Restart Racing produced solid pace and displayed plenty of potential on Saturday at Thruxton, with Chris Smiley and James Dorlin claiming a 1-2 in Free Practice and strong starting positions for Sunday’s Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship racing.
Clear skies met the BTCC paddock as they started their Saturday at the fastest circuit in the UK, with Hampshire’s 2.35-mile circuit demanding maximum focus for drivers and teams alike. Due to Thruxton’s tyre-shredding reputation, the weekend sees teams required to adapt to a different-than-usual set of tyre regulations that mandate hard tyres in all racing situations.
Saturday morning’s Free Practice saw the team make the perfect start, as the squad piloted their Hyundai i30N Fastbacks to a 1-2 finish. Chris set the session’s early benchmark and, despite a black-flag for track limits late on, would set a time quick enough for first. James joined behind a lap later, rounding out a Restart Racing pair three tenths faster than the field.
Qualifying for the Race to Pole continued in strong fashion for James, with his fifth-place group two effort converting to 10th on the grid. He, like a few drivers, would also spin at the high-speed Church corner, but suffered no damage to the car.
Chris’ bright Saturday start wavered slightly in the timed session, wanting no repeat of his Free Practice track limits issue, with eighth place in group one returning 15th on the grid. However, both drivers showed the Restart Hyundai’s abilities around Thruxton by setting similar low-to-mid 1:16s laps.
The Race to Pole saw the team demonstrate strong overtaking and defensive abilities on-track, after a slow start which saw the safety car deployed on lap one and the race extended to 14 laps. During the period, Chris benefitted from misfortune elsewhere to inherit 13th.
Once racing resumed, James saw himself pipped by Mikey Doble to drop to 11th, but kept himself within range on the notoriously overtake-restrictive circuit. Chris had to demonstrate similar patience as he raced behind Árón Taylor-Smith, which eventually turned into a train between the Restart pair and Taylor-Smith. As the race developed, Chris pushed hard to make a move, and did get by, but nothing would stick.
Saturday afternoon’s tour of Thruxton offered little pressure from the cars behind to Chris, allowing him to focus on attempting to find any opportunity through. However, when Tom Chilton dropped out of the race with just two laps to go, James and Chris were both promoted to their final finishing positions of 10th and 12th.
The result not only provides a strong platform for Sunday’s action, but a small haul of points for the boys. James earned three towards his Drivers’ Standings total, while Chris took home two.
James said:
“Saturday done here at Thruxton – decent day.
“Nice to be back after the six week break and started off really well. We were first and second, Chris and I in Free Practice, so great start.
“Qualifying didn’t quite go as well as we wanted. I was on a really good lap, which should have put us in the top five, top four, I had a big off at the fastest corner on the track so managed to save it, get it collected up.
“Qualifying race then got a great start. I was pretty happy, just got pushed out on the exit of the complex on the first lap, which is being checked, but that unfortunately dropped us back 3 or 4 places. So quite frustrating really.
“We could have been further up, but still P10 so quite happy with that. We can race from there tomorrow and try and try and get some good points.”
Chris said:
“That’s Saturday all finished at Thruxton.
“The day started off quite positive. We were quickest in FP1 and, yeah, I had a look through things with the break in between there and qualifying, and, yeah, just didn’t have the ultimate pace in qualifying unfortunately.
“We’ve had a look back through it. We had we had an issue with track limits in FP1 and maybe you know, I was just a little bit too cautious with them in qualifying.
“So yeah, we start race one tomorrow morning P12. And yeah the car felt good in the qualifying race. So I think if we keep our head down tomorrow there’s definitely some results on the table.”
Restart Racing will be looking forward to Sunday’s Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship running, where the squad heads into rounds 13, 14, and 15 with a strong chance of securing points.