Having qualified down in 18th in the wet on dry tyres Matt and Mark knew that they would have some work to do to get a good result, added to which this was the first time out after the breakdown at Snetterton so there was still the question of whether we had solved all the problems.
The weather had cleared by the afternoon and it was a dry, sunny race. As usual Matt took the first stint and started to make up places as soon as the lights went out and was p16 by the end of lap 1 and by lap 10 was up to p10. As the pit window opened and the field started to pit we climbed to 5th overall and expected that, even after the stop, we should be back out within the top ten. The team called Matt in on lap 16 just as the safety car was deployed for yet another incedent. we didn’t have the fastest stop but were still happy that Mark would be out in the top ten giving him a great position from which to make up more places. However to our dismay the pit exit was closed just as he got to the end of the pit lane.
This is a standard procedure when the safety car is out to prevent cars circulating at near racfe speed to catch up with the ‘crocodile’ of cars running behind the safety car. The usual system is that the exit will be opened as the stream of cars passes the pit exit aloowing cars waiting to join the back of the queue, but this time for some inexplicable reason race control kept the cars waiting at the exit for over 2 minutes before releasing them. This meant that we went from circulating within 10-12 seconds of the leading car to being on lap down on the leaders and in 18th place. Mark had the bit between his teeth and started to make up ground and began picking off the cars ahead of him and when a safety car came out again we thought it would give us more of a chance as it would bunch the field up allowing him to dispatch any slower cars on the re start.
Once again fate took a hand, the back marker who was ahead of Mark on the road didn’t, as he was supposed to, catch up with the line of cars following the safety car. He just pootled round holding everyone behind him leaving a 20 second gap to the rest of the field. As soon as the green flags came out Mark was off again but it had left a large gap to make up with little time left in the race, Mark drove brilliantly and despite the problems managed to haul himself up to 14th, a great recovery drive but about 7 places lower than we expected to be!
Many thanks to Az Edwards of AE Photography for allowing us to use his great pictures. www.ae-photography.co.uk
