After the success of Silverstone we have once again seen just how difficult this game can be and even though I feel that I am driving better than I have all season we have managed just one podium from two races at Snetterton and three races at Brands Hatch these past two weekends. This unfortunately has given the initiative in the championship to my main rival Scott Pye but we are not despondent, we know what we and the car are capable of and we just have to work harder to ensure we squeeze every ounce of performance from our package.
We had extremely changeable weather at Snetterton over the Bank Holiday weekend but generally felt we had a good race set up for both wet and dry conditions from what we able to see from practice. Unfortunately qualifying was hard as I was unable to gain a tow once again and was down in 6th place. But the changeable conditions came into play for the first race on Monday morning with a heavy downpour an hour or so before the start meaning a wet track all be it with the sun shining. I managed to move up to 5th on lap one with Pye, Cammish, Bernstorf and Findlay ahead of me. After a couple of laps I gained position on Findlay and quickly closed down Bernstorf. But he proved to be more problematic to get by as he defended vigourously and it took a risky pass around the outside to eventually get by. By now leaders Pye and Cammish had opened up a 4 second gap and we were almost at half distance. But now with clear track I was lapping up to eight tenths a lap quicker than the lead pair who were dicing. I caught them on the final lap and they almost came together at the Russell chicane with Pye forced to straight line it to retain his slender lead and taking out all four bollards in the process. Just one more lap and I feel I?d have a real chance to improve my position such was my performance advantage in the difficult conditions but unfortunately the chequered flag was out.
Race two at lunchtime was on a dry track but with a possible threat of rain. I again made a good start and was quickly up to third behind Pye and Buri. For the first few laps I had no problem staying with them and was just evaluating the situation. But then I began to fall away with a worsening handling problem and this meant that I fell back into the clutches of the rapid Elinas, now running in clear air having shaken off team mate Cammish. I could do nothing to hold Elinas back and to be honest it was a relief to have him come by as once he did I found I was comfortably able to remain in his slip stream and he pulled me away from Cammish and actually began towing back me towards Pye and Buri who were having a fierce battle at the front swapping the lead. Pye eventually managed a 2nd win of the day by the slenderest of margins from Buri with Elinas third and me fourth.
So onto Brands Hatch at the weekend just gone. We knew that Jamun would be very strong here being as it?s their local circuit and they have done a fair bit of testing here. Although I ran very competitively here last year in the FF1600 Kent car winning races; my running in a Duratec car was limited to test day a couple of weeks ago which was unfortunately hampered by red flags and then an early finish for me when the water pump on my engine failed.
However the limited running that we did have indicated that we were on the pace so it was a surprise and a setback that Jamun were able to find more than half a second advantage for both Pye and Bernstorf on the short Indy circuit in qualifying setting some incredibly fast times. Even though I?d held the fastest time at the halfway point of the qualifying session I eventually ended up 7th for races one & three and a disappointing 8th for race two. My worst qualifying since we had engine problems at Zandvoort.
It was obvious that the Jamun cars and one or two of the other Mygale runners were able to enjoy incredible levels of grip this weekend that we just couldn?t find and so although my car wasn?t slow it just wasn?t good enough to compete and I had to work incredibly hard for two 5th places and one 6th place finish. I feel that I drove the race of my life in race two moving up to 5th from 8th and then having to defend like mad to retain my position and it was a very similar story in races one and three. Up front there was a fair old battle going on for lead which unfortunately I wasn?t able to be part of this weekend but congratulations to Scott Pye and Josh Hill on their race victories and commiserations to Antti Buri who came so very close once again. It was also good to the Juno chassis competing at the sharp end in the very capable hands of Tom Bradshaw.
All this means that we have now lost the championship lead that we have held since the first weekend of the season at Oulton Park to Scott Pye and my former work colleagues at Jamun Racing who have of course won this championship for the last five years. But we have made it far from easy for them and we have may have now lost the lead but the championship is far from a lost cause with five rounds remaining at Donington and Brands Hatch over the last two weekends of this month.
