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Friday
testing was very wet, I can honestly say that in
our experience that was the wettest day we have
ever experienced as a team and still be running
on track.
Niall's commitment never wavered and we soon found
that our lack of experience, compared to other teams
and drivers, at the Corby circuit was all but cancelled
out by the conditions. Nevertheless we found it
difficult to match the pace of the others initially
but we eventually managed some respectable lap times
despite the torrential rain, the gale force wind
and the biting cold conditions….yes this is
May the 23rd 2008 we are talking about.
Saturday
dawned a little brighter and we could see the other
side of the spectacular oval track clearly for the
first time. The rain did not start until the beginning
of our qualifying session and we were soaked again
but the wind was a little less strong. Niall's times
were better than Friday but we qualified 7th in
class, which was disappointing but not surprising.
The second qualification session looked as if it
might end up on a drying track but it was not to
be as the heavens opened again and our session was
brought to a premature end by an oil filter failure
resulting in the engine dumping all of its oil in
the floor cavity and some in the pitlane. Despite
this Niall's best lap time still stood and we were
6th in class.
Sunday
began dry and quite bright but once again we were
to be soaked again as the rain came down for the
start of the race. Niall made a good start and was
well ahead of several cars by the start line and
continued to make progress throughout the opening
laps. Soon the pace began to drop and Niall lost
some of the places gained at the beginning eventually
finishing in 5th place.
The
second race was almost dry but once again the rain
started just moments from us leaving the paddock
and the race was run entirely in the wet. Niall
made a superb start and made up six places by the
first corner, however as the cars emerged from the
spray in corner two Niall was at the back of the
pack having taken avoiding action to miss several
cars which had tangled in the zero visibility. Niall
drove strong race to retake all of the lost places
eventually running in 4th place only being held
up by an International class car which he just could
not overtake, this despite being quicker by 3/10ths
of a second over the driver in 3rd place in our
class.
Being
pressured from behind and frustrated by being unable
to overtake Viktor Jensen ahead with his car becoming
more difficult to drive as the tyres went off, Niall
made small mistake at turn two and ran wide causing
him to spin on the debris at the edge of the track
and all his valiant efforts were undone in a flash,
despite all this he eventually finished 7th in class.
We
all felt desperately disappointed for him and commenting
on the outcome, Trevor Powell Team Owner stated:
'Niall did well to keep it all together for us right
up until the last lap, we are bitterly disappointed
for him, having done and redone all the hard work,
he deserved a better result to finish the weekend
on. We seem to be plagued by wet conditions in F3
this season; it can only get better as we move on
to Snetterton in June'.
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