The BTCC made the long trip over to Ireland last weekend for rounds 9 and 10 of the championship, and for York City Racing, it turned out to be well worth the effort! However, with only two forty minute Free Practice sessions on Saturday morning, Mondello first-timer Peter had his work cut out to learn the circuit before the serious business of qualifying began.
"Whoever designed this circuit is either crazy or a genius!" he said after the practice was over. "Every corner has a secret and if you talk with the locals, they'll all have different opinions for each one!". With numerous hairpins, blind brows and off-camber corners, this was a tough place to get to grips with the new dampers fitted to Peter's car, but progress was made and the lap times tumbled accordingly.
Qualifying on Saturday afternoon turned out to be a big challenge for the drivers. Rain began to fall as the cars exited the pitlane and as the drivers desperately tried to get a quick lap in before the track was soaked, cars were "sliding sideways everywhere". It turned out to be a brief shower and as the track dried, both Peter and team mate Jim were able to put in some quick laps to qualify fourth and third respectively for the Sprint race, the best qualifying positions the team has achieved! For the Feature the cars would line up fifth and sixth, still in great positions to score well. "We were still making changes to the car, and found some aspects of the set-up to be critical to achieving a better balance. We will go further in that direction for the race tomorrow" said Peter afterwards.
Sunday dawned cloudy and showery, and the mood in the paddock was one of uncertainty. "I discussed a wet set up with my engineer but we have never run it so if at all possible, I would prefer to run dry," commented Peter. "This is not the kind of track to experiment with unknowns - the earth banks are far too close!"
The Sprint race start saw a dry track, much to the teams relief, since a wet race could well have resulted in unwanted damage to the cars as they all braked for the first corner. As the lights changed, Peter made a meteoric start from fourth place, bursting past Mark Fullalove's Peugeot and almost taking leader Norman Simon's BMW around the outside of Coca-Cola corner! "We actually got held up by the Touring Class guys! I got past a couple of them off the line and they baulked me on the exit of Coca-Cola so I couldn't quite get up alongside Norman for the next left hander."
Peter settled into second place, followed by Fullalove, team mate Jim and a hard charging Gavin Pyper in the Alfa Romeo. After a few laps, it was clear that the following cars were quicker than Peter's Honda, and he was forced to defend most corners to maintain position. "I think there was only one corner where I was quicker, which gave me some breathing space, but I had big traction problems which allowed them all to close the gap out of all the slow corners." The situation stabilized for the next few laps, although Pyper made up ground and moved up to third.
Suddenly however, Peter's brake pedal dropped to the floor in the space of two corners!! "I could feel something was not right and approaching Tarzan, I braked a little early and I'm glad I did! The car hardly slowed and fortunately I didn't hit anyone and managed to stay on the black stuff. I got on the radio and told the team what had happened. There was no chance to do anything but crawl back to the pits." It turned out the racing brake fluid had boiled, as result of the many hairpin bends and consequent heavy braking.
Jim went on to finish fourth, behind Pyper, Boardman and Kaye. Peter said, "I was disappointed to stop, but when I saw that Simon and Fullalove both crashed out, I was gutted. That should have been our podium."
The Feature Race looked as if it would also be dry, but then as the cars formed on the grid, the heavens opened and the start was delayed to give the teams time to change tyres. Both Jim and Peter opted to stay on slick tyres, like most of the Production class runners. The first few laps after the rolling start were subsequently very treacherous with cars locking up wheels and sliding off the circuit. Both Jim and Peter got good starts and were running in the midfield, staying out of trouble on the wet track. "I had been told by Stuart (team manager) to take it easy on the brakes in case we had another problem, so I was content to run in clear air for the first half of the race, keeping Jim and the other guys within reach as the track dried."
With several incidents around the track, the Safety Car was deployed twice, and the cars all bunched up, again offering the chance to pass as the rain fell again for a few laps. "I was concerned in the second safety car period because I was behind Mark Thomas who was a lap down. He inadvertently held me up a little out of Dunlop, so Tom Boardman made a run down the outside along the start-finish straight." Fortunately Peter was able to outbrake Tom into the first corner and hold his position, before turning in some excellent laps as the race moved into the final stages.
By this time, several Production runners had fallen by the wayside in the tricky conditions, including championship leader James Kaye, Pyper, Simon and others, leaving the York City Racing cars in second and third place! "With the brakes working well, and the set-up changes we made giving me the traction I needed, I really started to push in the last few laps. I had Boardman behind me and I was closing on Jim, but when you're running second and third, the last thing you want to do is start scrapping with your team mate!" Peter was even more concerned as his electronic dashboard display winked out, suggesting an electical problem might rob him of the result in the final minutes.
However, the cars crossed the line in those podium positions, much to the delight of the team and the loyal B&Qsi who had made the trip over from the UK, and the celebrations showed the BTCC that Team B&Q Jet York City Racing is definitely a force to be reckoned with!! "It was great to be back up there, it's been too long since last year", smiled Peter. "The team worked hard to sort the cars and that effort really paid off today with this result. Now we can't wait to get to Croft and go one better!!"
The team is now lying second in the championship, only eight points behind Beacon Motorsport, and with continued consistent Feature Race results, have a realistic chance of taking the lead.
