James Weston had a tough final round of the Michelin Clio Cup series at Brands Hatch towards the end of September.
Today James brings us his race report of the weekend as he did his best to end his excellent season on a high.
Friday Testing
We had 4 x 30 minute sessions to get use to the track and get in tune with the car. We set out and we got valuable data from these sessions and improved with each round. I gained more confidence with the car with every lap. We had set good times by the end of testing, and with all the data knew where the time was to find over the weekend.
Saturday Qualifying
We went out on old tyres just to get a good few banker laps in and get back in the flow of the track. We quickly got to pace and got heat into the tyres before making a quick stop and changing to two fresher front tyres. We headed straight back out and was getting solid times, running in P3 until with one minute left when we fell to P4 and then the last lap we ended up in P5. It was a career best qualifying yet and best lap of the weekend so far! It was a great effort, only 0.7 seconds off of pole and 0.2 from P2.
Saturday Race Round 7
Starting P5 on the grid was a perfect place. However, minutes before the race started it began to rain. Not heavy enough to need wet weather tyres, but enough to make interesting conditions on the track. We headed out for the green flag laps and put as much heat into our tyres as we could. Then we lined up on the grid and were ready to go. The lights went out and I got bogged down out of the blocks dropping from 5th to 7th into the Paddock, unfortunately I got squeezed on the inside and caught my right rear on the curb…which turned the car as we went over and down the other side of the corner shooting us off into the grass. I rejoined the track in 14th and was some way behind the others. It took me a while to get back to pace but once we were there we were hitting great lap times and slowly reeling in the pack. I regained a few positions and finished in 9th along with the 4th fastest lap of the race. It was a shame we fell too far behind as the pace was good.
Sunday Qualifying
We used the same tactics as Saturday with heading out and getting some banker laps in and were running as high as P3 early in the session. We came into pit, and during this time the session was stopped as there had been a driver come off into paddock. We then headed back out and got the temperature back into the tyres and we found our gap and went for it. We were delivering good times, and had got ourselves up into P2 only 0.4 seconds away from Pole however in the closing stages of the session we finished P3 as Bennett beat my time by 0.1seconds. P3 however was a mega effort and I could not wait for the race to begin.
Sunday Race Round 8
We came out onto the grid, conditions were good, got great heat into the tyres on the warm up lap. We lined up and this time I was a bit too eager with the throttle and spun the wheels up on the grid and went from P3 to P5 coming into Paddock however I made myself room and started the hunt on for P4. I caught Pierce and was driving hard however on lap four heading into Surtees I turned in and the car started to go in, then just before the curb the back end went and I was suddenly backwards heading across the grass into the centre of the circuit. Not again!! I quickly rejoined the track and set straight to work. It was my home race and I was desperate to catch the rest of the field after falling from 5th to 8th. I set to work and straight away was the seconds fastest on the track. I continued to lap well and close down the field. The gap was just too great. After a non finisher promoted my position to 7th I had caught 6th position and finished 0.2seconds behind him. The results were not there for my final weekend but the pace certainly was! My fastest lap was only 0.3seconds off the fastest lap of the race which is the closest I have been ever before. I just saw you had to have the attitude do not give up and just drive as hard as you can.
I would just like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to Danny Buxton and Scuderia Vittoria for everything they have done with me this season. Absolute Top Team and I look forward to being with you again next season!
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