September 20, 2016

 

Kernow Sports' Mark Wicks gives us his perspective on his team's performance in an action packed Round 14 of the Superleague season, taking place at the famous Suzuka circuit in Japan

Suzuka has always been a fan-favourite. Its roller-coaster track a driver's delight. And so it should have been delight for the team this week, but again massive bad luck struck instead. Reducing what should have been a terrific set of results into a double DNF.

Team Manager Mark Wicks: "Our car was well suited here and lots of preparation had gone into the setup. Our drivers were both on form too and looking strong. We had high hopes but all came to nothing.

In Qualifying, Dan had a back-of-grid penalty but still tried to make a lap in the wet conditions. However, a spin saw him get collected by a Vod:Bul and the crash prevented any further attempt to set a time. Bart though had gone out early enough to set a cracking time that would give him P2 on the grid, his best ever Superleague qualifying result. The wet conditions suiting him, the team was very optimistic.

But his chances of competing for a podium came crashing down as soon as the warm-up lap started. A random disconnection from the server, which then wouldn't let him re-join to start from the pit-lane, put him out before the lights had even turned green. Massive disappointment for him and his efforts. Faces in the pit garage turned glum. There was no consolation either that on Lap 29 a red flag was thrown following a mass-disconnect.

We still had Dan ready to take the start though from further down the grid in 19th. He was looking fast and as the wet race started he kept it clean and steady in the opening laps before increasing his pace. Over the next few laps he climbed his way up towards a top-10 position, when perhaps trying too hard, he lost control over the rise at Dunlop corner and snapped off into the barriers and retirement.

It was a race where a good chance of points went begging again. We lost out to our close rivals, but there are still 4 races to go. The car is good, the drivers are fast. We can get back to scoring big points after quite a few DNFs in recent races. We can still challenge."

#12 De Vos (DNF)
#83 Brewer (DNF)

Points: 135
Position: 6th