Well that was quite the weekend... and not for the right reasons at all.
Motorsport has a habit at the moment of giving us all a glimmer of hope and then slamming it hard shut in our faces, and Cadwell couldn't have summed that up more. Topping Croft was always going to be extremely difficult, especially as Cadwell has never been a circuit to learn over a single weekend. But I don't think any of us were ready for the disaster of a weekend that unfolded.
Going into Friday it became clear very quickly that the promise shown at Croft was still just a wet weather specific result, with the car simply not working in the dry as I had wanted. The balance of the car was good, depressingly, and looking through the data, the straight line performance of the car, especially at the end of the back straight compared to others was relatively good. But I had absolutely 0 pace. Not helped by the Friday tyres that were hanging on for every penny they were worth after taking a beating at Oulton and Anglesey. The tyre situation even resulted in me having to borrow some worn out tyres from the returning Will Blackwell-Chambers (Life saver with no tyre support at the circuit yet again...). But barring a miracle, we were going to be miles off the front of the grid.
The only hope for qualifying was the brand new set of tyres I had for the session. But the thing we seem to have really struggled with this year is getting the benefit of a new tyre compared to the rest of the field.
So it proved to be the case with a severe lack of pace throughout the session. The lap times were consistent which would mean that my 2nd fastest time for race 2's grid would be better than my race 1 grid position, but 10th and 9th is not where anyone wants to be starting on the tightest circuit on the calender.
Starting 10th for race 1, there didn't look to be much opportunity to climb with how easy it is to defend around the narrow Cadwell circuit. Gaining places would completely rely on mistakes of others and taking opportunities if and when the present themselves, but patience is always the key. After having a lot of wheelspin off the start, I somehow managed to maintain my 10th place through the opening exchanges despite being hunted by Aimee Watts for the first couple of laps. However, when her progress was halted by getting into a battle with her team mate, I set about bringing the gap down on Ollie Hall for 9th place.
With no real prospect of finishing higher, I spent a few laps sat behind biding my time and figuring out the best place to make the move stick, even trying a few "dress rehersals" of what I wanted to do before eventually making the move stick with a good run out of Charlies 2 onto the back straight on the 2nd to last lap. Finishing some 8 seconds behind 8th place.
After Race 1 however, the nightmare of Cadwell Park truly began. On the cool down lap the gearbox decided it no longer liked 3rd and 4th gear. This looked to be a race weekend ending issue. Amazingly though, Oli Allwood and dad, Tony, very kindly allowed me to borrow his spare All-Gears gearbox for the remained of the weekend! An incredible gesture, that allowed me to compete in races 2 and 3! All we then had to do was to weld up the broken exhaust as the back box had tried to make a bid for freedom and fuel the car for race 2 on Sunday....
So, warm up lap complete for Race 2, I'm lined up on the grid, and I look down just before the 5 second board comes out as this small orange light catches my eye on the bottom left of the dash... the fuel light had come on.
At this point I knew I was probably going to survive about 2 laps before the car ran out of fuel. So I take the start and actually make a blinding start (probably because I knew it wouldn't count for anything) Initially getting ahead of Allwood with his spare gearbox bolted into my car, before eventually getting boxed in at Park and watching him go sailing around the outside of me to retake the place... fair play!
I had pretty much decided I was coming into the pits instead of conking out half way around the circuit with no fuel. I got to the final corner and began to pull across to the pit lane on half throttle, but Ollie Hall took to the inside to pass me blocking the pit lane... I took that as a sign to just see how far i'd get in "Eco-Mode"
Lift and coasting everywhere, pulling up through the gears early, I still managed to pass Lettice and get into the tow of Ollie again to re-commence our race from Saturday... this time with the car running on fresh air though!
Fortunately for me, the safety car came out, giving me the opportunity to see if 6th gear worked for the first time ever in a Supercup car, and I'm pleased to report, it does!!! Once the safety car came in, I tucked in behind Ollie and used his slipstread as much as possible till I had an opportunity to make the move stick into Park again, but this time on the outside. Everything was looking good until on the last lap, coming out of Mansfield, the car finally started to cough, and I lost the 2 places I had gained through the race, to drop me back to 9th, also meaning instead of starting on the front row for race 3, I started 9th. Can officially say I was less than impressed after the race.
At least things couldn't possibly get worse in race 3 surely... This time, with fuel, the world was my oyster! Or so I thought.
A very average start, coupled with being squeezed on the exit of Charlies 2 meant I got swamped in a straightline down to Park corner, eventually making one place back into Mansfield. This however, would be the only full lap I completed. After fluffing my change to 3rd coming out of the final corner, I once again had no momentum to the car behind, so sensibly, I decided not to fight it and slot in behind on the exit of turn 1. But that was not to be the case as instead of being overtaken cleanly, I was forced off the road on the exit of turn 1 and onto the grass. From there I was trying to rejoin as smoothly as possible, but with the grass being all downhill and like ice, momentum was taking me closer and closer to the circuit, I managed to get the car stopped before I T-Boned Aimee Watts and George Grant, but unfortuantly left Alex Stott nowhere to go as he tried to avoid me. 2 Cars smashed to pieces and out of the race all because one driver can't overtake cleanly even when the position is presented to him. Race weekend over, and potentially the season with it.
The damage is pretty catastrophic, but fortunatly all behind the rear subframe so if its repairable, it shouldn't affect how the car drives. However, the exhaust is absolutely destroyed, and we still have a gearbox to rebuild after Race 1.
Making Donington may physically be possible, but financially, after the crash fest that has been the Supercup for the last 2 seasons, making it to the end of the year is not looking feasible anymore.
As for the driver causing the incident that created all the damage, the response of "I don't care mate, not my problem" shows the inherent problem with the attitude of certain people on the grid.
Thankfully, the decent people on the grid far outweigh the bad, as has been demonstrated with all the help I have had not only from the Tucker Motorsport guys but from rival teams and drivers as well. Whether it be Will Blackwell-Chambers, with the tyres, Oli Allwood and family with the Gearbox, Ali Bray with the dampers at Croft, and all the offers of support after the crash by everyone at Hills Motorsport and Ollie Hall Racing. It means a lot.
Hopefully I'll be at Donington driving for all my sponsors at my local circuit.
Thank you again to everyone thats supported me and messaged over the last week, its been a difficult one for all the family but the support I've had means the world.
Jack.
Comentarios