Castle Combe MR2 Race Series and Nippon Challenge

Nathan Harrison would be sharing the car this weekend with Tom Alexander. Nathan would race the MR2 as usual in the MR2 Race Series and Tom would race the same car in the Nippon Challenge, GT150 class.

Tom’s first drive in the MR2 was in qualifying, he managed 9 laps during the 15 minute session, his fastest was lap 6 timed at 1.29.6. This placed him in 27^th position on the grid which was made up of 36 cars.

As the 2 opening rounds of the 2013 MR2 Race Series had sustained tyre issues a new tyre had become eligible which was the Yokohama 048. Most of the grid had now switched to this new tyre but for many this was the first time trying them out.

During qualifying with my lap timer working and knowing that the previous lap record was a 1.25.2, on seeing a 1.23.8 flash up on lap 4 I decided to end my session and check tyre pressures. Once the timing sheets had come out it was clear that my lap timer wasn’t working correctly after all. I qualified 5^th with a time of 1.26.0.

Nippon Challenge Race 1

After a good start and with slight contact on the first corner Tom settled in well, he maintained good lap times and managed to Finnish 6^th in class, 21^st overall.

Mr2 Race Series Race 1

Starting from the 3^rd row of the grid on the inside and with a good start I managed to jump into 3^rd position after exiting the first corner, this wasn’t to last as on the same corner the following lap I had to concede the position which dropped me to 4^th. By lap 3 the top 5 cars had pulled a gap to the cars behind, with the race leader having engine problems this bunched us up as we overtook him, this promoted me back to 3^rd. After catching and overtaking the second place man I was only able to keep 2^nd position for the next 3 laps before we caught a back marker. Having to overtake him on the inside compromised my exit speed and I fell back into 3^rd position. Unfortunately this was the last lap of the race but maintaining this position gave me P3 when I took the chequered flag.

Nippon Challenge Race 2

After a good race 1 Tom was eager to better his earlier performance, His lap times were quicker than in race 1 which was good but contact on the last corner by another MR2 forced a spin, waiting for the cars to pass before rejoining the circuit moved Tom further down the order. Once back on track he set about catching and overtaking a couple of cars finishing a respectable 24^th.

Mr2 Race Series Race 2

Due to a problem with the steering on the green flag lap the car was retired without starting the race.