Strood based MBM Motorsport were back on the podium at the latest round of the British Championship at Thruxton at the weekend. Jamie Caroline put in a brilliant performance to take second place in race two during a scorching weekend’s racing high on skill and drama.

But the Kent-based team were disappointed that the efforts of drivers Harry Hayek and Caroline were not rewarded further.

Australian Hayek, 18, could have finished close to a podium himself and Warlingham racer Caroline, 17, was a good bet for his first win, had luck gone their way.

However, team manager James Mundy remained happy with the progress of his young drivers in the recently rebranded competition.

He said: “There were plenty of highs and lows this weekend, but the boys drove well. We were really pleased with Jamie’s performance for the podium and the pace was good.

“But Harry was very unlucky with a collision when he was in fifth and the car didn’t seem as fast in the final racer after this.

“Jamie could have been on for a win in the third race with new tyres, but had a problem in the assembly area and didn’t make it onto the grid at the beginning.

“It was a disappointing end to the weekend after we had looked so good, but there’s definitely plenty to be positive about.”

With the weekend going straight into qualifying, the team needed to hit the ground running.

With Thruxton known for tyres being at their best for the first two or three laps, Jamie got the best out of his car early on, finishing in 9^th – while Harry took a little longer to warm up, finishing 14^th. With times extremely close, the team were pleased and knew they could still be competitive.

Jamie went from ninth to fourth within the first lap of the first race, but after hitting a chicane, the car took off leaving him with brake problems.

After five laps he had no rear brakes at all, but remarkably kept going to finish in tenth for a point. He began race two in tenth but came through brilliantly to find himself in fourth by the second lap again.

He avoided a crash ahead of him to get into second and despite two safety cars later leaving him battling with the driver behind, he held on well to take his second podium of the Championship.

With two good tyres saved for the third race and a start position of eighth, the team were hoping for another podium and perhaps a win.

But another driver in front broke suddenly in the assembly area, smashing his wing. He started from the pit lane but was forced to retire early.

Meanwhile, Harry managed to get up a few places on the first lap of race one, but didn’t quite have the pace to move up the grid, finishing 11^th.

He drove well in race two, starting in 11^th and getting up to 5^th. Unfortunately he got caught up in an accident after one of the restarts and ended up with a DNF.

Harry finished 12^th in the final race, finding the pace hard to come by again, with the team now hoping to determine whether this was from the earlier crash.

James added: “Jamie was very unlucky and hardly made a mistake all weekend. On another weekend he would have been right up there in every race and hopefully he can do that at Oulton Park next time out.

“Harry was really good as well, but again, the luck wasn’t there and we now need to take a look at the car and see what the problem was in the last race.

“It was a brilliant weekend’s racing again. The third race was as good as anything I’d seen in a long time and a great advert for the Championship.”

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk