Heading into the final British GT race of 2015 there were high expectations within the Motorbase Performance camp with Liam and I being well in contention for the overall drivers title.
It was always going to be a tough weekend and we needed a little bit of luck thrown our way if we were to pull it off, because Donington didn’t make things easy for the British GT field with monsoon rain showers hitting the Leicestershire track during both of Saturday’s free practice sessions – after we had just spent the day fine tuning the car to suit the slippery conditions it would then dry up just in time for qualifying!!
With a car set-up which was suited neither to wet nor dry conditions, Liam and I did everything we could in qualifying to secure a grid spot at the head of the field, but the best we could extract from the number 6 Aston was a combined fastest lap time of 8th for Sunday’s race.
We wanted more but not all was lost, as championship leaders Attard & Sims were just 3 places ahead of us, with Howard & Adam on the front row, but they had a 20 second pit stop penalty after winning the previous race at Snetterton.
Sunday’s championship decider was shaping up to be very complex and not easy to predict! Liam and I had our work cut out but we were fired up and ready for the challenge ahead – with a number of small set up changes made to the Motorbase Performance Aston Martin V12 Vantage we believed we had a podium finishing race car!
The tension could be cut with a knife as Liam lined up to start the race, as a whole season’s work was about to be decided in 2 hours time
We entered the 2015 British GT Championship with the ambition of feeling this intense pressure at the final round and Liam was in a good frame of mind as he made a superb start from 8th – passing Ross Wylie’s McLaren, John Minshaw’s BMW Z4 and amazingly our championship contenders Andrew Howard (Aston Martin) and Marco Attard (BMW Z4).
He was immediately hunting down Lee Mowle’s BMW Z4 in 4th position and was gaining at some rate and Lee was clearly within striking distance as they began lapping the slower GT4 class traffic.
But, Liam made a pass on two GT4 cars into the Melbourne Hairpin and left his braking point a touch too late and although safely passing the slower traffic, he found himself heading straight towards the rear of Mowle’s BMW and despite doing everything he could to take avoiding action, ended up hitting him at speed, taking them both wide.
Thankfully Lee was able to continue without losing a position, but it was a different story for the Motorbase Aston Martin as Liam limped the car back to the pits with a severely damaged front end – it was game over for us.
It was absolutely gutting to end the year like this, but for Liam and I to have had a shot at winning the title, it was going to require something special.
I have to hand it to him for his commitment, speed and race craft over the initial laps and I truly believe that he was on course for his best drive of 2015.
Motorsport is cruel and today wasn’t our day but we have to look at the positives from the whole season and learn what we can.
It’s been an brilliant experience working with Liam and the Motorbase Performance team and I must thank all of them for their support and dedication throughout.
A big thank you must also go out to all my sponsors for their continued and loyal support!
As my domestic racing season comes to a close I still have some opportunities on the international stage ahead of me and I will be announcing some very exciting news in the coming days.