Hi,
Well, as up and down race weekends go, Croft was a real rollercoaster! There is just so much emotional, financial and technical input into the WIX Filters Race car team that I just have to do my best, 110% every time. I shall try and explain how qualifying and the race panned out. The team had made some major changes to the car since the last round at Oulton Park and the car felt better immediately, we have made massive amounts of progress with the brand new car this year, it was always going to be difficult, as it is for all teams with a new car but, we are really happy with where we are at, at the moment.
Sometimes things happen in qualifying that go for or against you, for example the 40 minute session can start either wet or dry and finish the complete opposite, so dependent upon when you got your best shot of a flying lap, the weather can dictate your starting position for the next day, or another driver might have an incident on track and a red flag is shown, which immediately delays the session and ends your qualifying best effort lap. The British Touring Car Championship rules do not allow tyre warmers, front wheel drive cars have to leave the pit lane and do 2 or 3 laps to warm the front tyres, the car is then brought back into the pits the front and rear wheels are switched and after another 2 laps your tyres are up to temperature and you are then hopefully ready to put in a fully committed on the limit ‘flying lap’. The Team’s engineer has also to use the session to set the car up for ‘race pace’ ‘qualifying pace’ and race pace are two very different animals. ‘Qualifying pace’ is for that one all important lap and ‘race pace’ is for anything up to 30 laps and weight, tyre wear and an endless list of other considerations are taken into account.
Qualifying: The WIX Racing A Class Mercedes was fast straight out of the box! On Saturday morning there are two untimed practice sessions and I was 3rd fastest in them both. When it came to timed qualification which determines your grid position for race 1 the next day, things didn’t work out as planned! I am in constant communication during qualifying and racing with my engineer Paul Ridgway, he decides what I do and don’t need to know while trying to string together the perfect lap. I can often feel when I have put in a really good lap even though only 1 second often covers the top 20 cars.
During my first flying lap I was fastest of all in the first sector and had set a personal best in the second sector when I came up behind the Toyota of Glynn Geddie who kindly span right in front of me. Lap over straight back into the pits with flat spotted tyres, great!
We then have to go through the entire cycle of warming tyres ready for another crack of the whip and are limited to only 12 tyres per race weekend. During my next flying lap, I was again fastest of all through the first sector and set an even faster second sector when the red flag came out because the Chevrolet of Aiden Moffat had spewed oil all over the track.
When the remaining 12 minutes of the session resumed after a 20 minute delay it was difficult to get right back onto the red hot pace that is required due to the amount of traffic on the track, 31 cars, all trying to post their best time. I ended the session on the 4th row in 8th position.
At the next round things might fall into my favour as my competitors suffer from unforeseen and unavoidable hardships, it’s the way racing is and having faster cars dotted throughout the field always makes a spectacle for the many BTCC fans both at the track and watching the action live from home on ITV4.
Race 1: Lining up on the grid I was quietly confident of a good result due to my pace the day before. After making a good start my quiet confidence was soon ripped from under me when Nick Foster made contact with my rear left hand quarter sending me into a high speed spin, I was then bashed into by 5 or 6 cars and my race was over.
Race 2: Your finishing position in race 1 unfortunately decides your starting position for race’s 2 and 3. I started at the vey back of the field. The WIX Racing mechanics had as they always do repaired my badly damaged car and returned her to showroom condition, the dedication, commitment and skill of the entire team is mind blowing, they are flat out all day, they never stop trying to improve the car.
When the race got under way the WIX Racing A Class Mercedes felt perfect. I really enjoyed the race and was able to overtake 17 cars in 18 laps and gather more of the all important championship points. The car was again damaged only slightly this time as we barged our way through the field.
Race 3: I started race 3 from 11th on the grid. Towards the front of the grid you’re fighting against drivers with championship aspirations so the driving standards are usually a little higher, although, I still managed to damage my car again for the third time that day! I had another decent race and managed to finish in 5th place I had to set up Jack Goff in his Passat and managed to take him on the line by 000.01 of a second.
All in all a solid weekend for the WIX Racing Team, probably a little bit of ‘what could have been’ however, the most important thing is that the changes to car are all positive and everything is looking really good for the second half of the racing season.
Dependant on my work commitments I am hoping to skive off for a week’s holiday before the next round at Snetterton however, the car is the star and if we have to go testing or have too much work to do at the workshop then the holiday will just have to wait…. Who would want to be a racing car driver???
Thank you for reading, I hope to see you all soon. I am off to the gym for a couple of hours now the trucks have been emptied.
Adam