Cassey Watson

I was so excited for my first full championship as a senior this year and couldn’t wait for the season to start so its been an extremely disapointing start to the year.

Round 1 at Oulton Park was always going to be difficult as my deal to drive the Thames Abarth was only done 3 weeks before and due to snow we hadn’t had a chance to test properly. However I was really disapointed with my qualifying, not so much the position, 10th, but with the huge amount of time I was behind pole, 5 seconds. I was finding the car very difficult to drive especially through corners like Cascades.

Race 1 was the first time we had run the car in hot, dry conditions and I got a fantastic start and by the second lap was up to 4th however I was really struggling with the car hopping about and trying to understeer off at every corner exit and just could not hold my position eventually finishing 8th.

Race 2 we started with lower tyre pressures and for the first few laps the car seemed better and I again worked my way up this time to 5th, but then the handling went off quickly and then the car tried to throw me into the barrier at Lodge after I gathered it up I limped the now vibrating car to the end. Post race we found that the near side front?tyre wall had been folding over and eventually failed.

Round 2 was on the Silverstone Gp circuit in support of F2.?Unfortunately after being ill all week I woke up Saturday morning with a high fever and felt really ill, as I climbed in for qualifying I was shivering despite the heat in the car. I suppose my position on the back row was no surprise considering I set my fastest lap on the first lap when the tyres were cold.

Race 1 I didn’t feel any better and it was just a case of making the end, after a couple of exclusions I was listed as 9th.

Sunday I woke up feeling a lot better and was eager for an improved race, unfortunately though I got hit in the rear wheel at the start and only just managed to keep the car on the circuit after a real tank slapper. Once I got up to speed I found I had a horrible car to drive again, I presumed I had sustained damage in the accident, however this turned out not to be the case.

I left Silverstone feeling very low and with my confidence shot, I was really doubting myself and was seriously considering my future, I have always wanted to be a racing driver and I enjoy it more than anything else but not when I am losing, I am really competitive and although I know it is a year to learn from the top drivers in the Trofeo I can’t learn much if I can’t keep up with them.

For Cadwell Park I was going to get my first opportunity to test and it was make or break in my mind and I asked Danny Buxton who has coached me since 2007 to come and see why I was struggling so much. However although there was room for improvement in my driving the main area turned out to be the car. This was a huge relief to me, I had heard from all the front runners about how hard the Abarth is to drive on the limit and was thinking I was not good enough to drive through it, however turns out my car was handling very differently.

After making a few changes for qualifying suddenly the car was beginning to behave how I expected, I qualified 7th but with a feeling of optimism. As we have no budget for testing we took the option of using Cadwell as a test, the best we were going to finish was probably 7th and with a small grid the worst that could happen was 9th. So we decided on two set ups, one a big step one way and the other a big step the other. Although the team told me that we would be slower they said that by the end of it we’d know exactly what the car wants.

On return from Cadwell the car returned to Rockingham and the car was totally reset up. We then had a run on Rockingham Speedway and the car is transformed it is a totally different car. I am now able to push it and can’t wait for the next round at Snetterton.