It seems only right that the Brands Hatch double took place on Halloween, because the weekend turned out to be a nightmare for me. Both races were bad. Race #2 was horrible.
I started 6th on the grid for race #1, which was a relief because track position is so important at Brands Hatch. By lap 4 I had moved up into 3rd place, and was in good position to get a good points finish. On lap 6 I moved up into P2 and started thinking that I might have a chance to win the race. At this point, I was really liking Brands Hatch. But on lap 7, it all went wrong. I went into turn 1 too fast, went off track driver’s left, and fell back to 8th position. I was able to gather it up and not lose more positions, but the damage was done. I finished 8th.
Throughout race #1, I noticed that the tires felt strange. Early in the race, they didn’t want to turn right, but were fine on left-hand turns. After a few laps, they seemed to equalize, but they were never really good.
Race # 2 started bad, got better for a little while, then completely fell apart. I started 22nd, but move up to P14 by the end of lap 1. I gained another spot on lap 3, and was in good position for a possible top 10 finish. But that dream vanished on lap 5. I went off track drivers right in turn 9, known as Sheene Curve, and I fell to the very back of the pack.
To that point in the race, my tires felt horrible. They never did hook up the way you would expect, and after my off, they got even worse. I was already at the tail-end of the field, so I ducked into the pits for new tires. I knew it probably wouldn’t make any difference in my finishing position, but thought new tires might help me pick off one or two competitors. Unfortunately, the new tires weren’t much better than the old ones. I had another off (maybe two), and I never did catch the field, finishing P24.
Despite my poor finishes, I have to admit that I liked Brands Hatch. It was a fun circuit to race on, and I wouldn’t mind giving it a go again someday.
After my horrendous weekend, I’ve fallen to 6th in the points standing with 53 points. The top five are:
- Conor Clingschmidt (80 pts)
- Antoine Gil (79 pts)
- Andy Fairnight (71 pts)
- Tobias Van Elferen (61 pts)
- Derek Brightly (58 pts)
Here’s the video for race #1 at Brands Hatch:
Here’s the video of Race #2: