So after a baptism of fire for Nick & Scott at Brands Hatch, it was off to Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby in Northamptonshire for the 2nd round of the British GT Championship over the spring May-Day Bank Holiday weekend.
A good showing in official practice by both drivers had them privately hopeful of a better result for the weekend. Qualifying went well with just the minor disappointment of Scott having his fastest lap, which was 2nd quickest in the GT4 category, taken away from him due to exceeding track limits.
Nick would start the two hour race with regulations stipulating he had to drive for a minimum of fifty minutes before the pit window opened for driver changes.
Nick made a good start and was able to comfortably run for the majority of his stint in the middle of the pack of GT4’s but unsurprisingly, tired a little towards the end of his stint. He remarked afterwards: “That was the first time I’ve had to do that long a stint under race conditions and naturally with the concentration levels and physical effort being high I did struggle a little towards the end but I know that the more that I do it then the easier it will become.”
After the hand-over to Scott, just after the fifty minute mark, the car was frustratingly called back into the pits by the race officials for a ten second stop & go penalty due to a minor misdemeanour by one of the team mechanics during the driver change over.
Scott set off but very soon afterwards was forced back into the pits with a problem with the power steering which the team set about repairing. Some twenty minutes later, and several laps down, the car took to the circuit again with the problem fixed and Scott at the wheel. Although racing for pride only it was an impressive display by the former single seater star who put in a number of consistently quick laps to claim fastest lap of the race.
Afterwards Nick commented: “After what happened at Brands I thought it was really important that we finished the race today and I’m very pleased that we were able to. That is a step forward and it was a nice bonus to bag the point for fastest lap. We will take anything we can get at the moment! A big thank you to Scott, and the whole team, for all their hard work.”
