Andy Mollison brings us up to date with his exploits this season so far in the Ford Fiesta Championship.

 

Earlier in the year I wrote a blog post on this site to introduce my plans for the year, to compete in the Ford Fiesta Championship in the super competitive Fiesta ST class.

Throughout the year I’ve remained competitive regardless of the circuit, always running with the front pack, but never having quite managed to push through or have the luck to get the position my pace has deserved.

At Anglesey a couple of months back, we had a big accident with the car and have been on the back foot ever since – in July we visited Donington Park, the first race since a major car rebuild, and while the car was off the pace, I still managed to pick up a couple of top ten finishes.

Saturday – Practice & Qualifying

Last weekend at Silverstone, on the National Circuit, the car was back to full pace thanks to the great work by everyone at Daniels Motorsport, so we could finally push on again!

The National Circuit is a really easy track to learn, and so I didn’t go for Friday testing, instead getting stuck in straight away on Saturday morning – in theory it’s a slight disadvantage, but finishing 3^rd on the time sheet out of 24 cars in the first practice session showed it didn’t make much difference.

Thankfully I could convert that pace later in the day to a 4^th place grid slot for Race 1, and 3^rd for Race 2.

Sunday – Race 1

On Sunday, ex Hurricane Bertha came in full force and brought the wind and the rain – so all change from the blue skies and warm temperatures of the day before.

Race 1 brought terrible visibility with the huge amount of spray being thrown off the back of other cars. So for me the priority was to get the car home without damage, and I managed to do that in a very credible 6^th place, which was to date the best result of the year – not bad!

Sunday – Race 2

Race two however was where the fortune for the year seemed to change.

While the circuit continued to dry out, a late rain shower meant some cars were on the grid on full slicks, others on full wets. Others like myself, had gone for a combination of slicks on the front, and wet tyres on the rear.

This would pay off big time in the opening laps as the track was still very damp from the late burst of rain. I quickly could get myself onto the tail of the two leaders, and for lap after lap could continue to chase, all the time pulling away from the fourth-placed car.

Sadly for me my challenge for the race win was to be short lived. As the track started to dry out, so my wet tyres on the rear of the car began to overheat.

From there it was a case of pacing myself, trying to keep everything in check and managing the gap back to the next car.

In the end, I crossed the line to take 3^rd place and my first podium of the year – something which I’m quite proud to have achieved in my first year in the Fiesta ST class.

The next race is at Rockingham, where I made my car racing debut last year – and is on September 20^th & 21^st. Fingers crossed we can push on and be as competitive in just over a month’s time!

As always, a big thank you to my sponsors; Sunniva Carpeting, Hoopers Floorcoverings, TME Solutions, Power Maxed, and Chrome Curve – without your help this wouldn’t be possible!

Photo Credits to Laura Manning / Steve Cross.