The Drivers Report

Qualifying

I was confident leading up to qualifying following my success at the official test day at Thruxton where I put in the 3rd quickest time in our class with a 1:17.262.

However, I struggled in qualifying managing a best time of 1:18.115, which put me in 23rd place overall and 7th in class. It turned out that the balance on my new set of tyres was different to the testing tyres and as a result I found I had a lot of oversteer in the slow corners.

Between qualifying and the race, Bob my engineer made a number of changes to compensate for the difference in the car and we were confident I could move up the pack during the race.

Round 5

A number of leading scholarship drivers had struggled in qualifying as well, including Charlie Donnelly and my team mate Antonio Perez, so I knew I would be pressured from behind during the race.

However, as the race progressed I battled hard with Julian Yap, who had qualified just in front of me and who was 3rd in our class overall going into rounds 5 and 6. We used each other well and slowly progressed up the pack as others made mistakes. On lap 10 of 16 I made my move going into the fast right hander called Church and got past Yap.

For the remaining five laps I defended the attacking moves of Yap and by the finish of the race we had progressed to 17th and 18th overall respectively giving me my third 4th in class finish of the season.

I was pleased with the result, although I was still a little off the pace so more changes in the car would be made before the next days race.

Round 6

This race was exciting for me and again I was competitive. After a safety car period early on the 18 lap race unfolded with 3rd to 6th in the Scholarship class battling it out nose to tail.

I was involved in that battle and moved between 6 and third a number of times. However, on about lap 12 a car span in front of me and I had to brake hard to avoid the out of control car. This allowed the three cars I was battling with to pull away and as a result I lost the tow from their cars.

Slip stream is very important at Thruxton and with nobody close to me to pull me down the straights, I could not close the gap to 5th in class. As a result for the last 6 laps I made little impact on the battling trio and watched as they argued over third in class.

I finished 18th overall and 6th in class. This was a little disappointing, however, I am learning all of the time and as each race goes by I feel I am becoming more and more competitive.