In what will definitely be a learning year for me in a new car and new series, Round 1 honestly came too early for us, with me having no seat time to learn the car before the season, after an extensive and unexpected rebuild (its safe to say i've kept my dad way too busy this winter... sorry). But as with the Mk1, I arrived to the circuit in a car that, despite some doubts, was unbelievably well prepped, and allowed me to get straight on with learning the car.
The first session of Friday was treated as a shakedown, with us making sure the car was running as we wanted to, I spent more time looking at the gauges than I did driving the car! However not much running was missed as it seems everyone was a little rusty from the winter break, with most of the session being under red flags!
After the initial shakedown though, we started to get down to working on the set up of the car, with the pace looking more and more promising throughout the day, we were definitely confident that once we put new tyres on, I could be right up there challenging maybe not for Pole but comfortably in the top 10.
Saturday morning qualifying, and with a new set of Avon ZZR tyres strapped onto the car, we were more than ready for qualifying.
With the first few laps seemingly crucial for a lap time having followed the series from a distance last year, I spent the outlap trying to make some space for myself, whilst trying to catch a cheeky tow, however the pace I had on Friday seemed to be nowhere in sight, and it became clear very quickly that we had some car issues that couldn't be resolved in the session, and after a mistake through Stowe that lost me 0.6 on my quickest lap, I qualified down in 20th, a grid slot that I've not been too familiar with over the past 4 years!
Such is the way with Mx5 racing, starting in the mid-pack makes the races more of a situation where you just need to stay out of trouble and watch others make mistakes around you, and capitalise at any opportunity. Race 1 & 2 definitely seemed to have a very common theme, with 2 very good starts progress was made, despite several ambitious lunges by some, making overtaking on the cut back extremely easy. Finishing both races in 15th and with a smaller distance to the front of the pack with every race, and further set up changes helping improve the balance and longevity of the car throughout the races, overall the headline results weren't what we wanted, but the learning through the races will only help in the long run.
Unlike Race 1 & 2, Race 3 I decided to completely mess up the start, going from 2nd to 5th gear off the line definitely wasn't't part of the plan, which lead to another battle in the mid pack with cars seemingly going off left right and centre, and a race long battle with Will Morris, eventually taking the position on the last corner of the last lap.
Reflecting on the weekend, we made a lot of improvements to the car going forwards, and I learnt a lot about the subtleties required to drive a mk3, and while there is a hell of a lot to still learn, the start we had at Silverstone with zero testing was nothing short of a miracle!
Next we move on to Snetterton, a circuit I am extremely fond of after getting Pole and 2 race wins there last season, whilst wins feel a long way off in the mk3 we are on the right path.
Before finishing this off I would also like to give a mention to my team mate for this season, Dan Parrans-Smith, who improved massively throughout the weekend and worked incredibly well with the team in his first proper race weekend since making the change from karting. And also have to mention the man piloting my old car, Tom Smith, who despite being driven off the road a few times managed to bring home some good results and proved what a great car we have sold him!
Massive thank you to all my sponsors this year, Airbourne Graphics & Signs, EPTA Projects, Melliard Motorsport and PerformanceOne Clothing for their continued support as well as all of the Tucker Motorsport crew, its great to be back for another year with the greatest team in the business.
See you at Snetterton...
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