Photo by: Pat Cranham
The AmDTuning.com team added two more points finishes to its tally on a difficult weekend at Snetterton as the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship resumed after a summer break.
The West Thurrock-based team headed into the event eager to try and build on a run of ten points finishes through the opening half of the year, with Attleborough-based driver Ollie Jackson also hoping for a strong result on home soil.
Ollie qualified in 18th place at the wheel of the turbo-powered Volkswagen Golf but race day would start in disappointing fashion when a driveshaft failure forced him to retire to the pits in race one after eleven of the 15 laps.
With the car repaired, Ollie lined up in 20th place for the second race of the weekend and a strong start saw him up into the points within the opening lap. Although briefly demoted back down to 17th place, Ollie fought his way back up the order to cross the line in 15th and add another point to his championship tally.
Despite an off-track excursion in the final race of the weekend, Ollie was able to pick up more points with a 14th place finish, although he admitted that he had hoped for more from his home event.
“We’ve scored some more points but it’s been a bit of a disappointing weekend if I’m being honest as we hoped for more,” Ollie said. “The work we have done to the car has really improved the handling, and the stability and the balance is much better, but we have struggled for straight-line speed.
“If you look at the speedtraps, the S2000-based cars are all at the top but then struggle to match the NGTC cars in the corner, but we’re in amongst the NGTC cars in the speedtraps, which we need to improve. Snetterton is a circuit where straight-line speed is important so it made it tough.
“Although we have things we need to work on, there are still positives that we can take away from the weekend and we have a good platform to work with through the remainder of the season to try and pick up some strong results.”
Team boss Shaun Hollamby agreed that he had hoped for more from the weekend but vowed that the AmDTuning.com team would bounce back from the disappointment, even if that means missing the next event at Knockhill to carry out further testing of the car away from a racing environment.
“A disappointing weekend,” he admitted. “We were slower than pre-season testing despite having more power, a considerable investment in suspension development and Ollie obviously being more experienced with the car since he first drove it back in March.
“It’s time for us to re-group and get to the bottom of why we are slower than in pre-season testing, and if this means sacrificing going to Knockhill to test instead, then that is a decision we will make.”
Source: AmD Tuning
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