Blog

Thruxton Thriller

The CarMats-UK.com team arrived at Thruxton in Andover for the second race in the Classic Sports Car Club Tins Tops series after a spectacular start to the season taking a third place at Snetterton. The programme for the spectators was aptly titled the Thruxton Thriller and my word they were not wrong.

Our driver Andrew Windmill has never even visited Thruxton before and so had spent the previous two weeks watching YouTube videos to get as much of an understanding of the track as possible, this fact coupled with the fact that this is the fastest circuit in the UK and our car is still a standard Honda Civic engine the odds on being in the top ten were high, but that was the goal set by Andrew.

It was a clear blue sky that greeted us at 11.30am when qualifying started, 30 minutes of flat out running. Andrew started of gently and learnt the lines and contours that he had seen on YouTube but did not entirely comprehend the speed carried through the corners, some corner speeds were in excess of 100mph.

As his times came down, his position for the grid was improving, with 14 minutes to go an 18th place on the grid was improved to 12th and then with 5 minutes to go an amazing lap came together, no traffic, tyres at perfect temperature and 6th place on the grid secured.

A red flag ended the session early and although it was restarted for two minutes we went back to our pit knowing the best lap the car could do had been posted. After qualifying a competitor ahead of us retired from the competition due to mechanical failure and so our grid position improved to 5th!

Between race and qualifying the usual checks were undertaken plus an oil change and brake check, a few thousand insects cleaned from the front of the car and we were ready to race!

The Thruxton Thriller was a standing start and in the reflection of the hospitality units we saw Andrew roar of the line and was challenging the pole position car into the first corner! After a battling first lap Andrew came past the start finish line in 3rd place, our Honda Civic Type R screaming around Thruxton flat out and keeping up with the much more powerful cars by carrying incredible cornering speeds.

The lead three cars started to pull a gap on the rest of the field and the amazing happened, Andrew hammered around the last corner into sight and was in Second place! Stuff of dreams as we screamed at him from the pit wall. This position should not be possible on a power circuit like Thruxton but as the faster cars struggled to get into a rhythm our driver did and was giving them a run for their money. Inevitably second place was lost and the lead two cars pulled away leaving us in 3rd place.

We made our mandatory pit stop as early as we could, but this was to be our downfall. After a fantastic pit stop within the top five quickest of the day, the CarMats-UK.com car joined the race track at the back of a huge pack of slower cars fighting for position. Because of the high speed nature of the track overtaking has to be done carefully and losing our cornering speed meant we lost two or three seconds a lap to the leaders and this saw us slip back behind the faster cars who pitted later and into ‘clean air’.

Much to Andrews frustration the pit crew decision to pull him in early turned out to be incorrect and the lack of pace and the increased pace of the lead cars saw us fighting from 12th position to finish a very creditable 7th place in one piece.

A number of cars sustained damage and the clerk of the course had to issue a number of penalties to drivers. I am pleased to say our car returned unscathed and our driver did not receive and penalties or reprimands.

Preparation now starts for the next race, at the home of British Motor Sport, Silverstone on Sunday 28th May.