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After
a frantic few days preparing a car to enter the
first two rounds of the Championship, Team Loctite
knew that the weekend would be difficult. That said,
we in no way could have predicted the events of
Friday and Saturday.
On
Friday the car developed all sorts of electrical
problems which were eventually traced to a faulty
battery terminal, which gave us fuel pump problems
and an intermittent dashboard. We only completed
five laps in the morning and never managed more
that two consecutive laps. In the afternoon sessions,
we were hampered by red flags and once again only
managed a few laps, five being consecutive. In the
very last session, Niall was forced wide by a faster
car and ended up on the grass. After all the wet
weather, the ground was very soft; the car dug in
and ripped off the floor causing enough damage to
bring our session to an end.
Hopes
were high for Saturday qualifications and we were
looking forward to getting a few more laps under
our belt and enhancing our understanding of the
car. However, once the slave battery was removed
from the car in the pitlane the engine stopped and
we were unable to start the qualifying session on
time. We were all devastated and distressed to find
that our problem was once again electrical and turned
out to be a faulty master switch. We eventually
managed five laps at the very end of the session
and unsurprisingly found ourselves in last place
on the grid for the first race. The second qualifying
session was better and Niall managed to get our
total lap tally for this season up to 40. In doing
so, he also managed to move forward on the grid
by three places.
The
Team owe it to Niall's totally professional attitude
that he stayed on for the races; lesser drivers
would have caught the ferry home to Ireland and
called it a day.
Sunday
gave the Team a valuable day to catch up with data
and setup changes allowing us to be a little more
confident for the races on Bank Holiday Monday.
Unfortunately, we had not taken the English weather
into account; Monday began with snow showers and
a bitterly cold wind. Tyre choice and setup could
have been a lottery but in the end after a very
uneventful race in which Niall made a textbook F3
start and kept a charging Christian Einar behind
him, we finished 4th in class and not too far of
the class winner's pace. Further setup changes allowed
us a little more confidence for race two and a better
grid position meant that another good start would
put us even closer to the front of the action. We
could not have asked for more, Niall's start was
perfect; he made up places off the grid and almost
managed more in the notoriously difficult first
corner, Old Hall. He maintained a healthy lead over
his nearest rival, Jay Bridger, for the whole of
the race and during a troublesome Safety Car period,
where other drivers made mistakes, he managed to
lap very consistently. To our delight and utter
amazement, given the weekend events up to this point,
he finished in third place and ended up on the podium
and just 0.5 of a second off the class fastest lap.
'We
knew the weekend would be tricky and we would have
our work cut out to get some kind of result having
done no testing prior to Friday whatever. The car
was new to us and Niall had just come back from
Mexico so a podium finish is amazing' stated Team
owner Trevor Powell, 'We have now completed a grand
total of 90 laps this season and look forward to
testing at Croft next week where we may double our
lap tally and give Niall a fighting chance in the
races there at the end of the month.'
Niall
commenting on the weekend said 'It was difficult
enough having no prior testing but the problems
with the car made the task almost impossible - a
podium finish and being close to the pace was more
than we could have hoped for. The competition is
tough and they all have lots of testing behind them
- winning races will be difficult but we will do
our very best.'
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