Brands Hatch GP! A place of many fond memories for myself as back in my Formula Ford 1600 days, I claimed quite a few podiums, fastest laps, and poles at the circuit. With this in mind and our solid momentum from the previous two rounds, I was extremely excited to come back. Unlike most of our weekends our Brands GP race featured a condensed weekend and only one practice session ahead of qualifying. Qualifying itself was filled with red flags meaning the time window to get a lap in was heavily reduced. Despite this we managed to qualify a solid 7th and 9th which was slightly frustrating considering how close qualifying was. If I had gone 0.05 of a second faster I would’ve moved up three spots in both races. As usual qualifying was crucial as aerowash makes passing difficult. With this said the ultra high speed and narrow Brands GP circuit made it even harder as it is an extremely aero dependent circuit.
In race 1 we had a solid start and approaching Turn 5, Hawthorns, one of the fastest corners on the circuit I decided to make a risky pass. I succeeded with a “fake out” maneuver where I faked going to the inside of the corner then moved back to the outside at the last minute and committed to going the long way around my fellow competitor. It took some bravery and a heavy right foot, but we made it work. The rest of the race we were stuck in traffic but took home some good points with a 8th place result.
In race 2 we started 7th on the grid and were stuck there the entire race behind the traffic in front of us. Once again the nature of the circuit made it impossible to pass but we did show some great race pace. In fact, we were one of the quickest cars on track and actually quicker than the race winner. To say our pace was encouraging was an understatement.
In the final race of the weekend, which was a full reverse grid, we battled with the top two in the championship and came home in 10th, making up some good places in the process. Once again our pace was phenomenal and we were one of the quickest cars on track. Overall it was an extremely positive weekend and with the pace we had I don’t see any reason why we can’t be in the top three for our final race this season at Donington Park. Until next time.
Bryce