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Tough weekend on home turf for Motorbase Performance |
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Tuesday, 21 August 2007 |
Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, Brands Hatch
‘Troubled’ is something of an understatement when it comes to describing Motorbase Performance’s weekend at Brands Hatch. Three heavy crashes punctuated another bruising meeting for Matt Allison and Tom Ferrier as the team entertained a bumper home crowd
Two heavily damaged SEAT Toledos made the short journey back to the team’s Wrotham base on Sunday evening after both drivers endured a trying weekend. The short Brands Hatch Indy circuit is renowned for its close racing, but throw 24 touring cars and some inclement weather into the mix and it becomes spectacular.
It all went wrong for Matt Allison in qualifying when the Norwich
driver ended up in the gravel trap at the bottom of Paddock Hill Bend
after a high-speed collision with John George’s Honda Integra.
"I was following Mat Jackson and John let him through on the pits
straight. I thought he’d gone out wide at Paddock to let me through on
the inside. I went for the gap, but he turned across me on the line and
we hit."
Despite Allison’s qualifying mishap, he started Sunday’s first race
from 14th on the grid. He managed to successfully negotiate an
opening-lap melee in the rain which wiped out half the field, going on
to finish in ninth position.
Tom Ferrier’s race weekend was over almost before it had begun. After
qualifying 13th, he was not quite so lucky on the opening lap of the
first race. Eleven cars were involved in a huge pile-up that started
when Mat Jackson lost control of his BMW in the first corner. Ferrier’s
SEAT was left with heavy front-end damage, which put him out of action
for the remainder of the weekend.
Ninth on the grid for race two, Allison had hopes of a strong
performance. However there was yet more misfortune to come. Restarting
after a safety car period on a still-damp track, a spin put Allison
into the tyre barrier and out of the race.
It was another heavy impact for the Toledo and it would have been easy
to head for home at this point, but the Motorbase Performance crew
worked their magic with a sledgehammer to straighten out the battered
chassis. Amazingly the car made it to the grid for the final race of
the day.
Matt Allison commented, “It’s been another mixed bag; another chapter
in our touring car adventure. We just need to have a good race two,
have our name pulled out of the bag somewhere up the front for the
reverse grid and I think that we’re much closer to running
competitively at the front.
"I went from ninth to sixth at the start of race two but during the
safety car period the temperature of my front tyres dropped and I
understeered slightly wide at paddock at the restart, dropping a rear
tyre onto the painted kerb, which sent me into a violent spin. I was a
passenger from there really. It's a real shame as it’s the first time
this year I have made a mistake and thrown the car off by myself. They
were very tricky conditions though! Once again, Motorbase have proved
themselves to be absolutely magic at fixing the cars. It’s that ‘never
say die’ attitude."
Motorbase Performance Team Principal David Bartrum said, "Our luck just
doesn’t change. Matt had a big accident in qualifying and the boys were
up all night fixing the car from that one. Then Tom got caught up in
the chaos in the first race and that was the end of his weekend. Matt’s
car was wrecked again in race two but we managed to get it out again
for the third race. You just can’t plan for damage like this.
"The extent of the damage is such that we won’t be going to Knockhill
for the next rounds. Both cars need a lot of work, so we will
completely rebuild them in time for the final meeting of the season and
hope that we can go out on a high."
The Motorbase Performance team’s next outing in the 2007 Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship will be at the season finale at
Thruxton, Hampshire on 13th/14th October.
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