10 months without any racing is far too long! Thankfully last weekend more than made up for the lack of track time this year!
As always Friday was for testing and setting up the car, and mainly for me, getting back into the swing of things after such a long period without a race weekend. Thankfully with the car being as well prepared as it always is thanks to my Dad and the set up work that Tucker Motorsport do on the car, it didn't take long to get dialled into what is probably the most difficult circuit in the country!
Despite a fairly close moment at the top of the mountain with my team mate, Joe Wiggin, we were all set for a strong weekend back racing Mazdas.
Saturday was by far the busiest day of the weekend, Qualifying in the 2nd group, managing 4th place in the group, a result that would become very familiar across the weekend, resulted in a 5th place start for both races under the new grouping system for 2020, placing me on Row 3 of group A.
I think everyone was expecting race 1 of the season to be fairly chaotic as 34 Mazda's headed towards turn 1 of a very narrow circuit for the 1st time in 10 months, however it turned out to be quite the opposite! After gaining 1 place off the line, I sat in touching distance of the front 3 for much of the race before losing a second behind a back marker through turn 1 put an end to any hopes of a podium, even with the fastest lap of the race to my name.
Race 2 on Sunday was thankfully a little more eventful! Again starting from 5th on the grid but this time the start was pretty average, dropping down to 7th by turn 3, the run up the hill saw several cars in front desperately trying to make early progress around what is a very difficult circuit to overtake, As everyone went to the inside, I went around the outside to claim 1 place back, and with the fast charging Matt Luff running into issues in front I was soon back into 5th place following Brian Trott.
After chasing down Brian for 4th, I had lined up a move going up to turn 4 which was defended a little too well as Brian locked up and helped me inherit 4th place, much to my relief!
The conclusion of the Cadwell weekend leaves me lying in 5th in the championship, 10 points behind Joe Wiggin who won both of his races! The next round of the season goes to Donington Park after a last minute change of the calendar from Anglesey due to restrictions in place still in Wales.
Finally I would like to say a massive thank you to Tucker Motorsport for their support all weekend, and my dad, Perry for preparing such a great car for this season! As well as thanking my new sponsors for this year, Airbourne Graphics and Signs and EPTA who have stayed on board for a 2nd year with me! And one final mention to the new championship sponsors WASPP, who very kindly spent some time with the team on Saturday afternoon.
See you all at Donington on the 22nd & 23rd of August.
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