Encouragement for AmDTuning.com at Silverstone

The AmDTuning.com team made encouraging progress during the penultimate race day of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Silverstone, even if that progress wasn’t reflected in the end results on track.

The West Thurrock-based team made the trip to the Home of British Motorsport on the back of a strong weekend at Rockingham but was aware that the short National circuit wouldn’t play to the strengths of its turbo-powered Volkswagen Golf.

A difficult Saturday saw Attleborough-based driver Ollie Jackson qualify in 24th place for the opening race, although he was promoted to 23rd when a rival team was forced to change drivers for race day.

Ollie Jackson, AmD Tuning.com

Photo by: Pat Cranham

Sadly, a driveshaft issue forced Ollie to dive into the pits at the end of the green flag lap prior to race two and meant he was five laps down when he was then able to join his fellow competitors on track after a quick driveshaft change was carried out by the AmDTuning.com mechanics.

Unfortunately, a puncture later on would then lead to another unscheduled stop and meant Ollie was unclassified at the finish.

Starting near the back of the field, Ollie made up a number of places off the line although it all came to nothing when contact from the MG of Andy Neate towards the end of the opening lap dropped him back down the field.

Despite the damage sustained, Ollie raced to a 17th place finish – posting his quickest lap of the weekend in the process.

“In reality we ended the weekend where we should have started it,” he said. “We had some problems on Saturday which put us on the back foot but we had a solid result in race one and then should have been able to get some half decent results in races two and three as well.

Unfortunately the driveshaft went on the green flag lap for race two which ended any chance of a good result and then in race three, the car was great and I made a strong start only to be hit by Andy Neate which meant I lost the places I had gained.

“In a straight line we struggled this weekend and I was probably losing half a second or so on the straights alone.

When you consider our lap times compared to the front runners, that shows the car was handling really well elsewhere as much of the time lost was on the straights, so the performance has been better than it might appear on the results sheets.

I’m hoping for a good end to the year at Brands Hatch.”

Team boss Shaun Hollamby agreed that the weekend hadn’t gone as well as the team had hoped, but said there were still positives to take away from the meeting as the team heads for the season finale on home soil at Brands Hatch.

“Like Ollie says, we ended where we had hoped to be starting,” he said. “It was a tough start on Saturday and although we managed to find more time in the car, sadly it took us a bit too long.

However, we have once again found a few little things with the engine and the set-up that should bring improvements when we get to Brands Hatch, which is a circuit that will be better suited to the car. It’s our home circuit so we need to put this weekend behind us and look forwards.”

Source: AmDTuning.com