the run to the finish line after another cut out in the hairpin.
As I said at the start, a mixed weekend. There are lots of postitives that can be taken away such as the improved setup and strong qualifying which shows I understand how to get the best from the car now. We need to solve the cutting out issues, which I believe is the fuel pump. Due to the nature of the fault we won’t know if we’ve fixed it until next time out. The damage also needs repairing as seen in the photo at the top of the page (that was just after race one!). TV footage is on Wednesday 21st September on Motors TV, and with all the incidents I was involved in and just being closer to the front I’m sure that I will feature again more frequently. Next race is Silverstone for the Autumn Championship at the end of September.