Weekend Report - Silverstone International 16/17th March

Last weekend, we competed in the first race weekend of the year at Silverstone International with our BRSCC Fiesta Junior drivers.

A bittersweet weekend for Jenson O’Neill-Going, after a good day testing on Friday, he went into qualifying Saturday morning feeling very confident and stuck it on pole. This gave him a good head start for the weekend as he was to start at the front of the row for both races. It was a lights-to-flag victory in both race 1 and 2 for Jenson after some really good defending to hold onto his front spot. Unfortunately, post-scrutineering found a non-compliance. His car was found to have a standard ECU map instead of the upgraded championship performance map. The map was changed for our scholarship program, and it went over our heads as the team had a lot going on last week. We understand rules are rules and hold our hands up. Ultimately, Jenson having this map definitely wouldn't have had a positive effect on his performance; if anything, it would have affected it. However, this doesn't take away from Jenson's driving abilities, and we're all so proud of him for holding his head high and for achieving what he did. Jenson also came away with the driver of the weekend award by the BRSCC. We’re thankful it's not a championship round, and we will be back stronger.

Our scholarship winner, Callie Clifford, also had a good weekend, having received her first trophy in just her first-ever race weekend! Callie has had just 5 weeks to prepare for the season, so she is still getting to grips with the car. Despite this, she had a good Friday test and was looking forward to getting stuck in during the races. She qualified 8th, which meant she was starting on the 4th row for her first-ever race. She pitted at the end of lap one, which resulted in her being nearly a lap down for the rest of the race, so she finished in P15. Race 2 was a much better race; she fought her way up to P9 from P15, unfortunately lost a couple of places, and finished P11 overall, 2nd in class.

Unfortunately, the weekend wasn't off to the best start when Hayden Gray suffered from engine failure during the Friday test, which resulted in him having to load up and go home. This was really disappointing due to all the hard work they've done during the offseason, but we hope they can get it repaired and ready for Brands Hatch.

Thank you to all of the team for always working so hard, and the next round will be down at Brands Hatch in 3 weeks' time.