Redstone Racing head to Thruxton in Hampshire in confident mood after a dominant weekend in the East Midlands, where their Mountune powered Ford Focus ST race cars proved to be the class of the field around the Donington Park circuit.
Arriving at the demanding 2.36 mile circuit, the team are looking to keep their noses clean and use the advantage of having a proven package at the circuit compared to their rivals.
As Thruxton marks the third weekend of the season, the balance of performance will be applied across the field. Oly Collins expects the NGTC cars to have the advantage over the teams’ Ford Focus ST’s, which run to the S2000 regulations.
“Thruxton will be an interesting weekend because balance of performance between different cars will come into play,” explains Collins. “We anticipate if the weather’s fine then the NGTC cars will have an advantage in race trim due to their wider tyres, plus despite Donington Park’s exclusion we are still carrying second place ballast on Mat’s car. For us, Thruxton will most likely be a consolidation round in which we aim to grab as many points as possible. We may also pray for a spot of rain!”
The Donington Park weekend was a weekend of highs and lows for the team and for Mat Jackson. Having secured his first win of the season in the opening race, Jackson had provisionally become the first double winner of the season in the third race before an over boost issue meant that he was excluded from the results.
Jackson is looking forward to the weekend ahead after the disappointment of what happened in the final race at Donington Park: “Last time out we had big highs and lows, and it was a shame to leave on a disappointing note after being excluded from race three. At Thruxton it will be interesting to see how the NGTC cars perform with different tyres to us. It’s a track that always throws a few surprises so we’ll see what happens!”
For Aron Smith, the trip to Thruxton marks a return to a circuit where he had considerable success in the supporting Clio Cup event last year. He is looking to put the frustrations of Donington Park behind him at Thruxton: “I had two pole positions and two wins in the Clio Cup at Thruxton last year, so the circuit holds a lot of good memories for me. After some frustrations at Donington Park, I’m hoping we can really fly at Thruxton and gain some results that reflect the true pace of the Ford Focus ST,” explains the young Irish driver.
After a strong start at Brands Hatch, Liam Griffin had a torrid weekend at the East Midlands circuit and heading to Thruxton, he is hoping that his lack of experience of experience around the demanding circuit won’t count against him: “Donington Park was a bit of a lost cause, but we’re ready to make amends at Thruxton. It’s going to be a challenge; it is a fast track and I’ve had limited testing there, so I don’t know it as well as some of the other circuits. However I just want to race cleanly and get to the finish line in a position reflective of my capabilities,” added Griffin.