SilverSTEM & Classics - 10th & 11th August
The team were back at Silverstone just weeks after the Woods had been on site as part of the Silverstone Classic with 750 MC.
Club Enduro raced on the Saturday with Gavin & Pip and Jason, Martin, Pete and debutante Ian were geared up for Sunday racing with Classic Stock Hatch.
Saturday
New to the car, and the surface, and the (excellent) MRF Tyres, familiarity in qualifying was key. Gavin started qualifying, graciously being given more time by the more experienced Pip. That didn’t stop Pip going 2 tenths faster in his shorter stint to put the PDC RS Boxster S 8th in class in qualifying from the 22 entrants.
Gavin started the race and lost a few places in the first 2 laps due to a knocked mirror on the drivers side reducing his visibility. He steadily made places back before more drama, a spinning lotus saw him leave the track and take to the grass in avoidance, later in the stint comms to the pit wall went down, later still a harness (now replaced) worked loose from the HANS leading him to pit.
Pip got into the car with the team 8th, he crossed the line in 5th, pipped to 4th on the last lap hindered by lack of comms and lack of fuel, excellently managing the car home with mega consistent lap times. We gained some much needed championship points that puts us 6th from the 35 class entrants with 3 rounds to go.
The highlight of Saturday (apart from the presence of Abac / AIRnet representative Ian Best and the lovely Julian and Jo paying a visit) was the visit of STEMilie (or those not on twitter, Emilie.) We first met Emilie at the excellent STEMfest hosted by our partners RS Components and she took a keen interest in the car, Esther and our team, such is her love and motivation for STEM. We invited Emilie and her family to Silverstone and they kindly came to support us. Ellie got to engineer our car and played a critical role in the result, taking care of basic duties with Tyres, wheels & oil and water levels. We look forward to welcoming her and her family at future events.
Sunday
Classic Stock Hatch is known for its competitiveness and that suits our four drivers, each winning their own battles through the sun, wind and rain.
Race 1 was Ians debut and the only bad news of the weekend when a fuelling issue made him a DNF. Pete drove brilliantly all race to fend off drivers seeking to take points away from him in the novice championship, Martin was aggressive from lap one again cracking the top ten after duelling with Jason all the way through the race, Jason equally aggressive sat on Andrew Thorpes bumper, got past, and did everything he could late in the race to pass Martin before settling for another top 10 finish.
Race 2 was more of the same with Jason and Martin battling early before taking 11th and 9th respectively, Pete kept the top spot in the novice championship with another solid finish and Ian finished his first race tabling lap times 5 seconds quicker than his time in qualifying in worse conditions!
Jason and Martin now sit comfortably in the top ten of the championship, Pete heads the Novice Championship and Ian gets his first finish and points on the board in his debut.
Special thanks to all of our family and friends who supported us at the track.
Check out our race calendar for whats up next