Dunlop SportMaxx - Round 7 8 & 9
Donington Park 5th & 6th July 2009

By John Thorne

Running a race team of this size in multiple championships is certainly interesting. This weekend we had almost every aspect of racing land on our doorstep, inter team car on car contact, a big crash, race wins and podiums, a TV crew in tow, mechanical failure and another incident of crap tail lifts messing us about.

Qualifying

The weekend started reasonably well, Dunlop Sportmaxx qualifying produced excellent results from all three drivers, Abbie got pole again, John put in an excellent performance to get 4^th but Stuart again pulled out a great last minute run to put his Astra VXR second on the grid behind a very quick Seat from Shaw (like over a second quicker) so we were 2^nd and 4^th on the grid. Abbie again did her usual trick of putting it on pole by half a second from the Ford Fiesta of  Mark Weidner.

Race 1

With both Astra VXR’s up the grid we were hopeful of a good race and we certainly got an exciting one, with Shaws SEAT so much quicker in qualifying (over a second is an age in track terms) the best we could really expect was a second and third from John and Stuart but both of them got relatively poor starts with the 888 Astras getting past on the grid. What followed was a fantastic effort from both of them, John and Stuart fought their way past all them to settle in to a great race between them, lap after lap John and Stuart traded places in 2^nd and third building a large gap on the cars behind, it was great to watch…..too great it transpired.

 

At the entry to the old hairpin John put a defending line on the following Stuart and there was contact, John was flicked sideways but recovered but Stuart got thrown into the gravel – game over. John carried on to finish a fantastic second place (which was an effective win in our minds considering the relative pace of the SEAT) but a DNF for Stuart meant it wasn’t all good news.

 

Its always a measure of the strength of a team when dealing with two competitive drivers, we run no team orders at Thorney Motorsport, once on track both drivers compete to win, however when we go from a 2/3 podium to a 2^nd/DNF it was something we needed to address. Fortunately with John and Stuart we have competitive and sensible drivers, both of them saw that regardless of fault on track an extra element of care should be exercised when in close competition with a teammate and that was all agreed. (In other words we said they were our toys and if they couldn’t play nice then we would take them away J) .

 

Whilst all this was happening Abbie continued to dominate Class B, however the fly in the ointment for her was the series guest driver, in this case Paul O’Neil (BTCC) had been invited to drive the second Seat Leon and his driving calibre shone through, by lap 4 he was from the back of the grid to head class B and was chasing down some class A cars before the end. However, as a guest driver he doesn’t score points so in terms of results its was the usual day in the office for Abbie, another win, another fastest lap, well done.

Race 2

With John second on the grid and Stuart right at the back after his race 1 DNF we had a different plan. We wanted John to see how close he could get to the SEAT and for Stuart all we asked was to get into the top 6. Well John got mugged at the start (the 888 Astras seem very quick in a straight line, a point confirmed in the speed traps) and then spent a long race picking them off one by one, which he did with excellent skill, only Wallbank was too far ahead to get, Corte and Clarke seeming much easier prey. Stuart did a fantastic drive to get all the way to 5^th place and with a couple of laps more we think he’d have got past Clarke (Leyton) as well. Our Astras certainly handle well I’m happy to say. So another podium for John and a well deserved 5^th for Stuart from the back of the grid.

 

Abbies race was more the same, Paul O’Neale showed is skill by getting away at the start but Abbie did a brilliant drive to keep him in sight – impressive stuff seeing as Paul is a proven BTCC race winner. Another win for Abbie.

 

Race 3

We reckon we were due a win in at least one of the Astras this weekend and we finally got it. The grid was a draw and John got 6^th, Stuart got third and from the Start Stuart was a man on fire, he got the lead from the first corner with a brave move through the middle of two other cars at Redgate and then, frankly, buggered off into the distance – a truly class drive and something he richly deserved.

John had a reasonable start and again demonstrated his skill at doing what racers like most – over taking, picking off Astras along the way John got onto the bumper of Wallbank and it looked as if it was only a matter of time before John got past to make it a TMS 1,2 but with just three laps to go – disaster, the drive shaft boot failed knackering the drive shaft and forcing John to retire, we were gutted.

I know it sounds like repetition but again Abbie just did what she does best – winning, another race, another truly stunning drive and another win with maximum points. I was watching her from the Milltek Sport box at Redgate and not once did I see her line deviate by more than a few inches – that’s impressive driving, especially from someone so young (she’s 17). I wont even get into the fact she’s a girl for fear of politically correct commentators having a pop – her driving is impressive, male or female.

 

So all in all a great weekend, Stuart got his first win, John got two podiums to increase his point tally nicely and Abbie continues her march to the championship dream. Amongst all this we had a TV crew following Abbie around as they shot footage for a documentary about women in motorsport as well as a wider UK motorsport documentary about TMS (there was even beer fuelled talk of a UK ‘Days of Thunder’ believe it or not) so all in all we had a great weekend.

In the CSL Cup (full report here) we did equally as well with my own first win in the second race and Darren getting another win and Mark scoring a third so the team goes home with another 6 garlands – [pretty soon we’ll have to open a florists. But the best thing about it all?  Every driver, every team member all enjoyed themselves – that’s important. Next race is at Castle Combe in 2 weeks time, why not come along.

 

John