Kieran Vernon's blog

The aim of the weekend now we draw to the end of the season is to ensure we finish and score points to hold second in the championship. With a non finish in the last round, it meant Fabio Gamberini has closed on us in the points, however we just need to finish behind him to stay safe. I have never really liked racing for points, however we had some incredibly close racing in both races.

Race one I had a clutch problem at the start, where the car started moving on its own as the clutch disengaged itself, the only thing i could do was stop the car, which caused the engine to stall. I moved off the grid eventually in last place, however there was a first lap shunt at Druids which brought out the safety car. I got a good restart however i got held up by the Ray infront, and was lagging a bit behind, however i managed to catch the back of the pack and started to pick them off. I managed to work my way through the Scholarship runners up to Third place, however on the way i had managed to find myself in P12 overall which is a fair result from the back. In the closing stages we caught Fabio Gamberini however there was not enough time to try and make a pass, so settling for the points behind him was good enough as that was all we needed to do.

Race two was very exciting, the whole race was a battle between the Scholarship class. Without the start issue this time, i was able to battle Gamberini and Benson for the lead of the class, however Benson and Gamberini were going hard at it and at one stage it looked as though it was going to end in tears, so i took a step back and watched it upfold, whilst holding off De Zille behind. Eventually Benson got through, and this let me challenge Gamberini, however this was very difficult whislt being attacked from De Zille also. Gamberini was defending very aggresiveley knowing he had to beat me to stand any chance of taking our postion in the championship, so i decided to sit there and let him make the mistake, which he did however he rectified it by putting me on the grass! so i decided third was good enough rather than a non finish, and a good weekend of points is all we need to ensure we stay second in the standings.

Next race is at Castle Combe on the 3rd – 4th of October.

After a promising test at Brands a few weeks before the event, we were quite confident we would be able to challenge for strong results. We were hoping to show well for the biggest crowd of the year at the DTM event, which is one I have been looking forward to all year, Brands Hatch is where I achieved my first car win in Junior Ginetta’s in 2007!

Qualifying was our usual performance, just under a second away from the pace, and P16.

Race one was a disappointment, a good start saw us leading our class at the end of lap one, however there seemed to be an electrical problem, with the car holding back momentarily out of the corners. I was slow down the straight, but was able to maintain my position for a few laps, however the problem got worse as the race went on, and I quickly started losing positions as I got driven by as if I was in my Junior Ginetta again!

To add insult to injury, Mark Harper missed his braking point going into Druids, and hit the rear of our car, damaging the rear wishbone and right Driveshaft, making the car very difficult to drive even at our slow speed! We ended up last of the runners, in 20th position.

Race two was the highlight of the year, a hard race with good pace but not quite enough to challenge for the lead of the class, made it very frustrating to watch, however I bided my time and watched Jake Green and Josh Benson battle it out. I was safe in 3rd as I was slowly dropping Dan Cammish behind.

On the Penultimate lap, I managed to get behind them, and as Josh made a move on Green into Druids, I pounced, and as Benson took Jake wide with him, I took the inside line and passed both of them, and nailed the lap of my life to pull away whilst they sorted themselves out, the last lap was the slowest ever, as we took the flag for the first time this year in the Scholarship class! It was great to stand on the podium again, especially in front of the DTM crowd!

Race three unfortunately we were cut short of making a repeat of race two. After a safety car period, I took advantage of the closed field to overtake Dan Cammish into Surtees, and then immediately after overtake Dan De Zille into Clearways, we had moved up the field well and were looking for another great result. However starting the next lap, Dan De Zille missed his braking and hit our car directly from the back, lifting the back wheels off the floor and putting me into a spin down Paddock, into the gravel and out of the race, thus bringing out another safety car. It was a disappointing way to end a weekend that had such a high point with such a low.

However we are very proud to become the first winners with a Spirit in the British Championship, and it is testimate to all of Wrensports hard work on the car, and much work to get the car out on track ever race, with our limited budget. It was great to be back on the Podium, and I hope we can make it back there next round, at Brands Hatch this time on the GP circuit.

Please check back soon on our progress!

KV

After an engine blow in the workshop and a missed test, the only track time available was Friday, running in the engine in session one, then getting to grips with the track and car is session two. Then it was straight into qualifying on Saturday.

For Qualifying, 17th on the grid was the best we could do. Race one however went well, work on the cars setup improved the car dramatically with traction out of the slow corners, and gained a lot of time respectively to the leaders, picking off the field and avoiding a first lap pile up into the abbey hairpin, 11th place was the result.

Race two was an average race, getting held up at the start, and problems with severe tyre drop off meant only 14th position, however our pace was good to run with the top 10 battle mid way through, and we had set a good time to move us up the grid for race three.

Race three started with a small incident, as Josh Benson got flicked up into the air, Jordi Cunill slowed which saw me hit him and destroy the nose cone, however the car was still ok, and we kept going. As we moved up the field taking advantages of others battles I found myself in 10th position, challenging for 9th.

However, the stewards had deemed the front of my car dangerous, as they thought the rest of the nose may fall off, and the crash structure has been damaged, they pulled me in with three quarter distance covered. It was deemed the car was safe after a check and they let me back out, however the damage had been done, I kept pushing but with such a huge gap to make up, 19th was the result.

It was a difficult weekend, a huge dent in the budget with the engine blowing up in the workshop, due to a stone caught in the Cambelt, however we made good progress with the car during the weekend, and made a good impression in race one, and race three looked even more promising until the Flag came out.

A big thanks to Wrensport for all their hard work once again!

Next Race, Brands Hatch with the DTM! Check back soon!

KV