TCR UK Castle Combe August 2022
TCR UK Castle Combe August 2022
Another single day event this time at Castle Combe, what a great of racing.
Practice and Qualifying – Saturday 6th August 2022
The day started off ok with practice and then qualifying, the 30 minute qualifying session saw Chris once again put the Honda on pole.
This season we have seen a maturity from Chris along with some strong teamwork, the relationship between Ben and Chris is clear and has paid off many times this season.
A time of 1.06.946 was a great lap in practice but Chris went even quicker in Qualifying with a pole time of 1.06.331
Castle Combe – Race 1 (Round 10)
Watch the full race on the TCR UK Channel – https://youtu.be/913UH4MGEeo
As you can see from the image, we had a clutch issue in the first race and it was a minor miracle nobody ran into the back of Chris at the start.
Chris managed to get the car going and had to work his way through the field from the back. Any points scoring at this stage would have been an excellent result however, Chris was determined to pick up more than just an odd point with the championship at stake and he drove the car superbly well to end up in 5th position, what a drive from Chris.
Fastest lap for Chris was 1.07.259
Castle Combe – Race 2 (Round 11)
Watch the full race here on the TCR UK YouTube channel – https://youtu.be/bhfCBEwWtP8
Some frantic work from the team was required after the first race as the clutch needed to be replaced, this would obviously mean starting from the back of the grid in the next race but there was no other option.
A good points finish would see us top of the championship heading into Donington.
Chris had a lot of time and many places to make up, with 17 minutes left Chris had shot through the field and was in 12th place and the fastest car on the track.
A few laps later and Chris continued his smooth and fast pace as he closed up to theback of a four car group with Hart, Hawkins, Smith and Hutchison. It wasn’t long before Chris had cleared all of them including an excellent overtake on Hawkins and an even better one on Smith with just 5 minutes remaining.
Chris was now in 6th place on the track and pressing, Shepherd dropped off and Chris ended up finishing strongly in 5th, penalites were issued for track limits and jumping the start which meant Chris ended up with a 3rd place finish.
Chris’ fastest lap was 1.07.066 which was the fastest lap of the weekend.
Chris also picked up the driver of the day.
Summary
We leave Castle Combe leading the championship on dropped scores as several drivers endured penalties in both races at Castle Combe. A problematic clutch meant both races were effectively started from the back of the grid however, excellent drives saw some high points finishes to add to the maximum points picked up in qualifying.
We now look forward to Donington on the August bank holiday for the penultimate weekend of the series.
TCR UK Castle Combe August 2022 was first seen on Restart Racing