Donington Park - 24th April 2016 - PBMW rounds 3 & 4

After a pretty good day on Saturday in the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons races I headed out for the Production BMW qualifying session. Headed out behind Harry Goodman and made a point of trying to sick with him during qualifying as I knew he'd be near the front. I pleased to say I managed to stay close and Harry was on pole with a time of 1:26.464. I ended up 4th on the grid with a time of 1:27.129.

Unfortunately Rob Cooper who had qualified 2nd didn't make the grid as during qualifying he'd smashed the sump on a curb, despite managing to change the sump itself it turned out that the engine wasn't sounding good.

Robs loss however was my gain and as a result I'd line up on the grid with a clear view of the first turn. As with the TTRS races I managed to get a great start, looking back at the videos I may have lead a PBMW race for the first time (all be it for about 2 seconds and by about 200mm) However Harry held on to the lead through the first corner. Finished the first lap in 2nd place but through out the rest of the race dropped to 5th overall as Will Davidson, Matt Swaffer and Alan Wileman managed to get passed. Finished 5th but was promoted to 4th When Alan received a penalty for exceeding track limits. 4th was my best finish in a PBMW race to date so along with my best lap dropping to 1:26.601 I was pretty chuffed.

As with race 1 I started race 2 4th on the grid. Had another great race, Will Davidson and Harry Goodman managed pull a slight gap leaving myself, Matt Swaffer and Alan Wileman fighting over 3rd place. On lap 7 Alan made a small mistake and was out of the fight for 3rd. By this time I was starting to think about the possibility of my first PBMW podium. All I needed to do was keep Matt swaffer behind, Although Dave Graves was close enough that if we'd got to scrappy it would have been a 3 way battle again.

Please to say that I managed to keep the 3rd place and after over 4 years of trying I finally made it onto the podium.

Massive thanks to Rob at Gary Feekins Racing who have got the car handling fantastically and Jody Halse at Climax motorsport who built me the engine which has powered the car pretty much untouched for the last 3 years.