Tom Barley was on track in the VW Cup at the weekend at Brands Hatch and it was another solid outing for the young racer.
There was the added pressure that it was his team Gravesend based Team HARD’s home race, but that didn’t faze Tom or his teammates.
We caught up with Tom after the racing was over and the dust had settled on another entertaining weekend of wheel to wheel action, to get his thoughts on the race weekend.
He said: “Qualifying was unbelievably competitive. I was around half a second off the pole position time, and was held up on my fastest lap. I feel I could have secured pole position but as it worked out, being only slightly off the pace meant I started P11.
“Race one started very well, but the contact was extremely frustrating. An over ambitious move from a competitor put me into the gravel at Druids but thankfully I kept it going and carried on to finish the race.”
Tom picked up a time penalty for exceeding the track limits which cost him his top ten finish but he admits it was a shame, and he was full of his praise for the work they did getting his car ready for race two.
He added: “I cannot really complain about the time penalty. It was a great shame but the close racing I was involved with meant I missed the warnings on the start finish line, so a time penalty was their only option. I was pushing extremely hard and using perhaps more of the track than they would have liked.
“The team were absolutely fantastic this weekend, as always. We’ve spent some good track time developing not only my technique but the cars handling characteristic which has had a big impact on my 1 lap pace. As I mentioned before, had I of not been held up in qualifying I believe pole position was there for the taking.”
With P13 his starting position in the second race of the weekend, Tom was looking to finish well to make up for the disappointment of missing out in race one.
He said: “I wanted to end the weekend on a high. I had a lot of family, friends and loyal team members there supporting me, and I needed some points. A 10th place race two finish secured that, and has moved me up to 8th in the championship.”
There is now a massive gap until the final round of the season, and Tom revealed that he won’t be resting on his laurels in anyway.
“I’ll be testing before Donington, and also working on a very exciting plan with Team HARD which I hope we will be able to reveal shortly.
“I have been invited to race at the prestigious Spa six hours endurance in September, which I am hoping to do as long as it doesn’t clash with other plans.”
You can watch an on-board flying lap with Tom here: