General
I was really looking forward to this meeting. In my opinion, the GP circuit at Brands is very underused. It's a great venue. Although the Indy circuit is also a favourite of mine, especially for sprint racing, the GP circuit is better for endurance racing and large grids.
Qualifying
Due to the length of the laps on the GP circuit, we were limited to very few when qualifying. So I had to find a clear lap as early as possible and to 'bank' a good time straight off.
We were able to achieve this and placed the car in pole position (class).
Race 1 - Saturday 25th June - 100min endurance
It was decided that I would take the first stint of the race and would hand over to Natasha at around halfway, depending on position, pace etc.
We were running a strong 1st in class and in the top 10 overall when the first pit stops began. The stint had been fairly undramatic and we had kept clear of some minor incidents. The pace car had been used on occasion, which had cost us some time by allowing our class rivals to close up the gap whilst behind it. The car was, as usual, perfectly balanced and poised throughout my stint. I pitted at approximately 1hr and handed over to Natasha.
Once again, Natasha did a great job of maintaining the gap from the second in class, despite some fairly heavy pressure from the Honda of Ridley Holloway / Mason. A win in class, 5th overall and a fastest lap in class of 1:43.733 was the result of another good race for the Mazda RX8 and its team.
It's also worth mentioning our sister car, driven by Ganeor and Owen. They did an incredible job, finishing 3rd in class and 9th overall. Owen also posted a great lap of 1:44.689, showing both his potential and the speed of the Mazda RX8.
Race 2 - Sunday 26th June - 100min endurance
Natasha decided that it was time to take a first stint and woman power won me over on this one. She did a good job and was running very competitively throughout her turn.
We changed over drivers before the lead car in our class, the Renault of Simmonds/Griffin, and I set about reducing the deficit and setting the fastest lap in our class. Their pitstop was slightly longer than ours and our pace was fast enough for us to 'leapfrog' them whilst they were in the pits. It was then my job to pace it to the end of the race and ensure our 4th win of the season.
This was a great meeting for the Mazda team and the RX8 has performed impeccably for over 10 hours of racing - and many more testing. This is absolute proof of the design, build quality and dynamics of the Mazda RX8 - and let's not forget the drivers!