Kieran Vernon's blog

A long drive up to the Knockhill circuit in Scotland for rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the championship. A very exciting short lap which is very challenging to get right every lap, due to the cars behaviour over the drops and rises. I enjoyed success here last year in the Ginetta G20 series, so i was hoping to put up another strong showing in the spirit.

Qualifying was fantastic, and yet disappointing, with a session filled with red flags, sitting in the pit lane seemingly with nothing left to give from the car, I sat 1.2 seconds off pole position, sitting in 18th spot! A very close field here was proving very difficult to get high up on the grid even with a respectable lap time. The last two laps I did were much faster after a small but very helpful change to the car, and saw us put a lap time in which was only 0.8 seconds shy of pole position, however we still sat 17th on the grid! The top 7 covered by a tenth, proved how competitive the field is this year.

Race one was average by our standards, a hard fought race with Fabio Gamberini for 2nd place in the scholarship class was a good achievement considering where he qualified (9th) however we could not do enough to pass, so 3rd in class and 14th overall was the result.

Race two was fantastic, starting from 18th on the grid I made a good start however I got boxed in through turn one, and saw me cross the line P19 after lap one. I fought hard and overtook cars lap by lap, helped by other cars falling off the road, an incident in the lat corner brough out a safety car. To my amazement we were sitting in P7, sitting right behind the scholarship class leader Dan Cammish.
I was determined to try and take the win, however I could not keep with Dan and his Kevin Mills Spectrum through Clarks corner and that spoiled any chance for an overtake, however finishing 7th overall was a great achievement for myself and my team wrensport, our best result yet this season!

The joys of race two however were short lived in race three. after a very strong race two, I managed to qualify 11th on my fastest lap time from race two, and after lap one I was sitting in 8th place. Championship leader James Cole passed and also Alex Jones came through, leaving me fending off Patrick Mckenna in the Jamun Mygale to hold onto 10th spot. However, on lap 12 Mckenna tried to make a move coming out of the hairpin, made contact with my rear wheel throwing my car in the air, then as I landed the mygale drove up and over my car, causing both of us to retire due to bent wishbones and damaged bodywork.

It was a dissapointing end to what could have been a great weekend witrh our best result in race two, however we must now get the car back in shape and be ready for snetterton, where we head next. Im feeling very positive for the remainder of the races, John and Felix Scott of Wrensport are doing a fantastic job on the car each race and we are proving to be getting faster and faster. We will see what we can achieve next time out. Please check back soon!

KV

Images courtesy of JDH Motorsport Photography.

After a strong start to the season at Oulton I was keen to prove that we are one to contend with all season, currently lying 2nd in the Scolarship class and 10th in the main championship.

Qualifying went very well, having had a hard time in qualifying at Oulton, we managed to qualify 1.2 seconds off the pace. This seemed a great achievement, however we were still only 16th on the grid, the Formula Ford grid seemingly very close this weekend!

Race one I bogged down at the start, however managed to pick a few cars off to move up the field. a safety car due to a stationary car on track, closed the field up. We had changed the setup of the car to give some more front end grip, however we seemed to go too far as we had alot of oversteer, and it was very difficult to get the power down out the the last corner onto the oval. I found it difficult to keep up with the three cars infront, as I lied in 15th position.

With the laps dying down the battle infront got more intense, and I managed to close in, and made a move down the inside into the hairpin comeing off the banking with 2 laps remaining. immediateley after, the two cars infront went wide, and I maneged to take 12th spot, however I was strggling for pace and had to hold the cars behind off for one lap!

Anti Burri was the car challenging, and he made a move on the last lap going into chapman. I managed to hold him arounf the outside, landing on the inside for the series of sweeping lefts, side by side we went until tarzan hairpin, where I managed to gain te advantage and keep 12th, this also gave me 2nd in class. this is where I stayed to my great relief to get another 2nd place and a convincing overall position of 12th.

Race two was much of the same however i managed to drive away from the pack i battled with this time, just holding station in 12th position ahead of Peter Barrable in the Fluid Van Diemen, and holding onto the back of Josh Hill’s Jamun Mygale. Another safety car was deployed, which closed us all up again. On the restart Hill didnt get a good jump and i drew alongside, aware that I could not pass before the start finish line. I had to make a decision as i was on the outside for the banking of the oval, which we take flat at around 135mph+. I could either tuck in behind, and lose ground of brave it round the outisde, not knowing how much grip there was on the ’high’ line!

I decided braving it out was the option, and to give the spectators some action, went side by side with Josh through the banking and into the hairpin! I could not gain the place as Hill’s Mygale had too much traction to contend with, but I hung on to the back of him to retain an identical result to race one, with 2nd in class and 12th respectively in the main championship.

Race three was tough, I got a good start but a collision in turn 2 saw me on two wheels and a bent rear wishbone! I carried on racing, and had a thrilling battle for 14th position. I managed to get ahead of the pack, however coming into the final chicicane, the tracking of the rear of the car proving to make the car very unstable under breaking, saw me locked up and over the grass! losing a position to Phillipe Layac.

This was a crtitical moment of the race as Layac proved very difficult to pass, and cost me and others alot of time. It was the difference between finishing 15th, and 12th in the end as Alex Jones had a drive through penalty, and Pat Mekenna having an off in the latter stage of the race. The end result was 15th and 3rd in class, which was a little dissapointing as we could have done better!

However overall team Wrensport and I had a strong weekend, increasing the gap to 3rd in the scholarship class, and holding into 10th in the main championship. With out limited budget this is more than we could have hoped for after round 2 and 6 races of the championship!

Thanks again to Team Wrensport for working very hard on the car as always, David Brodie for visiting, and also Steve Wills for his help through the day on sunday.

Thanks to our new parters Millers Oils for their help and support.

We now look forward to a hopeful sunny Scottland at Knockhill!! I enjoyed a win here last year in the Ginettas and enjoy the track very much, lets be hopeful of another good result for everybody involved!

Kieran

Images courtesy of JDH Motorsport Photography