Fourth at Thruxton finishes a decent weekend
Thruxton Rounds 2 & 3. Formula BMW Championship 2005
After a mediocre start to the season at Donnington Park, I was expecting better going to the Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire. After a new engine from BMW and a refreshed look on my teams faces I had a good feeling to the weekend…and I was right. It all started well during Friday testing when I ended up in the top five on the timesheet. My team and I were both pleased and relived with the day, in the knowing that BMW had supplied me with a more competitive engine than the last.
Saturday’s two qualifying sessions were of much importance. Thruxton is not one of the most easiest circuit’s to overtake at and so I knew that qualifying well for the two races would make my weekend a lot easier. With Friday’s decent pace at the back of my mind, stringing together one good lap at the right time on new tyres would surely put me at the front end of the grid.
First qualifying was in the morning, a difficult time for anyone to put themselves in the right frame of mind, especially in preparation for going at speeds of 150mph at the fastest circuit in the UK! Though, when I was out there, everything soon came back into rhythm.
During the twenty minute session I could see on my pit-board that I was moving form third to fourth position with every lap getting quicker and quicker as the morning dew was swept off the circuit by twenty six Formula BMW drivers. With the track getting quicker and quicker concentration needed to be high as the last lap of the session would be the quickest! But my luck wasn’t in, on my last lap I was caught up behind a slower driver which messed my lap time and I ended up eleventh quickest. When the times are so close one tenth of a second can move you up as many as five places!
During Second qualifying I had some clear laps and qualified 3rd, a true showing of my pace, and, where I should have qualified for race one.
Race one went reasonably well and I did the best I could to grab some decent points. Considering that being mid grid for the first race of the day is never the best of places to start, I managed to pull my way to eighth.
Race two was almost as difficult as race one. After falling back a few places at the start of the race I clawed my way back to fourth. ‘At one point there was four of us next to eachother down the straight and I remember thinking, one of us isn’t going to make it to the chicane!’ I was battling the third man for the final podium position, after numerous attempts of trying to overtake him all I ended up with was a broken front wing. But fourth was a decent finish to the weekend, and with points on the board I look forward going to Rockingham, a circuit that I always do well at!
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