ON
TRACK WITH RICK PEARSON #43
By Rick Pearson
Hello once again! Well it's been an exciting few weeks in the European Clio Trophy and I don't know where to begin!
The first race of the season took place a few weeks ago at Magny Cours, and regular readers will have seen Rebecca's press release detailing the disappointment of the race. Suffice to say, I qualified well, started exceptionally well, running as high as 12th before eventually being "punted" off the track and winding up 20th and somewhat unhappy.
The next round just a couple of weeks later was at our very own Silverstone. Home advantage was somewhat ruined by the fact that testing on the Grand Prix circuit is exceptionally limited and despite hopes of a spectacular showing on home soil, I wound up qualifying a some what unimpressed 18th. The car was demonstrating some pretty horrible oversteer traits and nothing I changed seem to have any effect. For the race, the key was simply to finish well in an attempt to secure a place on the grid for Round 3 at Monaco, supporting the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Fortunately I know the vagaries of the majority of the circuit so I managed to have a good opening lap and was soon up to 15th.
Thinking of the tyre degradation I suffered later on at Magny Cours, I tried not to let the car slide around too much in the early laps and let a couple of delayed front runners back by, then having bided my time, I came on much stronger in the second half of the race. Crossing the line right on the back of the 14th/15th place battle in 16th.
Whilst I'd have loved to have been battling for a spot in the top 10, I tend to forget the class of the guys I'm racing against. Take for example, Fabrice Walfisch. Last season he was Gabrielle Tarquini's team-mate in the works Honda Accords in the ETCC and previously he ran in F3000 with a top team so you can assume he can a) drive! And b) knows his way around the circuits . This year, Fabrice is running in the Clio Trophy with one of the top teams, Lompech, so we know his car is right on the money, yet at Silverstone he qualified outside the top 10, just a few places in front of me. This gives a good indication of the real quality at the front of the Trophy grid and whilst I'd love to have the budget to come and show my true colours in the UK GT Championship, it is far more valuable (not to mention fun) to be running on some of the greatest tracks in Europe albeit in the middle of the field!
So our results at Silverstone meant both the Mark Fish team cars have qualified to run at the Monaco Support race! How excited is everyone here? Well I think you can guess!
Yesterday it was off to the glamour of Mallory Park in the Midlands to run a concentrated test and shakedown of the cars before they set-off for Monaco on Monday evening. Mallory for those who don't know it is not a complicated circuit, but it has a long sweeping corner, a fast set of esses and a hairpin which make it quite valuable as a test venue. Although in a Clio V6, I was lapping in just a couple of tenths over 50 seconds this means you can do a 10 lap run, make a ten minute change and then another 10 lap run in each 30 minute session, enabling me to give good feedback to the engineers and allowing each change to be clearly seen on the watch.
Importantly however, we made some good progress and the cars both went back in the truck unscathed despite the proximity of the Mallory barriers. (Another good reason to test there before Monaco!)
So now we're off to the Principality, I hope anyone who is down there pops along to say hello, our paddock is located in the underground car park at Portier this year (other end of the famous tunnel). So yes, the less glamorous side is that I will be living in the artificial light of an underground car park for the best part of a week!
Wish us luck, (and try not to be too jealous ;-) )