With the first race weekend of the season over and our debut in the TCR UK Championship ending on a high, we are taking a look back over the weekend and receiving the thoughts of some of our team members.
Friday 15/04/22
Practice
We arrived at Oulton Park and set up the awning, car etc. Chris then headed out on track for the first time in his new Honda Civic Type-R FK7. Chris completed around 20 laps to gather some data and familiarise himself with the car and get used to driving a left hand drive car.
The car felt great and Chris was enjoying being back in a Honda.
Saturday 16/04/22
Qualifying Day
With huge thanks to our technical partners J.A.S. Motorsport and their engineers Dave & Dave, Chris completed several flying laps on track. His fastest lap time, 1:42.784, was enough to put him on pole in front of the Volkswagen of Issac Smith. Despite losing a few laps due to track limits, Chris still managed to put the car on pole and snaring an early 6 point lead in the championship.
Bert Taylor, Team Principle of Restart Racing said ‘ What a great start for Chris and the team. After just 24 laps in the practice session on Friday Chris went into qualifying and delivered a pole! We can’t believe how well the whole team has performed. A great day for all of our partners,sponsors and our incredible supporters.’
Monday 18/04/22
Race Day
We started pole and turned that pole into a race win! Chris headed out on track in Race 1 and after a great start off the start/finish line, he managed to create a gap between 2nd & 3rd (after they were battling with each other) and then managed to maintain the gap throughout the remainder of the race. Chris also completed the fastest lap of the entire weekend in Race 1. This meant Chris bagged another 41 points in the championship.
In Race 2, Chris started 10th due to the reverse grid and gained 3 places off the line. A crash on the pit straight meant the first safety car was deployed and despite another safety car appearance further on in the 25 minute session, Chris still managed to gain 5 places overall finishing P5 meaning Chris achieving another 24 points meaning Chris is 2nd in the championship with a grand total of 71 points only 2 points behind the leader, Max Hart. Chris’ best lap time of the session was 1:43.514 on lap 10.
All in all- considering just over a week ago we didn’t even have a car- it’s an unbelievable achievement for me and the team. What a great first weekend in the TCR UK Championship!’
A huge thanks to our technical partners J.A.S. Motorsport and all of our sponsors for making this weekend and amazing results possible. We are looking forward to Donington Park, 28/29 May 2022.
Photo Credits: TCR UK, Phil & Lucy Laughton, Steve Hindle, Derek Booth