Entering the final round of the 2020 British GT championship, I was looking forward to the chance of ending this season on a high. Calling it a hard-fought season would be an understatement, there were many obstacles and challenges to overcome but ensuring we finished the season with a strong performance was very important to me.
As well as this weekend being the season finale, there were 9 additional entries alone in my class for this round making a total of 20 GT3 cars competing for the top spot on the Sunday. A target was another McLaren entry driven by none other than 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button, and to add to that, the entire race was being aired on Sky Sports F1… No pressure!!
As practice got underway on Saturday morning, the car balance felt good and our long run pace was strong however, the car was significantly down on power and we were right down at the bottom of the speed traps. There was more time left in the car, and we all knew it. But we had to soldier on with what we had been given and do the best job we could.
As I was rolling out of the pitlane for Qualifying, I knew even the best lap wouldn’t be good enough for pole. When you’re 7mph down on every straight, you can drive the car as well as you want but we’d still lose around a second in lap time purely on straights and there was nothing we could do about it. I had a mountain to climb and I was going to give it my all but the car happened to develop an electrical issue on the out lap and I was forced to miss a good chunk of the session sitting stationary on the back straight trying to fix it from within the cockpit. I eventually got going but my tyres had lost all their temperature and I wasn’t able to get it back in time, so I’d have to make do with 9th in my session. Once Dean had finished his qualifying run, we’d be starting the 3-hour race on Sunday from a very average 14th position. We weren’t expecting to be challenging for pole but to be down in 14th was a big disappointment and we’d have to race hard to come back on Sunday. Something that made me smile however, was the Button car, in position 17 so it was nice to be ahead of your target!
As the lights went out, I was able to make up 3 places in the first turn alone before gaining another through the next sequence of corners. An early safety car halted my progress though and whereas most cars dived for the pits to get one of their three mandatory pit stops out of the way, I was left out by the team to lose vital track position and all the places I’d made up at the start. When I was eventually called in, we’d emerge in last place over a minute behind the race leaders. Dean cracked on and was able to catch up to the pack ahead during his stint before I was to get back in for my final hour of the season. Getting in the car when we were 15th overall, I pushed hard and was immediately quickest on track. I knew our long run pace was good from Saturday testing and I was pushing to the limit to gain as many places as I could before handing back to Dean for the final stint of the race. In my hour, I made 8 on-track overtakes whilst two other retirements from our competitors helped me bring the car back into the pits for our final pit stop in 5th place. Dean’s job was simple as we had a huge lead to the cars behind and not a lot in reach in front of us. He circulated safely and brought the car home for a very strong 5th place finish come the chequered flag.
I drove a great race at Silverstone, and had our strategy been better, I am confident we could’ve ended on a podium if not gone even better than that. But that brought a close to my 2020 racing season. It’s been a very tough year and I’ve learnt an awful lot about myself and the sport in the process. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so by next year should be very, very exciting!
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me this year. My family, friends, and all my amazing sponsors, especially my main sponsor Cambridge & Counties Bank. Now starts the contract chase over the winter and I’m very excited to see what 2021 brings for me.
