VX Racing confident of qualifying improvement

The HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship entertained the crowds of North East England at the Croft circuit near Darlington today.  The trio of VX Racing drivers all battled with the Vauxhall handling in the heat. Andrew Jordan, without any success ballast, had the best qualifying time to line up in seventh place for the first of the three races tomorrow. Matt Neal was just behind, eighth quickest, and having to cope with maximum weight ballast. Fabrizio Giovanardi, also with ballast, was thirteenth quickest and will take this place on the grid tomorrow.

Dry, cool and sunny conditions greeted the team today for the first practice session this morning.  Giovanardi quickly showed the way for the others, jumping to the top of the time sheets in the early stages, finishing second fastest  at the end, while Jordan was sixth quickest, followed by Neal with seventh fastest lap of the session. In the second session, with the temperatures increasing, VX Racing focused on race set up.  Giovanardi was not unduly concerned with 12th fastest time, while Neal’s 17th fastest time was unrepresentative, with the VX Racing driver having to pit for repairs after damage from a tyre on the track. Jordan put on new tyres towards the end to set seventh fastest lap.

Neal carried maximum ballast (45 kgs) into qualifying, as championship leader, with Giovanardi on 27 kgs in third place of the drivers’ standings.  The additional weight, combined with the high temperatures which do not favour the Vauxhall, were a key factor in the outcome of the qualifying session.

Jordan, with the benefit of a ballast-free car, posted the best of the three VX Racing qualifying laps, to line up in seventh place on the grid for the first race.  Neal will join Jordan on the fourth row of the grid after setting eighth fastest time, while Giovanardi suffered his worst qualifying performance of the season so far, with 13th quickest lap.

Jordan summed up his performance:  “Qualifying went okay today and I’m pleased to be quickest of the Vauxhalls. The first run went quite well and we were third for a while. I knew we’d lost a bit in the first corner from the data, so we could see where we needed to make up time. Then in the next two runs the temperature had gone up and we just couldn’t do anything. The heat just transformed the car, it was like getting out of this car and getting in another, the difference was huge.”

Neal said of his day, “We’ve improved, but just not enough. I think it was where we expected to be, it’s just the heat, the ballast and the tyres with our cars – we haven’t found the best set up for these conditions.  It’s better than at Oulton Park, and I just hope we can make up the ground tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be able to do it; perhaps we can throw a curve ball at the youngsters.  There’s some indication that it might be a bit cooler and perhaps even wet tomorrow, which would be good for us. Maybe I need to do a rain dance!”

Giovanardi was also struggling with his car, commenting, “I think I’m having the same problems as Matt, where we’re just not getting the car to work when the track is hot and we’re carrying the extra weight.  It’s something we’ll need to work on in testing next month, but for today we’ll just have to make the best that we can of it. We’re only just over a tenth of a second off Matt, yet that’s five places back.  I have my work cut out for the first race tomorrow, but, for sure, we can make up places.”

The team will return to the track for race one tomorrow at 12.01pm, followed by race two at 2.35pm, with race three bringing the weekend to a close at 5.15pm.

Source: VX Racing PR