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YORKSHIRE'S WEATHER CREATES CHAOS
02/06/2008
There were not many silver linings to be found in the dark clouds which hung overhead Darren Turner's SEAT Sport UK team for this weekend's HiQ MSA British Touring Championship racing at the Croft circuit in Yorkshire, but they did exist.
A fantastic pole position was the first – despite front splitter damage caused by a trip through the gravel which prevented him from doing any more than six laps in the 30-minute qualifying session. It was Darren's third in the BTCC, the first for a diesel-engined car in the history of the BTCC, and ultimately the highlight of the weekend.
The following day, however – race day - Darren fell victim to the awful weather conditions which blighted Sunday's latest three rounds of the Championship. He finished 15th and 9th in the first two races, and was challenging for a stronger points position in the third and final race when he was fired off the track by the BMW of Mat Jackson.
He wasn't happy but was determined to retain the positives and reject the negatives from the weekend.
"I think as a team, we were quite surprised about our pace at Croft," he said. "If you looked at the calendar and tried to tick off all the tracks we'd be good at, Croft wasn't one of them. We started the first practice with quite a bad car. Both me and Jason (Plato) were trying things from Thruxton, and it didn't work. The guys put us back on a more traditional set-up, a safe set-up, for practice two, and it worked much better. It was still a surprise to see us on pole though."
Saturday's dry track gave way to torrential rain on Sunday.The first of the three BTCC races at Croft had to be stopped early after just two full racing laps and two red flags periods, as standing water made driving conditions impossible. Development brake pads which work well in the dry didn't work well in the wet, and both Jason and Darren had off-track incidents as a result of this – the result of which caused Darren's 15th place. Starting from pole, DT was overtaken by Gordon Shedden into the first corner and was then hit by Mat Jackson's BMW and lost more places. Unable to see in the spray, Darren approached Tower Bend in fourth gear instead of sixth. He touched the brakes and skated straight off the track, but rejoined to finish in 15th.
Changeable weather conditions before the start of the second race caught out many people and the two SEAT Sport Leons started with a wet weather set up on a drying, but still damp, track. Darren came from 15th on the grid to finish 9th, despite having no functioning windscreen wipers. He finished the race with a thick layer of mud smeared over his windscreen through which he had been barely able to see.
Race three unfortunately didn't get any better. A bad day ended on a low when Darren was running in 7th and Jackson forced him into the gravel trap at Clervaux at the start of lap 7.
"I tried to move past Jackson – I was actually in front of him and to the outside at the time of the contact. I left him plenty of room for us both to have been able to get round but he fired me off. It's just been one of those frustrating weekends. We have to put this behind us and return in six weeks time stronger and better."
Darren now heads off to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Aston Martin Racing. He and his team mates in the #009 DBR9 will be defending their 2007 GT1 class win at the endurance classic on 14/15th June.
Darren, 34, lives near Banbury in Oxfordshire. Successful in many different categories of motorsport, taking wins, podiums and points at almost every outing, he's going all out for 2008 BTCC success. He remains a firm favourite with teams, fans, and media alike.
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