black-and-white-g50-crop.jpgNathan Freke raced in rounds 4, 5 and 6 in the Ginetta G50 championship at Thruxton recently with a mixture of success after problems in 2 of the 3 races. With little testing and no new rubber for the official test day, Thruxton was always going to be the Century Motorsport drivers weakest circuit in the Championship. Qualifying went well and Nathan secured grid 3 in each of the races, satisfying after the lack of pace on the test day. Race one and a poor start caused by a creeping clutch saw Nathan battling midfield to eventually finish 5th not the best result, but good points. However the team had to continue making changes to the car to balance out the severe under steer and tyre degradation being suffered during the race. The 2nd race and more problems, during the warm up lap a misfire means Nathan has to pull into the pit lane to sort it out, a quick re set of the ecu and the fault disappears – but instead of starting on grid 3 he has to start last and from the pit lane. Driving with purpose and aided by a short safety car period Nathan hauls himself up the field taking a total of 11 places to finish 5th right on the tail of the 4th and 3rd place cars – according to the commentators the drive of the day.

 

The 3rd race and with the ecu checked over Nathan takes his place on grid 3 for the start and gets away well and into 3rd place, shortly into 2nd and involvement in a dice with another car for 3 laps ending when Nathan pulls off the move of the season so far feinting one way then the other to move past in the chicane and off after the lead car. However with both cars circulating at the same lap times the 2 second gap could not be closed and Nathan recorded 2nd place on track to move into 2nd place in the series.

 

Overall a good result considering lack of testing and unfamiliarity with the circuit. Nathan will now conduct limited testing after funding for some tyres for testing has been secured, still leaving the team to try and find funding for the race tyres. Nathan is looking forward to the next 2 meetings where driver ability is more important than anything else and wins are now paramount to close the gap on the championship leader.