It can be safe to say, I have never had a dull weekend at Donington...
Testing for the race weekend took place on a very dry but incredibly windy Thursday, which made a surprisingly nice change to break up the race weekend slightly! Placed in a group full of mk1 and mk3 Mazdas the pace seemed pretty good, even if the car at times felt a little wild at the start of the day, as ever, the Tucker Motorsport team put in a superb effort to make me feel at home in the car and throughout the day dialled both me and the car back into the circuit!
Qualifying saw a change to the format as we were all grouped together for 1 big session as 43 Mazdas took to the circuit, creating a fun but tricky session to navigate, with the slipstreaming being incredibly powerful around the high speed nature of Donington, qualifying was always likely to be a bit of a lottery, which unfortunately after the promise of Thursday only resulted in an 8th place starting spot on the grid
Race 1 was by far the most eventful of the year so far! After 2 fairly undramatic races at Cadwell, everyone seemed to be trying their best to make up for it! After getting a good start the inside of turn 1 was like the M25 so I opted for the outside, which looked to be promoting me to 5th until I got a few rather unwelcome hits towards the rear of my car putting me on the grass on the exit of turn 1 dropping me down to 12th, but by lap 4 I was already back in 9th place when the heavens opened.
As the rain came down my confidence grew, pulling in the cars in front quite quickly I was all lined up to gain 7th at the chicane when the safety car came out, and from there on in, with no tyre temperature and a car with a dry set up, always meant the final lap was going to be a fight, eventually dropping to 12th at the finish!
Race 2 was a much calmer affair at the front, with everyone seeming to have got their wild streaks out the way on Saturday, however there was an incident further down the field which caused the 2nd safety car of the weekend, but overall the car felt fantastic and managed to pick my way up to 7th place setting my fastest lap of the weekend on the last lap, the car clearly when in clear air was quick enough to be battling at the front.
Just as I thought everything was set to be a strong final race, things started to unravel pretty quickly in race 3. The start was again good, this time being tucked up on the inside of Redgate, until someone decided to use "the force" against myself and 3 other cars in an attempt to win the race at the 1st corner, and from there the tone seemed to be set.
Going down to the chicane on lap 3, after already being put off the track at turn 1, the race very quickly unfolded, with the 3 cars infant tucked up on the inside, I went for the outside only for the car alongside me lock up after braking too late and push me into the gravel and as I was recovering the car got rear ended so hard that the rear chassis leg got crushed and the differential casing was snapped clean in two! Somehow the car continued, limping it around in 8th place until eventually the driveshaft came out with 2 laps to go and it was race over.
Initially it looked as though the damage to the chassis would result in a re-shell being required, effectively ending the season prematurely, but fortunately with a lot of skill from my dad, Perry in the garage at home, the car is ready and raring to go with a differential casing, and radiator from the damage caused from all the gravel littered on the circuit.
Would like to say a massive thank you to Airbourne Graphics & Signs and EPTA projects for their continued support throughout a trying weekend and a special thank you to Tucker Motorsport for all their incredible efforts over the weekend getting podiums and wins in both the mk1's and mk3's.
See you at Silverstone...
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