The first race weekend of the season has finally arrived and what fantastic weather we had over the bank holiday weekend. The car has had its usual checks and a few alterations made to the Autoxross BMW for the first race weekend of the season.
The whole weekend was full of the usual highs and lows of competitive racing within the Super Silhouette Championship.
The lows started for the Autoxross Team as Simon Smith drove from the pits to the collection area and picked up a puncture just before the essential qualifying session. With help from the Autoxross team and fellow competitors the wheel was change within seconds of being called onto track for the qualifying session. A big thanks and Thumbs up all round to the people that helped. Qualifying went very well and Simon achieved a very respectable 12th place on the grid out of 21 cars. This was the first time Simon had been in the car since the last race of the season which was November last year at Brands Hatch. Well done Simon.
The first race on Saturday was full of thrills for Simon as from the rolling start he gained three places within the first three corners. Unfortunately at the end of coopers straight and entering into clearways he was punted off the circuit by one of his fellow competitors and ended up facing the wrong way on the grass. When he finally got back onto the circuit he was nearly a lap down to the front runners but faught back from last place to finally catching the back runners. With Simon’s determination and driving skills he moved up the order lap after lap until he started having clutch issues and finally lost third gear. Simon managed to nurse the car to finish in a respectable 12th place. Simon was gutted that he had clutch issues towards the end of the race as he said the car was performing very well and he thought he could have gained at least another two places.
It was an early start for the Autoxross team on Monday before race two as the cluch had to be replaced and the gear box put back in the car. Race two Simon started 14th on the grid and immediately started taking the Autoxross BMW up the order. Unfortunately going into druids on lap two the same competitor that took Simon off the circuit in the first race locked up and pushed Simon wide into another car, thus causing them both to go wide and let other cars through. Yet again Simon was on the back foot but slowly started gaining places after getting back into the groove until he started having clutch issues again. He finally lost third gear with four laps to go. Simon nursed the struggling Autoxross BMW to finish the race in 10th place in the final race of the day in the Super Silhouette Racing Championship. Simon stated that he was glad the weekend was over due to all the issues and bad luck that took place over the weekend, but wanted to thank the following people that were there to help and support him. Jeffrey Roeffen, Peter Driesen, Paul @Team Loram and all of the Autoxross team.