Friday night I got there 2 hours later than planned as there were traffic accidents on the M4, M5 and M42. When Richard Novell arrived we begun to start setting up the pickup truck from circuit running to oval running. It took a while but we got there in the end. New driver in the Pickup Truck series this weekend is #46 Miguel Gomes.Saturday Qualifying and Sarah Carnell were to be our spotter. Richard completed 10 laps before having fuel pressure problems. He was 13th fastest with a 41.59 second lap. With the first race on Saturday this meeting, work began on fixing the fuel pressure problems and fine-tuning the oval setup.
Saturday Race 1 and Kelly-Jayne Wells were to be our spotter. Richard Novell was starting from 3rd place. During the race, Chris Dawkins (#10) had a big crash on lap 2 and unfortunately that forced him to retire from the weekend. Richard was doing well and was keeping up with the pace until lap 11 where he lost places to the fast trio of Pete Wilkinson (#9), Nic Grindrod (#22) and Gavin Seager (#54) and then Richard began to slowly lose places every few laps. He finished the race in 12th place. After the race Richard said the truck was pushing after the corners and this was evident as the right side tyres left their mark on the Rockingham wall between Turn 2 and 3. Had to quickly tune the setup of the truck ready for Race 2 on Sunday as the Pickup Truck Party was about to invade our garages. After completing the setup with the help from Michael Smith’s (#93) team (and their garage space) we joined the rest of the paddock at the party in our original garage space.
Sunday Race 2 and Jamie Watts were to be our spotter. Jamie is our original spotter but was too busy on Saturday. Richard started 3rd again as some of the other drivers had problems in between races. A poor start left Richard 13th after lap 1 and was battling with Julian Arnold (#3) and Antony Hawkins (#98) for most of the race. Dave Briggs (#2) and Pete Stevens (#4) joined in the fight later on. Up front, Michael Smith (#93) was leading from lap 23 with Pete Wilkinson (#9) behind him. On lap 27 they touched and lost places giving the lead to Gavin Seager (#54). Michael Smith (#93) would continue the rest of the race and finish without the whole rear panel and the spoiler as it was missing from his truck. Richard would finish the race 9th place and thus finishing the Rockingham Championship in 9th place ahead of Michael Smith (#93). After the race Richard had minor front bumper and left wing damage to his truck.
A big thank you to the following people/teams for their assistance:-
Sarah Carnell
Kelly-Jayne Wells
#3 Julian Arnold
#54 Gavin Seager
#93 Michael Smith
#98 Antony Hawkins
A good weekend in the end for the RMN Motorsport team. Currently only 100 points away from 10th position in the Overall Championship with 2 race meetings left. Next race is Pembrey in Wales where it is my local track. See you all there in the weekend beginning 10th October 2008.
Yung
Mechanic.
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