Mallory Park - Car Mats UK Race Car
Car Mats UK Race Car Season Summary - Part 4
This time it was not meant to be and following a very wet and cold qualifying, Andrew and the Carmats-UK Honda were back in 7th position for the start of the race.
As the morning progressed, the weather showed glimpses of drying and the suspension settings and choice of wet or dry tyres was the talk of the paddock. The team gambled on a semi dry set up as the clouds were parting over lunch and there was a glimmer of sunshine!
On the warm-up lap it was clear that the track was still greasy, but not as wet as it had been that morning for qualifying. As the grid assembled, half the cars were on wets and the rest on dry tyres.
Andrew made a good start and grabbed a couple of places going into the first corner. The track was drivable and Andrew felt confidence in his settings. After a few corners though the red flags were being waved by the Marshalls and Will in the Honda Integra had found one of the gravel traps. The race had now been shortened to 30mins due to the time taken to clear the track
The field was reassembled on the grid for the restart. Another good start was made by Andrew and the Honda headed off towards Gerrards, with the leaders squabbling over tarmac ahead. During the melle, one of the Odell Fiestas came together with the Proton of Fields and spun across the pack and finished up in the barrier to the left of the start straight. Red flag number 2!
The field reassembled on the grid again, but now the race had been reduced to 20 minutes with no mandatory pit stop. To add to this, the clouds had reformed and it had started to rain heavily. For the third time that day Andrew made an excellent start, but it was clear that the track was very wet again and cars fitted with wet tyres had a distinct advantage in the conditions. As the field made its way down the back straight it was clear to Andrew that the Carmats-UK Honda was not set up for the conditions; and with a combination of the spray from other cars and the brakes locking at the end of the back straight, the car was retired into the pits. A wet and miserable end to the season, but with car and driver in one piece.
All that remains is for Andrew and the team to thank Mark and all the staff at Carmats-UK for their help and support this season. We all look forward to updating you again next season with the highs and lows of our racing year.
See the highlights here: