2024 NEWS
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RACE 2: PEMBREY RACE REPORT
19TH APRIL 2024
RACE REPORT!
This weekend saw us compete in round 2 of Mini Challenge championship at Pembrey.
With this being a new track I had never driven I went into the weekend feeling optimistic. With 6 sessions on Friday to learn the track I quickly learnt my way around and felt confident for the weekend ahead.
Qualifying: a scorching hot track and high temperatures meant that qualifying was tough, after putting in my best effort - 13th was all we could get out of the car.
Race 1: a huge change from qualifying, a storm in the early stages of the afternoon had soaked the track meaning we were in for a wet race!
Starting 13th I had my work cut out, in the early stages of the race I struggled to find grip in the tyres, but as the track started to dry out I made my way through to the front, climbing 9 positions to crossing the line 4th only 0.1 seconds behind 3rd. We had the pace to win but will take 4th, another good result.
Race 2: I started 5th but due to a couple of bumps at the start I dropped back into 10th I caught the main fight for the lead but was unable to make any moves finishing 9th.
Race 3: starting from 13th again I had my work cut out. Within the first 2 laps I had made my way to 8th and was catching the pack ahead, with the time we had left we needed to push hard, however- I caught my rear left tyre on the grass causing the car to suddenly spin at 80mph. This left me in 24th place but we recovered to cross the line in 17th.
Pembrey has been a huge learning curve for me and I it’s now full focus for Thruxton in 3 weeks time with the BTCC live on ITV.
Time to get my head down. Huge thank you to my sponsors and the team, Sata Tools, Tool Truck, APD Car Parts LTD, Fast Co LTD and Chandler Motorsport.
RACE 3: THRUXTON
14TH JUNE 2024
RACE REPORT!
This weekend was our first BTCC appearance of the year.
Qualifying:
After working with my teammate Ronnie we were running P1 at the start of the session, however halfway through the session we suffered contact by another driver causing 2 tyres to be punctured and ended our session. However the time set was still good enough for 11th.
Race 1: starting 11th on the grid we managed to work our way up to 9th crossing the line just 6 seconds behind the leader.
Race 2: starting 9th we made a few positions by the end of the first lap, but got shoved on the grass through church and dropped down to 22nd.
A huge effort got us back up the pack to 12th and we were defending at the front of the train for 3 laps until on the last lap a back marker held us up on exit and we lost 4 places as were unable to defend from the slipstreaming pack behind. We crossed the line in 16th.
Race 3: we started 11th again and had dropped 2 places when the safety car was deployed. With only 3 laps left after the safety car went in, we made an excellent move around the outside of 2 other drivers into club chicane. However due to contact on the rear side from one of the drivers I was forced to retired with broken power steering.
On the whole a frustrating weekend, we showed that we had the pace to be at the front and should have been competing for the win but some bad luck got in the way.
Huge well done to my teammate Rhys Hurd on his double victory, mega effort!
We now go into the summer break until Donington in august, so time to rebuild and focus.
We know we now have the speed back in the car - just need some better luck to go with it 👍
Huge thank you to my sponsors and the team, Sata Tools, Tool Truck, APD Car Parts LTD, Fast Co LTD and Chandler Motorsport.
RACE 1: SNETTERTON RACE REPORT
19TH APRIL 2024
Qualifying:
Qualifying format was changed for this year with our fastest lap setting our grid position for race 3 and our second fastest time setting our grid position for race 1. We struggled with car set up to start with but managed to post a quick time on the last lap which gave us a grid position of 5 for race 3 and 12 for race 1.
Race 1:
Starting 12th , we managed to keep in the pack and with a few overtakes made our way to a 9th place finish.
Race 2:
A reverse top 10 grid meant that we started on the front row. A small wheel spin off the line meant that I had already lost 4 places by the end of lap 1. We managed to keep with the pack finishing 7th
Race 3:
Starting from P5, the team made a fantastic adjustment to the setup which gave us the additional pace we needed. We ran with the front pack for the majority of the race with the top 6 managing to break from the main pack with 3 laps to go. Managed to grab 3rd on the penultimate lap and bought it home for my first podium in mini challenge followed closely by team mate Ronnie Smith who had an amazing opening weekend.
Big thanks to Chandler Motorsport for going the extra mile to provide me with a car that is capable of competing at the very front of the grid and as always thanks to my sponsors Sata Tools, Tool Truck, APD Car Parts and Fast Co as without them, this really would not be possible!
MINI CHALLENGE 2024 SEASON CONFIRMED
2ND JANUARY 2024
I'M pleased to announce I will be back racing again in Mini Challenge in 2024 in the trophy series. We have a few changes this year which will be announced in due course.
The first change is we will be back racing with our normal number #17 for the whole season this year and moving away from the #117 number that we used last year.
Preparations are already underway for the season with Chandler Motorsport and Sata tools.
