So Thruxton this weekend has proved to be another mixed weekends racing, but great fun never the less!
With testing being over a month ago we headed straight out for qualifying on Saturday morning. The car felt great and after coming in for a tire change managed to post a 4th place time. However as the others improved due to slipstreaming with their teammates and straight lining the chicane over the kerbs we didn’t, and therefore slowly dropped down the order to start 9th for both races. So not the best qualifying session but it was certainly going to make for interesting racing.
Race 1 on Sunday morning got off to a great start, gradually moving up the order with a series of overtaking manoeuvres. We managed to get to 5th before being bundled back down the order after being hit sideways at Club Chicane. With a bent rear axle and double the normal rear camber we carried on and managed to climb back to 5th and onto the back of the leading pack with 3 laps to go. Looking like we could move even further up the order disaster struck as the car went into limp mode after bouncing over the kerbs at the chicane. So a non finish and no points was far from ideal, but spirits were still high in the team and after some very hard work we were ready for race 2.
So with the race time being put back half an hour to give everybody an extra chance to repair race 1 damage, we headed out to race again. Another great start saw us gradually moving up the order to 5th by the end of lap 1. Two laps later and it was another pass up to 4th and onto the back of the leading pack. Eventually the four of us started to pull a gap from 5th and with 3 laps left we were ready to mount a challenge for a podium finish. Into the chicane saw the 2nd and 3rd place cars run into each other and disappeared off the circuit. This meant now we could make a challenge for the win and heading up Woodham Hill for the last time did just that. With a great slipstream we went for the outside line into the chicane and nearly made it, but with us both leaving our braking to the very last second we had no choice but to go straight on and take 2nd place across the line. A great result from 9th on the grid and a fantastic finish to our mixed weekend.
Can’t wait for rounds 7-8 at Oulton Park in June!