Monoposto Rd 8 & 9 - Silverstone GP - 30/31st July

The team endured a muted weekend at Silverstone last weekend, where all 3 drivers were left in search of pace around the 3.66-mile Grand Prix layout. Limited track time on Friday meant the team were still tweaking set up heading into qualifying but it was clear the super-fast Northamptonshire circuit was not suiting their 1000’s. To add to the challenge, a portion of qualifying was held under safety car conditions, to retrieve an abandoned car on the Hanger straight. 17-year-old Karl O’Brien spearheaded the team challenge, logging a time good enough for 6th in class, with David Heavey and Morgan McCourt rounding out the top 10.

Both Monoposto grids were combined for the Silverstone event, which meant a staggering 43 car grid and in turn, rolling starts mandated in the interests of safety. O’Brien and Heavey made good progress once the green flag was shown and further benefitted from a chaotic first corner before the safety car was deployed for 2 laps.

Once the safety car peeled off, all 3 1000’s did their best to battle forward but were not able to extract more pace and slipped down the order over the remainder of the race. At the end of the 20-minute event, Karl crossed the line 7th, with Morgan and Dave having reversed their qualifying order on the last lap and coming home 9th and 10th respectively.

Race 2 had a similar start for all 3, benefitting from a bit of first corner ping pong to gain some spots before the safety car was deployed for debris on lap 2. Karl had scampered up the road from Dave and was looking good for a top 6 finish when a fuel line ruptured on lap 6, causing a fire and resulting in Karl having to hastily abandon ship in the Luffield gravel trap.

With his car in a vulnerable position, the red flag was shown, and the race was declared. Heavey would inherit 7th, while Morgan sealed another top 10 result.

All in all, not the team’s strongest weekend but hopefully this is somewhat circuit dependent and either way they will return to the drawing board, as they look to bounce back at Oulton Park on August 27th, where a jam packed schedule will see qualifying and 2 races take place on the Saturday.

Race 1 Start

Race 2 Start