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Our expectations were high ahead of the
Thruxton round of the championship last weekend. Unfortunately, my chances were compromised
quite early on after an incident with championship lead Mark Asmer on Saturday
damaged my car during first qualifying.
With the car not running properly, the best I could do was qualify 15th
for race one. Qualifying for race two
went a lot better and we were able to show what kind of pace we were capable
of. At the chequered flag, we had set
the fourth fastest time.
Determined to make amends for the poor
qualifying session, I made a great start away from the line to make up a number
of places in race one. I was closing up
on the cars in front quickly, and slip streamed past a number of them in the early
stages of the race to make it up to ninth by lap four. My team mate Alberto Valerio was the next car
in my sights, and I made my way past him on lap six.
By lap eight I was up to seventh place, and
then benefited from an accident between Atte Mustonen and my team mate Sam
Bird. That then elevated me to fifth
place. Just before the safety car was
deployed to clear up that incident, I took the opportunity to pass Esteban Guerrieri
for forth place.
Restarts are always an excellent
opportunity to make up positions, and I made the most of mine to pass Rodolfo
Gonzalez for third and a place on the podium.
With only a few laps remaining I had second placed man Jonathan Kennard
in my sights, but unfortunately I couldn't find a way past. Nevertheless, I was delighted to have
finished on the podium having started from 15th on the grid.
Race two was a little less eventful, I
started from fourth and made up one position at the start to slot in behind my
team mate Niall Breen. Unfortunately I
didn't quite have the pace to challenge Niall and worse still I was under
pressure from Rodolfo Gonzalez, who managed to get past and take third.
While I'm disappointed not to finish on the
podium in the second race, I'm pleased that we were able to get two solid
results and more importantly keep the championship alive for another
weekend.
We'll be at Croft in two weeks time for the
penultimate round of the championship.
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