Jack Sales enjoyed an excellent debut weekend in the opening weekend of the Caterham R300 series at Brands Hatch.

With a podium and a fourth place for the first time out in the quickest Caterham car and a lap record to boot it shows the talent that he has.

Kent Sports News caught up with Jack after the opening weekend to get his thoughts on what it was like being back behind the wheel after a prolonged absence from the track.

He said: “It was great – really fantastic to get back into racing after an eight month break! I was certainly nervous before the first race, especially given the fact I’m now racing a car which is much faster than I have ever driven before, round the Brands GP circuit for the first time and against competition I’ve never raced against before – but it all went well thankfully!”

The decision to cut short last season certainly proved to be a good decision after his showing in the opening weekend.

He added: “That decision was purely cost driven as I had such a nightmare last year with incidents, mechanicals etc.; I was out of championship contention, so took the decision to cut the season short to save up for this year, which has certainly eased the financial burden.

“It was an absolute dream start to get a third place finish on my R300 debut (with fastest lap and lap record to boot) and one that took me by surprise, as I was looking at trying to get in the top ten coming into the weekend.”

The opening weekend of the season on the Brands Hatch GP circuit was certainly action packed, and Jack was lucky that he didn’t get caught up in any incidents.

“It was a bit of a freak weekend for the start line incidents with both races being affected, so I was certainly glad to qualify well (fourth) and stay out of trouble. Generally speaking I think the starts should be fine for the rest of the year, but obviously it will be important to qualify well, but not crucial, as Caterham races are long enough to come through from a bad grid position or bad start!

“Race two was a cracker of a race; I was strong early on and recovered from fourth to lead in a couple of laps only to drop back down to fourth soon after. I did get fastest lap again in that race on lap three, but had set my tyre pressures too high for the track temperature (the track was ten degrees warmer for race two on Sunday than it was during race one on Saturday) and started to struggle from about 1/3 race distance, and I’ll openly admit that I was just clinging on to the top three for the second half of the race!

The season is definitely going to be entertaining and it could also be rewarding for Jack if he shows the form from Brands Hatch at Anglesey in May and beyond.

He said: “I am absolutely over the moon with the weekend. The weekend exceeded even my wildest expectations and to come out of the weekend joint second in the championship (with a new lap record round Brands GP which I hadn’t driven before the weekend) after my first weekend in R300, whilst running as an independent against predominantly team supported drivers is just fantastic – I have to thank DPR Motorsport for building such a great car and my Dad doing a perfect job on the spanners (as usual) at the weekend.

“I can’t wait for Anglesey now! It’s a track that I’ve never visited and I actually don’t know the layout (but I’m sure Youtube will come to my aid with its supply of on-board videos), but one that I’m really excited to visit as I’ve heard great things about the track and facilities.”

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