Race report - EFRA GP - Austria.  19/05/2010

What a weekend for Maximum Service Racing.

   We had kept an eye on what the weather forecast for the weekend was going to be. And it wasn't far off. The whole weekend was full of rain, some sun and even hailstones non stop for over ten minutes at one point.

   We arrived Thursday afternoon to dry weather. So some practice was gotten, even without a lot of grip. On Friday the weather was good in the morning. Free practice was successful, getting the set-up closer to perfect. But then the rain started in the afternoon. Hell even hailstones decided to show up for a while. That ended any form of fast practice and trying to get a good set-up for the dry. I did do a bit of practice in the afternoon to get used to the wet track.

   Qualifying on Saturday was a bit successful but a bit of a mash up. I'm far from the fastest driver in the wet. I can be ok and am quite sensible, but far from the fastest. It was raining in the morning so the first Round was wet and after the first Round I was 12th. I was happy with that, being in the top 14, as well as I didnt go off in my run and only had one slight knock against the wall by pit straight. When Nick checked the car over nothing seemed bent or broken.

  Throughout the rest of the qualifying rounds it was on and off with dry and wet weather. Being in the highest group we were last out of the touring cars. This actually became a disadvantage because, other than round 1, every other round it was dry for enough time for some grip to be layed down so basically the last group really had no grip in the wet.

   At the end of qualifying I was 15th. It was annoying because I was one place away from going straight into the semi's.

   Sunday - Finals.

The morning was dry but the track was still wet. With 2 finals before mine the track dried a little bit but not too much. It was difficult to pick set up/tyres for the final but we went with A's all around. The start of the final wasn't too good. I let 2nd place past (Renato Isler, RS5 driver) but battled to stay in 2nd place. The rear end of the car out of a corner was terrible. Coming out of a corner the rear end just wanted to throw itself out. Also the clutch was coming in way too early which was giving me no bottom end at all.

   But I battled to stay in second, defending my line. I was doing well until 3rd place at the time decided to try a little too hard to get past me and tapped my rear end and put me on the grass. I got off but had dopped down several places. I knew I wasn't going to catch up but had to fight and do as good as possible.

   The car was getting better and better as the final went on, although I know it could have been a whole lot better. In the end I finished 6th in the final and 24th overall. Wasn't the best of results but you cant have it always.

   Looking back on the weekend, we really think there is some kind of issue with the rear end that was causing it go throw out in the final. The car will be stripped when we are home and im sure the problem will be found.