R2: European GT4 @ Misano

More Competitive at European GT4 Championship R2 – Misano

The second round of the European GT4 Championship underlined the progress that the team have made since the previous European round in France. The circuit at Misano is 2.6 miles long with 16 corners and 3 quite long straights. The weather for the entire weekend was dry and warm and the track was very sticky with tyre rubber so much so that on our track walk it felt like we were walking in mud!

We had a number of upgrades on the car, a wider front rim and tyre, different dampers and some larger front brakes, but unfortunately no more engine power although we were given less weight to carry which as it turned out doesn’t really help the car very much.

Our pace in qualifying was better that R1 with our best grid position being 14^th compared to 29^th at Paul Ricard, and we were about 1.4 seconds off pole position compared to 2.5 seconds previously.

I started Race 1 and was hit from behind by another car into turn 2 immediately after the start. What I didn’t know until after the race was that the impact had virtually closed up the tail pipe on the exhaust and as a result we were 30 bhp down throughout the race. Despite this we got up to 18^th place until with 1 lap to go we had a fuel pickup problem which dropped us to 24^th at the end of the race. The engine was getting hot due to the exhaust issue and the engine management system injects more fuel in an effort to cool the engine down and hence the problem with the fuel pickup at the end. Despite that, this was still our best finish so far.

Dexter started Race 2 in 14^th and drove well to get the car into the top 10 for me to take over after 30 minutes, but 1 lap into my stint the electrical system completely shutdown and the car came to a halt at the side of the track and that was the end of our race. Although a disappointing result, the fact that we were able to race inside the top 10 was a massive step forward from the previous race.

Overall a huge step forward by the team and definite signs of better things to come. I just hope we can get the extra power for the next round at Spa which will punish us otherwise compared to some of the other cars.