It's somehow already been 3 weeks since the last round of the season at Silverstone, and amazingly I don't think I've had a second to breathe from then end of the season to now!
After a tough Donington park weekend, Silverstone was the perfect place to hit back with some strong results, having worked there since 2013, the track is a very familiar place to me!
The new factor to deal with this year though was the new surface that had been laid for the Formula One this year, with the surface providing a very different feel to previous years, re-learning the circuit on Friday was key! Fortunately for me, after a few tweaks to the set up in between Donington and Silverstone we hit the ground running in what was a damp start to proceedings during testing.
The car instantly felt back to how it was at Snetterton, and even in the damp conditions the car balanced up very quickly, with then a conversion into a dry set up as the morning session progressed, everything was looking promising, but with slipstreaming being an incredibly powerful factor for qualifying, the competition for positions up and down the grid was always going to be particularly close.
With 5 test sessions complete, Saturday arrived with a positive mood that the car was handling well enough to put us in a strong position for the race weekend. The qualifying session started in chaotic fashion however, with everyone battling too hard with each other in order to get a tow, at one stage I was down in 12th in group which would have been a net 24th overall! Half way through the session the time came to abandon any hope of a tow and go it alone, quickly jumping up to 5th in group, but the time would eventually only be enough to start 12th on the grid overall.
Race 1a was the 1st time back behind the wheel in a racing situation for 6 weeks, and the intensity of the midfield pack made the 1st race a complete lottery in terms of track position which unfortunately I seemed to just be catching the wrong side of, eventually dropping down to 14th place by the end of the race.
Race 2a started extremely badly, being shuffled down the order to 20th place after lap 1, I was left with it all to do from there. With a few changes from the car that ran in race 1, the car came alive through the 2nd half of the race, giving me a strong platform to make up for some of the time lost in the 1st few laps. After a few moves around the outside of Vale, I had moved up to the pack battling for 8th position, but unfortunately in an attempt to do a carbon copy of previous moves at Vale failed on the last lap, leaving me a sitting duck on the run to the finish, eventually finishing 12th.
The final race of the year was soon upon us, and keen to go out on a high, the pressure was on, with one eye also on the championship battle between Will Blackwell-Chambers and John Langridge, it promised to be an exciting race both inside and outside of the car.
This time the race started well, maintaining position through the opening exchange of corners, the car was in a strong position to improve as the race went on and so it did! On Lap 2 going into Farm corner I managed to overtake Will for 8th position with an opportunistic move, and from there a race long battle with team mate Joe Wiggins, Will Hayden and Jason Greatrex ensued, eventually finishing off a very solid 8th.
Would like to say a massive thank you to Tucker Motorsport for a brilliant end to the season, especially after enduring a terrible weekend at Donington, to end on such a high was a real positive for next season!
Also I would like to thank EPTA projects, Ice Driver and High Row Marketing for the continued support over the season.
And finally a quick mention to the man that puts in all the extremely hard work behind the scenes to get me out on the circuit every race weekend, my dad, Perry. The car has been brilliant all season thanks to his constant hard work and maintenance on the car, I would definitely not have achieved the success I have this year without his effort!
Now time to relax and turn our attention to next years car!
Thank you for the support
Jack
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