KNOCKHILL RACE WEEKEND

Sunday Race Day

Well with Qualifying on Saturday not going well with the gearbox breaking on the opening lap it meant I had to start both races today from the back of the grid. This meant I was going to have to push hard to force my way up the field to try and score as many points as possible for the championship.

I have to say a big thank you to the team (Academy Motorsport) because they managed to get the car fixed after qualifying for the first race and the car felt good in the warm up lap. I got a good start in the first race and gained a few places by the first corner.

There wasn’t a pile up at the first corner which I had hoped for so that I could gain a few extra places so I had to climb up the field the hard way. I was now up to 10th place and right behind a bunch of people over the laps I picked them off climbing up to 7th place.

At the later stages of the race I was catching 6th and 5th but then all of a sudden 5th place hit the tyres going into the chicane and went into the gravel which meant I was now running in 6th place catching 5th, but then with only three laps left one of the leading pack got a drive through penalty which handed me 5th place.

That wasn’t all though, on the last lap of the race I was quickly catching a back marker and I was coming up to lap him, the marshals where waving blue flags at him but he didn’t move out of the way to let me through instead he stayed on the racing line so I had to go down the inside of him on the last corner of the last lap but then half way round the corner he turned into me and hit the back end of my car luckily it didn’t make me spin and I finished the race in 5th place.

The back marker had damaged the back of my car pretty bad and the body work started rubbing on the rear left tyre and it started to smoke and the tyre started to burn. Once I got the car back to the pits the body work that was rubbing on the tyre had worn the tyre right down which meant that I had to use my spare tyre for the second race because that tyre was wrecked.
Overall it was a good race from the back of the grid getting up to 5th it was just hard luck about the last corner and my tyre at the end of the race.

In the second race I started from the back of the grid again and once again I got a good start off the line and I had made myself up to 9th after the first lap. I then made myself past another which put me in 8th place.

Once I was in 8th there was a bit of a gap to 7th, 6th and 5th so I started to push hard to try and catch them up which I started to do but then for a few laps in the middle of the race the front tyres went off so I stopped my attack to see if they would come back on which they did, so I started my attack again to catch them up.

With ten laps to go one of the cars in front of me ran wide and I caught him up really quick and dived down the inside and took 7th place from him. Two laps later one of the cars in front started to slow down on the strait which gifted me 6th place. In front of me now where 5th and 4th and I was catching them towards the end of the race.

With two laps to go I was right behind them both but in the distance I could see the same back marker from the first race. We were all catching the back marker and I just knew he would be involved with something like in the first race which he was, as we came up to the last corner he started to defend even though he was out of position and a lap down this meant the two in front of me got stuck behind him and coming out of the last corner for the last lap I managed to get along side 5th place down the strait with the back marker on the other side of me, but once again instead of letting us past he was weaving going down the strait which meant me and the person I was battling for 5th almost hit each other because the back marker kept weaving towards me.

We both managed to get past him before the first corner and I took 5th position, after the back marker getting in the way it had meant 4th place had pulled away a bit so I just had to keep 6th place behind for the rest of the lap and I would finish 5th. Once again on the last lap the back marker was in the way and almost caused a crash in both races but fortunately I finished both races in 5th.

Overall both races where good because I had managed to start from the back of the grid and fight my way through to 5th in both races and score some decent points for the championship. The only bad thing about the weekend was once again I had the pace to fight for a podium position but down to some bad luck in qualifying with the gearbox breaking I didn’t qualify high enough to be close enough to the leaders.

The next round is at Snetterton (4th-5th July) and I will defiantly be looking to qualify well and challenge for a podium place with some better luck.

I would like to say thanks to the team (Academy Motorsport) for getting the car fixed for the races today and I would also like to thank all the people who made the long journey up to Scotland and all the support.