Home and recovered, what a weekend!
Setting out for qualifying there was a lot learn, never driven the car as a racecar and never driven the circuit before either. Times were fairly consistent across the team and we learned a decent amount about the car.
The guys set about the car prior to the race making a host of changes and we headed to the grid, not a lot of spare time in a hectic morning.
Steve took the first stint, battling hard with the cars around him swapping places lap on lap, then pitting slightly before scheduled to take advantage of a safety car period.
Rory took the second stint and set off with good pace but had to make an unscheduled pit stop to report some issues. We seemed to be having power cutting out issues and 3rs gear was acting up. We made the decision to keep going and Rory headed back out, coming back in slightly before scheduled so we could again take advantage of a safety car for the stop.
I was out for the final stint with the car getting some fuel on the stop this time. Taking over just before the 2 hour mark we were lying P30 as I headed out. The 3rd gear issue was still there but didn’t seem to be getting any worse. I tried a few things on the shift to see if anything helped but nothing did, so just slowed the shift in to 3rd slightly to take a little bit more care of it.
My pace was pretty consistent and managed to pass some cars gaining places but then found myself in the middle of nowhere for a while with nobody to race and just trying to bang in consistent laps. Unfortunately the power cutting issue came back with 20mins to go, most likely fuel surge, and although I could initially drive around it, the final 4 laps the car cut out mid lap requiring an off and back on with the key and bump start to get it going again.
Finally brought the car home in P24, 12 places up on where we started.
Massive thanks to my fellow drivers and team, was a cracking experience and I learned a hell of a lot! Mildly stiff today, using muscles I didn’t think I was during my 65min stint.
