What a weekend!
It literally had everything! Although I can no longer say I have a 100% record at Croft, which with how the season has gone, it was highly unlikely that I would be competing for race wins, but even a podium would be a miracle with how far off we have been in the past 2 rounds of the championship...
Friday was a nice sunny, dry day all day long, but with only 3 half hour sessions, there wasn't much time to try and get a hold of the bucking bronco as the car continued to be a right handful in the first 2 sessions of the weekend, with us getting the car as balanced as we could with the tools we had available to us....
However, it turns out that not all heros wear capes... Some of them wear Black and Purple!!! After cutting a frustrated figure for the 4th Friday test day in a row, and having a chat with Mr AB Motorsport himself, Ali Bray. He suggested I may have a damper issue... And even more incredibly, offer me a set of his spares from his Mk3 to try and see if they made a difference to the wild ride I was having! And sure enough, in the 3rd session of the day, I went 0.1 faster on overall pace, but my laptime was done with no tow in sight, which couldn't be said for the session before. Not only did they improve the time, but the car felt like a race car again and Ali very kindly allowed me to use them for the race weekend!
With the car feeling my better and a brand new set of dry tyres lined up for Qualifying we were all prepared and ready to go for Saturday morning....
Then the weather decided not to play ball. The threat of rain was high, and with the rain falling really really lightly, the circuit was still producing close to dry laptimes in all the sessions before. But the threat of the rain increasing was high and the Fiesta JNR's before us were out of the full wets. With a quick call to Pete Felix JNR who was looking after one of the 20Ten Fiestas, the decision was made last minute to change to the wets, and away we went down to assembly area, where the chaos of all the other teams changing tyres had just finished.
We made the right call! The car felt fantastic in the tricky conditions, and I was having the time of my life in the car, feeling pretty happy with the balance and doing lots of sliding around the high speed esses at the back of the circuit... Life was great, but throughout the entire session, I can honestly say I was blissfully unaware as to how we stacked up compared to the rest of the pack. All I new is, I seemed to be catching cars that usually would be at the front so I was happy.
When I came into Parc Ferme after qualifying, I was even happier! I had the news broke to me by Joe Wiggin, my former team mate coming over to say "Well done"... turns out I had put myself in 3rd place on the grid for Race 1 and 2nd place for Race 2! My best ever supercup qualifying... the rain dancing started immediately!
The rain dancing seemed to not be working for Race 1... and the wet Qualifying had left us with a big tyre issue. We had the set of scrap drys, or the brand new set of dry tyres, neither of which would be any good if the weather decided to turn. The only choice we really had, was to bolt on the brand new dry tyres and hope a rough warm up lap would get them into a state where they could work in the race.
As we drove out onto the grid, the circuit was patchy but predominantly dry. Even so, the lack of grip on the new dry tyres nearly saw me facing the wrong way on the exit of the chicane on the warm up lap... by the end of the lap the tyres still weren't ready for what was to come.
After getting a lot of wheelspin off the line, I found myself dropping back as we headed to turn 1, the spray increased massively, with the rain falling harder and harder. Going down to Tower, I gently got onto the brakes in instantly locked, and then proceeded to bounce off James Cossins all the way around Tower corner (Sorry about that). From there I dropped off the lead group for a few laps until the tyres started to work and found myself coming back at a very angry pack of cars lead by Joe Wiggin.
I was then divebombed at the final corner by a much faster Alex Stott, who would then forget where 3rd gear was on the exit of the hairpin, before eventually catching back up and overtaking with relative ease. Then the chaos unfolded, with another optimistic move into the chicane, Stott tagged Wiggin and rotated him rather nicely into my path, which I somehow avoided, and a few laps later I was avoiding Wilbur Tiley as Jack Sycamore decided to see how well Wilburs car would spin out of the final corner as well! I ended up finishing 7th... sitting behind Jack assuming that a penalty would be given for the little incident, but it wasn't!
There was no question as to what the weather was going to do on Sunday, Rain Rain Rain!
This time, starting on the wets and on the front row of the grid for the first time in a very very long time!
Getting off the line on the full wets was actually easier than I expected, even if the revs were so low that I almost stalled! But because of that I actually got really good traction and was able to go with Patch off the line and into turn 1 and through the opening corners, but it became very apparent through the high speed sections, I just didn't have the grip to hang on, but into the complex I was able to bring the gap back in and extend it on Jack Harding for the first couple of laps.
However, on lap 3, Jack got a good run out of the hairpin and got an overlap on the exit of the high speed Esses round the back of the circuit, it was a move that wasn't defendable without risking an aeroplane crash, so i dropped to 3rd with a comfortable gap behind me.
The next few laps I was driving on my own and trying to gauge the increasing gap to the battle of Joe Wiggin and Aidan Hills before Hills eventually made the move stick. The gap however seemed to stay the same until I locked up going into Sunny in and took the scenic route around the run off and rejoined over the grass... the comfortable gap I had was completely gone. The traction coming out of the hairpin was saving my bacon lap after lap from then on, until the last lap where Aidan got a better run through Tower and I had to cover going into Sunny in and into the final hairpin, but all was very comfortable really as I took my first podium since Snetterton 2022! Finally some reward for all the hard work we have been putting in, and a chance to speak to Richard John Neil for a post race Top 3 Interview!
No time to celebrate though, as the top 6 from Race 2 were reversed and we were ready for another wet race in Race 3. Once again anothe rgood start gained me a position and saw me up to 3rd by turn 1 as I watched James Cossins and Tom Griffiths have a jolly good scrap through the opening corners. Patch put a move on me into the hairpin at the end of the lap and I finished lap 1 where I started.
From there, things started to go a little downhill... Griffiths race wide on the exit of the chicane and kicked up and hugh amount of muddy water, and next thing I knew, my car was coughing and spluttering all the way down the straight to Tower corner and Jack Harding sailed past (water based pun totally intended). The following lap didn't go much better, as the car seemed to have recovered from its hiccup, I went barrelling into Tower far too hot, locked up and took a trip through the gravel into the farmers field! I rejoined in a very muddy Mx5 down in a very unlucky 13th place.
From there I went around the outside of Ollie Hall around Tower corner, and then the outside of Alistair Dendy into the firs tleft of the high speed Esses, and from there it was a case of picking up positions as others around me fell off the track, resulting in a 9th place finish. Not quite the result I was hoping for after the success of race 2.
I have to admit to being a little frustrated with myself after the 3rd race of the weekend, but overall, after all the difficulties we have all faced as a family and as a team over the last year and a half since that dreaded day at Brands Hatch, it was nice to finally get some reward for all the hard work we have put in. What no one sees is the days and days that my dad in particular pours into this car to get me racing and competitive. Whether thats improving the set up or building me engines, I think the mk3's has certainly given us all many a headache and sleepless nights. Thats not even mentioning my poor Mum that has to watch all the races hiding behind the sofa nowadays, and shes even got stuck in building this car, whether it was scraping off the underseal, or even helping lift the gearbox in (don't ask her about the gearbox oil shower... she didn't enjoy it) it really has become a whole family effort!
As for the whole Tucker team, I can never speak highly enough of them, and I'm lucky to have the best Number 1 mechanic in Deano!
Next up is Cadwell Park on 10th / 11th August, and we will be hoping there is a familiar name back on the grid after Silverstone... but in the mean time, we will get ready to see if we can get the same performance from the car in the dry as well as the wet!
See you soon...
Jack :)
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