R7: Tough Weekend @ Silverstone

Tough One at Porsche Carrera Cup GB R7 – Silverstone National

The championship was at the Silverstone National circuit for the penultimate round of the season, with again a mixture of weather to contend with. I missed the test day for Silverstone at the end of August because of the damage to my car at the last round at Donington and whilst I didn’t think this would be a problem, I was most definitely wrong. The Friday practice day started damp and I was 4^th fastest, which was just about the best session of the weekend as it went downhill from there. The track dried in the afternoon and my times were 4/10th second off the pace, which put me down in 17^th and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t improve. Reviewing the data after showed one particular corner where I was losing most of the time and armed with that knowledge I thought that qualifying would be better.

Saturday weather was fine and dry. On my first qualifying run in trying to brake later into the corner where I was losing time I locked a rear wheel and flat spotted a tyre and my best time was a 55.002. After a change of tyres I managed a 54.859 but that was still 2.5/10th second off where I needed to be and it put me 15^th overall on the grid, by far my worst qualifying of the year.

Sunday was very windy and rain showers came and went and then came again during the morning. It rained just before my first race and then as we sat in the assembly area waiting to go the rain stopped and it started to dry very quickly. Half of the grid changed to slick tyres but Redline Racing opted for wets and it was the wrong choice. I made places initially but soon lost out to the slick tyre runners and ended up finishing 12^th overall and 4^th in the Pro Am category.

For race 2 the weather was dry and starting from 12^th I thought I could move forward from there, but I released the clutch too quickly at the start, the car bogged down and my race was over before the first corner because I lost 5 places and then had to spent the entire race trying to make them back, and ended up 14^th and 6^th Pro Am with my main championship rival taking the win.

I am convinced that had I been able to test at Silverstone prior to the race weekend which all the others did, then I could have improved, but as it was I came away dropping 5 points to my main rival in the championship. I left Silverstone still leading the Pro Am championship by 18 points but it meant that the final 2 races at Brands Hatch were more crucial than ever if I was to win the Porsche Pro Am title.