Brands Hatch: James Nash event summary

Strong form from Nash in treacherous conditions James Nash continued to show great speed and strong form in very wet conditions at Sundays Brand Hatch rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. A fantastic qualifying session saw ...

Strong form from Nash in treacherous conditions

James Nash continued to show great speed and strong form in very wet conditions at Sundays Brand Hatch rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. A fantastic qualifying session saw the 22 year old capture 3rd place on the grid for Sunday's first race, giving him a great opportunity to score points during Sunday and challenge for his first podium of the year.

With newly acquired sponsors EACS watching on, Sundays first, soaking wet race went wrong very quickly for James after a coming together with Championship leader Jason Plato, the contact resulting in the Triple 8 Car careering off the track and into the gravel on the first lap ending James race 30 seconds after the start.

A determined James then had a very clear objective in race two, get towards the front of the race to finish in the top ten, giving him a chance to finish well in race three. He achieved this in some style, charging through the field, running as high as 8th near the end of the race, losing out by a couple of places by running wide when racing Steven Kane and ending up with 10th place.

A barely discernable drying line made tyre choice very tricky for the third race, with James opting for wet tyres, and a few others risking dry weather slicks.

James choice at first seemed inspired as he quickly made it up to 4th place and the first front wheel drive car, but a couple of lengthy safety car periods gave the track more time to dry, swinging the advantage back towards the slick tired cars. By the end of the race James was struggling for grip and pace and eventually slipped down to 7th.

James commented "I obviously wasn't happy about being hustled into the gravel in the first race as I felt that we could have had a really good result and it's never fun having to make up loads of places from the back, but we got there and I really feel that if the safety cars hadn't stretched race 3 out my tyres would have hung on and we could have been challenging for the podium. I am very happy though, the car felt good and I enjoyed the racing and can't wait for the next one! All I need now is for my first weekend with a trouble free first race for it all to come together and for me and the team to realise our true potential"