Although there didn't seem to be much change to the track from when we were at Mallory in April, there were massive changes in my finishing position in both the heats and the final.
The day started out well with scrutineering and practice going smoothly and allowing the team to relax a little and enjoy the day. With the first heat came a lot of excitement as I finished 4th in my race and got 6th fastest time overall - knocking more than a second off my time from Mallory back in April with a fastest lap of 59.050 seconds.
In the second heat I started in pole alongside some of the fastest in the class and improved on my fastest lap time by little less than two seconds (57.544) moving me up to fifth overall - we were on for a good position in the finals, but at this point it was unknown as to whether that place would be in the a or b final.
In the third heat, there was some friendly competition with David Ewin (#17) as we fought for second place. David put up quite a fight, but with a mistake on the loose right before the chequered flag I grabbed second place from him and held it, finishing only behind Ash Simpson (#16) in his Lotus. Better still, we went up another place in the overall times meaning we finished the heat in fourth - this meaning we were now in the A final starting middle right (4th place) which was another improvement on our last time out.
At this point, the final place in the A final was undecided and would be until the end of the B final where David Ewin (#17) which perhaps meant more fighting for positions in the A final.
On the approach to the grid we lost the BMW of Gary Simpson (#52) and so started with only 7. As the race began we fell to the back of the pack, however soon moved up the pack due to various misfortunes of other drivers - Stuart Emery (#71) ended up with a broken drive shaft and Paul Wakeling (#77) suffered some crucial damage which led to a red flag. I finished the start of the race with a missing passenger side window which was shattered by a rather large stone, so I was in for a nice breeze during the restart (if I could see ok due to the badly chipped windscreen). In the restart the fight for third was between myself and David Ewin (#17) and it began to look as though he had this one in the bag - that was until he suffered a puncture and made some contact with the armco leaving only four of us in the race - myself, Ash Simspon (#16), Gary Cook (#21) and Simon Horton (#4). At this point I was holding a strong third position with Ash (#16) taking the lead and Gary (#21) in pursuit - the fight for third was now between myself and Simon Horton (#4) who unforutnately was having some difficulties with car control and spun out once or twice. As we crossed the finishing line and the chequered flag I had secured third place with my fastest lap time being 58.534 seconds - the team, the new car and I had our first podium finish at our second rallycross meet (wow!).
Overall, this was a fanstastic racing weekend and a big thanks goes out to Duncan (mechanic), Steve (SG HAULAGE LTD.) and the rest of the team for allowing the weekend to go ahead.
You can find all times from the weekend by going to 'results' -> 'timings' -> 'Mallory Park - June 2nd 2013'.
The day started out well with scrutineering and practice going smoothly and allowing the team to relax a little and enjoy the day. With the first heat came a lot of excitement as I finished 4th in my race and got 6th fastest time overall - knocking more than a second off my time from Mallory back in April with a fastest lap of 59.050 seconds.
In the second heat I started in pole alongside some of the fastest in the class and improved on my fastest lap time by little less than two seconds (57.544) moving me up to fifth overall - we were on for a good position in the finals, but at this point it was unknown as to whether that place would be in the a or b final.
In the third heat, there was some friendly competition with David Ewin (#17) as we fought for second place. David put up quite a fight, but with a mistake on the loose right before the chequered flag I grabbed second place from him and held it, finishing only behind Ash Simpson (#16) in his Lotus. Better still, we went up another place in the overall times meaning we finished the heat in fourth - this meaning we were now in the A final starting middle right (4th place) which was another improvement on our last time out.
At this point, the final place in the A final was undecided and would be until the end of the B final where David Ewin (#17) which perhaps meant more fighting for positions in the A final.
On the approach to the grid we lost the BMW of Gary Simpson (#52) and so started with only 7. As the race began we fell to the back of the pack, however soon moved up the pack due to various misfortunes of other drivers - Stuart Emery (#71) ended up with a broken drive shaft and Paul Wakeling (#77) suffered some crucial damage which led to a red flag. I finished the start of the race with a missing passenger side window which was shattered by a rather large stone, so I was in for a nice breeze during the restart (if I could see ok due to the badly chipped windscreen). In the restart the fight for third was between myself and David Ewin (#17) and it began to look as though he had this one in the bag - that was until he suffered a puncture and made some contact with the armco leaving only four of us in the race - myself, Ash Simspon (#16), Gary Cook (#21) and Simon Horton (#4). At this point I was holding a strong third position with Ash (#16) taking the lead and Gary (#21) in pursuit - the fight for third was now between myself and Simon Horton (#4) who unforutnately was having some difficulties with car control and spun out once or twice. As we crossed the finishing line and the chequered flag I had secured third place with my fastest lap time being 58.534 seconds - the team, the new car and I had our first podium finish at our second rallycross meet (wow!).
Overall, this was a fanstastic racing weekend and a big thanks goes out to Duncan (mechanic), Steve (SG HAULAGE LTD.) and the rest of the team for allowing the weekend to go ahead.
You can find all times from the weekend by going to 'results' -> 'timings' -> 'Mallory Park - June 2nd 2013'.
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