What a Way to Finish

Arriving at Snetterton for the final time this season, the sky was clear but the track was most definitely wet. After two other series had been on circuit it was in a very damp by drying state - the tyres conundrum span round in Andy’s head. Settling on dry tyres at the front and wets on the rear for stability Andy set off for qualifying, setting a time that put him staring in 5th for Race 1 of the weekend - his highest starting position so far this season.

Andy started Race 1 with the Championship leader Lee Pearce behind him, at this point of the season Lee had everything to lose so Andy gracefully stood aside at turn 1 to allow him through - what a gentleman! Unfortunately Andy got very sideways at Williams resulting in Langley and Cornell passing him. Andy later challenged Cornell around Coram but backed out of it to avoid an incident in the last turn.

With Andy now in 8th position a frustrating missed gear at Agostini resulted in season long battling partner Adrian Norman through. A brave move at Riches, the fastest corner on the circuit, saw Andy Regain 8th on the last lap.

As the cars left the assembly area on Sunday for the final race of the season there was a threat of rain… everyone was on dry tyres. It stayed dry for the start however. Andy got his best start all season, however, got boxed in by the cars ahead and to the side of him thwarting his progress through the grid. An incident in front at turn 2 saw Archie O’Brian try to regain the space Andy was occupying and unfortunately had nowhere else to go with Michael Paul on his right. The result was side to side contact with both parties continuing with bent mirrors.

After this Andy settled in to 8th position and chased Michael Paul down hard until the rain came and everything went sideways… EVERYWHERE! Fortunately for Andy his nearest rival Adrian Norman was also hampered by the changing conditions and as the chequered flag was shown early Andy took 8th place putting him in 7th for the season overall.

A solid result and a good basis to work on for next season,

You can catch up on the action in the below highlights video. please like subscribe and comment if you’d like to see anything particular from the season.

Low Carbon Racing

AR Motorsport are highly conscious of the fact that motor racing produces carbon emissions, which, if it wasn’t for the will of the competitors, would not otherwise be emitted. This is coupled with an acute awareness, due to Andy’s day job as an M&E Services Engineer, of the importance of carbon emissions being addressed and reduced as far as possible.

For this reason, AR Motorsport have and will continue to invest in carbon offsetting projects to redress the balance of the CO2 directly emitted by our activities. This year the initiative has planted 5 trees in projects involving local schools in the Northwest of England to offset the equivalent CO2 of all of the race fuel and transport fuel consumed during the season by AR Motorsport.

Further measures include ensuring that as many replacement parts are reused from existing cars rather than made new and the used tyres are disposed of via environmentally friendly routes and where possible re-processed into activated carbon and alternative fuels.

Please Gamble Responsibly

The penultimate round of the 2019 Mini Challenge Cooper Championship saw Andy and the Flying Panda visiting a rather wet Donington Park.

The National Circuit was the configuration to be used for the three races over the last Saturday and Sunday of September. For those unfamiliar, the circuit is located at the end of the East Midlands runway and gets rather slippery when wet due to the ‘Av-gas’ residue dropping from the departing aeroplanes.

Testing on the Friday saw changeable conditions with the rain so heavy at one point that the lights at the end of the pit lane were not visible.

Starting in 10th for a dry Race 1 after a disappointing qualifying, Andy was working hard to gain on the battle between Manning and Norman in front. This battle proved fruitful as Andy took advantage of them as they slowed each other down in a daredevil manoeuvre passing between them. Unfortunately they both returned the favour on the final corner to put Andy back in 10th following a DNF for Michael Paul.

Two green flag laps were the starting orders for Race 2 due to a change of conditions to wet… or at least damp which led to a difficult tyre choice. Unfortunately the start was delayed due to a colleague hitting a barrier on cold slick tyres.

Andy sat on the grid remembering that he had seen rain approaching on the radar prior to getting in the car. The decision was made to change to wet tyres making Andy a pit lane starter - essentially at the back of the grid.

The gamble paid off as conditions worsened during the race which left those on dry setup as sitting ducks. Andy picked them off one by one until disaster struck after carrying too much speed and an early turn in to Redgate destroyed the chances of another podium finish. Seventh was therefore the end result.

A wet Race 3 got off to a disappointing start with lots of wheel spinning and an early gear change resulting in Andy falling from 7th to 11th before Turn 1. This remained the order of things until Michael Paul had a spin at Redgate and Adrian (now Andy’s regular battling partner) met an unfortunate DNF in the gravel at Coppice (not my fault this time!).

So another weekend of highs, lows, gambles that paid off and tough lessons - what’s in store for the finale at Snetterton on 19th and 20th October???

The highlights video from Donington can be found below. Like, subscribe and comment on YouTube to let me know what you’d like to see more of.