Friday 22 April 2016
The wet and windy weather brought a lot of challenges to Westbourne Motorsport during their test day. With many drivers experiencing Pembrey Race Circuit for the first time, there was a combination of ups and downs throughout the day.
Sarah Franklin summarised her experience of testing at Pembrey. She explained ‘having never been to Pembrey before, Friday’s test was always going to be a case of trying to get to grips with the circuit as quickly as possible. That aided by an early morning track walk with my driver coach, Ed. By the end of the first session, I was a lot happier that I knew the track and knew what was needed to be quick. We built on this throughout the morning, despite the rain starting to fall heavier as the day progressed. We finished the morning sessions with a good understanding of the track and a decent time in the bag. The afternoon sessions were a little more challenging with it becoming wetter every minute but we managed to still get some good times together and left us in a good position for qualifying tomorrow. Come rain or shine!’
Ben Colburn faced the biggest challenges during the test day. Ben stated that ‘Friday wasn’t such a good day for myself as I only managed to get one proper session before having a big shunt in the wall which can be said did knock my confidence down a bit but I wasn’t going to let that phase me for the weekend’.
Saturday 23rd April
Westbourne Motorsport celebrated St Georges Day in beautiful sunshine; a welcomed change following the wet and windy weather during the test day.
The day was a great success for our drivers with James Dorlin taking 1st place in the Michelin Clio Cup, Sam Randon in 2nd place and Sarah Franklin achieving fastest lap.
Sarah secured pole in races 1 and 2 in qualifying. She described her experiences of the race day as ‘it started badly when we were gridded up incorrectly by the marshals. Anyway, I still got a great start and maintained the lead only to be hit wide on the second corner, which then left a gap for another driver to sneak through. So, I just stuck with them in third place hoping to get an opportunity to pass or hoping they’d make a mistake if pushed hard enough. Sure enough, a mistake from another driver allowed me to complete the fastest lap’.
Sam Randon summarised his day. “Race one was off to a good start with James and I battling for first place. Unfortunately, it went wrong on lap 5 where I out braked my-self onto the back straight. I thought my race was over as I was demoted to 6th place. However, I made a quick recovery with some fast laps and finished the race in 3rd place”.
There was also plenty of activity in the Junior Saloon Car championship. Adam Batty narrowly missed being in the top 10 in qualifying and made significant progress in the first race; going from 11th place to 8th place! Sadly, Adam had to retire from Race 1 with a damaged driveshaft.
Charlie Kennedy , making a guest appearance for Westbourne finished the race in second place following a good start and an excellent drive from 7th on the grid.
Matteo Zanetti had an eventful day; finishing 1st place in free practice, and 3rd place in qualifying which set him up for a good race. Unfortunately, Zanetti had some mechanical issues with his gearbox during the first race but still managed to finish in fourth place.
A day with a combination of results for our drivers but the mechanics worked hard to make improvements to the cars in preparation for more races on Sunday.
Our final day at Pembrey was very successful with Sam Randon taking first place for the Clio cup after another close battle with James Dorlin.. Sam shared his experiences; ‘race two, I got a great start going up to the first corner being side by side with James Dorlin. I was eventually able to overtake until I was hit on the next corner. Fortunately I was able to pull back round from 90 degrees. I then put the pressure on Brett Lidsey as I know I could have this race in the bag if I got passed him. He made it easy for me when he lost control of the rear of the car round turn 3 allowing me to take the lead on turn 4. I was absolutely elated with my first wini n the series; definitely one to remember with the 11 second lead I was able to build’.
James Dorlin also had success in the race with a podium position. James gave an insight into the season ahead;
‘this year is going to be all about maximising the amount of points I can get at each meeting and I think we did this well at Pembrey. The next step is concentrating on making Rockingham a high point scoring weekend with hopefully some more victories’.
Ben Colburn battled with Tyler Lidsey during the race which saw him finish in 6th place. Ben commented on the battle as ‘great fun and boosted his confidence for the next race’.
Sarah Franklin fought her way through the race with two other drivers battling for first place. Sarah finished in second place with only 1.1 seconds behind the lead.
The JSCC drivers was also eventful with Zanetti taking second place after a good start , Charlie Kennedy took 4th place and Adam Batty made significant improvements to track times throughout the day; starting in 12th and finishing in 9th.
Overall the weekend was very exciting for Westbourne Motorsport and we are looking forward to our next race weekend at Snetterton with the JSCC and Rockinham for the Michelin Clio cup.
Current Michelin Clio Race standings
1st James Dorlin 150 points
3rd Sam Randon 125 points
6th Ben Colburn 78 points
Current Michelin Road standings
1st Sarah Franklin 151 points
Current JSCC standings
2nd Matteo Zanetti 88 points
8th Adam Batty 52 points
11th Finlay Robinson 38 points
NEXT ROUND – Junior Saloon Cars (only) – Snetterton Saturday 7th May