Jack Sales was back on track a few weeks ago as the Caterham Roadsport season got underway at Snetterton.

Before the season got underway Jack spent some time on track testing his car ahead of the 2014 season.

Speaking to Kent Sports News, he said: “I didn’t do a huge amount racing wise however, due to budgetary constraints and the poor weather we had. Prior to the start of the season I managed to do a track day at Brands Hatch and the Caterham test day at Donington, both of which went well and, most importantly, were good fun!

Snetterton was the opening round of the season and as always in the Caterham series the racing was competitive and Sales was right in the thick of it.

Bringing us up to date with the racing, he added: “Although it was great fun, it didn’t go at all well unfortunately! With it being the combination of Caterhams and Snetterton, the effect of a slipstream is huge.

“With this in mind, I thought it best to try and get a tow in qualifying and I ended up scrapping a couple of half-decent clear laps in order to get that tow. I had lined a lap up perfectly, starting about 10 metres behind one of the fast guys with the aim of dragging up to, and hopefully passing him on the back straight, but the lap was ruined by a yellow flag!

“As a result of me over-thinking things, I qualified down in 11th! I certainly had some work to do in race 1, that’s for sure! Race 1 started well, I made a good start & had a clean first lap and made it up to around 8th. I then continued to pick cars off and managed to grab the lead at about half race distance. Being Caterham racing though, it’s almost impossible to break away so I spent the next couple of laps yo-yoing from first to third.

“It then went a bit pear shaped; we went three a breast into the left hander at the end of the back straight (it had worked out fine on previous laps) but we all braked as late as we could and this meant the guy on the inside just started to slide a couple of yards wide, he touched wheels with the guy in the middle which sent him into me on the outside. We touched wheels and I went airbourne and spun round in the air.

“Annoyingly, I didn’t put my foot on the clutch in the air, so stalled the engine upon landing. I managed to get restarted and finished eighth. After the race we found that I had bent the front of the chassis and bent the left rear stub axle, so I had to do race 2 with a horrendous handling car!

“The race itself was mainly dry, but it constantly spat with rain, which certainly made things tricky. I started eighth but really struggled with my pace. The car understeered round right-handers which was just about acceptable, but with the bent stub-axle and an open differential, the inside rear wheel spun up coming out of every single left-hander, so I was a sitting duck round most if the in-field and the final corner!

“Thankfully the rain helped me keep in touch with the second group and I ran fourth and fifth for a reasonable chunk of the race, but I was side by side with someone through the last corner & I got out dragged to the line by a few cars and ended up 8th again, which wasn’t too bad given the circumstances!”

With the crash came the inevitable damage to the car and with the next round at Donington Park this weekend, will Jack be on the grid and will the car be fixed.

“Yes it’s with Caterham now, it needed a new front section of chassis, so it’s having that put on now along with getting everything else fixed. It’s going to be ready literally the day before Donington this weekend!

“If I can get a podium or two this weekend that would be perfect! As long as the car is OK, I think I can be in the ballpark. I really enjoy Donington, but I don’t seem to go as well there as, say, Brands or Rockingham; even if I get a couple of top five finishes I’ll be happy enough, but of course the target is the podium!

“With regards to the rest of the season, my target is still to try to win races and challenge for the championship! I’ve just made the second target a little more difficult for myself with the difficult first round, but that’s just how it goes sometimes; the season is long thankfully.”