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