Rockingham

Adapting to a New Circuit

Rockingham was a new circuit for me having only ever visited prior for my fathers first ever race back in 2003. I was keen to prove that I can adapt to a new circuit quickly and put in a good performance.

Big Challenge

With a new track presented and with the track being very wet it was going to be a big challenge. Throughout the whole of the qualifying session I struggled with a huge amount of under steer through the corners and with the huge amount of power I was unable to get the power down out of the corners, leading to plenty of wheel spin. I finished qualifying a very disappointing P9, my worst qualifying for a very long time. So I was hoping for the race to be dry, but it seemed to be unlikely.

Five Tenths of the Fastest Lap

From a standing start it was going to be very difficult to get away from the line on a damp track quickly. I managed to get away fairly well gaining a position. Over the course of the first 15 minutes of the race I was able to get up to P5, then with a safety car the field became bunched up enabling me to attack. Off the restart I took P4 and by the end of the lap I was up to P2, which I held for the rest of the race. As I wasn’t expecting the track to dry I had set the car up for full wet conditions, which meant slackening the suspension off fully on the rear. But as the track began to dry this limited my progression further, however I was still able to maintain respectable lap time’s five tenths of the fastest lap.

Onward

Overall the weekend was satisfactory and I was extremely happy to go from P9 on the grid to P2 during the race. Next I’ll be racing at Brands Hatch in the Funcup championship in a 3-hour endurance race with Ben Beighton; then I’ll be at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium in two different Morgan’s.