Report – ITCC May 15^th, Rounds 5 and 6

After a bitter sweet weekend in Anglesey for rounds 3 and 4 with a winners trophy and a broken car sharing the back of the race transporter it was a real struggle to make rounds 5 and 6 at Mondello Park. The engine and gearbox were making a collection of noises, non of which were pleasing to the ear.

The guys at Tuning Factory quickly set to work on the car and parts were ordered, a standard road car variant of the Honda type R engine was installed and the car was ready to go at just 9pm the night before the race.

Qualifying:

A wet but drying Mondello Park International circuit greeted us as we left the pits for qualifying. With Hankook F series slicks and wets at our disposal we had to make sure to get the choice right. As the international loop is so long and with only 15minutes for qualifying we were only going to get 4 or maybe 5 laps in total. At the last minute I opted to play it safe and go for the full Hankook wets. I completed one ‘banker’ lap and decided to go for broke and try fitting slicks to the front. The guys swapped the rims in no time and I left the pits with only one fast lap in which to set my time. I was currently 3^rd and used the outlap to determine where the grip was. On the lap in question I was relatively cautious where I knew it was slippy but pushed hard where the track was giving up some grip. In the end I got pole position by over 2 seconds.

Race One:

With the track now properly dry the Hankook F200 slicks were bolted on and we went to the grid. I got a good start and was able to push hard on the opening lap to secure a decent lead. The Hankook tyres come up to temperature very quick which is a great advantage in a series such as ITCC. I really have confidence to push hard when others are desperately waiting for their tyres to get up to temperature. With the standard engine we were nowhere near the pace we are capable of but fast enough to romp home unchallenged to win number 3 of the season!

Race Two

With the top 6 from race one reversed for the grid of race two I started from the third row. I immediately got ahead of the beautiful Seat Supercopa of Jonathan Brady who was struggling with the hand clutch in his ex BTCC car. By turn two I was up to second but got pushed onto the grass and lost two places. The next few laps were great fun as I raced hard, fair and clean with Brady in the Seat – we both got by the pole man Phil Brennan in his M3 on lap two and by then I had decided to settle for third. Unfortunately on the last lap our driveshaft woes showed their face again and we had to retire to the pits – maybe they just can’t handle the grip from the Hankooks

Next round is in Kirkistown and the race is on to get the car back into ship shape for that one. Watch this space

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