Feeling more motivated because of Snetterton’s sub-par performance, I worked even harder in the lead up to this meeting. Also, this track is a bit special for me as it’s where I got my first ever win in cars last year and therefore I was looking to repeat that success again. Finally, on paper this was a circuit that perhaps suits the car the most; lots of straights and high-speed corners.
It was extremely windy all weekend and it played a bit of a factor throughout. During qualifying, I managed about 4 clean laps before the front began to ground out down the straight due to the direction and strength of the wind. I was unsure at the time if it was an engine issue, as it felt very similar to a fueling problem that we had last year. I retired the car in an attempt to save it. I did, however, end up with both Poles, the second one was very close to Richard Morris in his factory Spire GT3s
We stiffened the front prior to the first race to try and prevent the issue and went to the dummy grid. When I was released from the dummy grid the car wouldn’t start. The team tried to bump start it several times but it just wouldn’t start. After taking my belts off the car started and I was belted back in and straight out to join the green flag lap. I managed to get settled for the start of the race and made a decent start, followed closely by Danny Andrews in the sister car. Danny stayed about half a second behind for the next 5/6 laps. I then clicked fully into the process and began to pull away, a tenth or two at a time, for the next 7 laps. Danny then made a mistake spinning off and I would end the race 12 seconds in the lead.
Race two. Probably the worst start of my season so far, which considering it wasn’t that bad says something good in my opinion. Because of this, I went into the first corner three-wide with Richard Morris and John Cutmore in their Spires, however, I still managed to come out in first place. After a very strong remainder of the first lap, I led by 1.6 seconds to Danny Andrews. I then started to slowly pull the gap out with some minor losses due to backmarkers and double waved yellows to eventually win by 2 seconds.
I’m super happy to be back to getting the results that I feel like I’m capable of. I managed to follow the process really well all weekend. I still need to ensure I spend my time focussing on improving my driving. The opportunities are getting smaller but the grind can’t stop.