There was a significant amount of rain overnight which continued into the morning, so being first up on the program, Qualifying 2 was run under very wet and testing conditions. Though challenging this was also hugely enjoyable and I was pushing as hard as I could. On the first set of wet tyres I was generally sitting in the top half of the timesheet, though it was very changeable as the track was steadily improving.
At around the half way mark, we came into the pits to change to a second set of wet tyres and waited to ensure that we were in a position to set our quickest laps at the end. Once rejoining the session, on my first flying lap, I put a really good lap together which included the fastest final sector of the session which at the time put me into 5th place. In the end with others improving I qualified 9th for a very pleasing second top 10 grid position for the event.
Photo: Fotospeedy
Race 2, starting from 9th I got away well from the line. In the second phase of the start however I shifted to second a little early to combat a touch of wheelspin, however in hindsight may not have needed to do so. As such I dropped a couple of positions into turn 1 as others beat me there down the straight. From there however I was very pleased with how I fought and raced, applying the lessons learnt from my debrief with the team after yesterday. I positioned the car well during the opening laps, and then battled for positions throughout the race. Having cleared a position to move into 11th place with 5 laps to go I closed down a 3.5 second gap to 10th to 1.2 seconds by the end of the race.
Photo: Fotospeedy
Photo: Fotospeedy
This has been a great first event in the Euroformula Open Championship for me, and I am very pleased with the start we have made to continue to build from. Thanks to all of the Fortec team for the amazing work over the past 5 days, and especially to Mick, my race engineer Tom Toovey and Ed and Luke for their work on the car.
I want to acknowledge and thank my team of supporters who are investing in my racing and have sent me messages of encouragement over the event. Thanks to all of my sponsors, Lazersafe, High Energy Services, Rosehill Waters, ES2, The Wealth Designers, Edith Cowan University (ECU), Kingsway Community Bank Branch, Rvend Vending Machines, Grand Toyota Wangara, Fullworks Fire Safety, Inspired Insurance Services, Online Logistics Solutions, Signarama Joondalup, Focused Recruitment, F45 Training Hillarys and Trizone Fitness.
Thanks also to the many people who have followed me, and sent messages of encouragement, they mean a lot!
Looking forward to Paul Ricard in a few weeks.
