Shaun Hollamby admitted that the trip to Thruxton had been a disappointment for the AmDTuning.com outfit after a double retirement during rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the season.
“It’s been a disappointing weekend for us,” explained Hollamby. “The fact that the other S2000 cars were given a boost increase didn’t help us, but that wasn’t the single cause of our problems this weekend.”
At a circuit where they had previously been strong, Hollamby and the team had hoped for a strong weekend and a chance to move into the outright lead of the Jack Sears Trophy – a trophy set up for those drivers racing the older S2000 specification machinery.
“Traditionally, the Golf has gone well at Thruxton in the past but for whatever reason, we just haven’t been on the pace this weekend,” continued the AmDTuning.com Team Boss.
After their strong start to the season at Brands Hatch and Donington Park, the teams’ VW Golf had been given a relative boost reduction but despite the handicap, James Kaye was able to qualify 23rd fastest and third in the Jack Sears Trophy.
The opening race of the weekend saw Kaye battle his way to the head of the Jack Sears Trophy field but moments after moving into the lead of the class, he was forced into retirement at the Complex after a CV Joint broke.
Looking for an improvement in the second race of the weekend, Kaye had worked his way up to second in class before a puncture brought his race to a premature ending, but he responded by finishing third in class and 19th overall in the final race of the day.
“We’ve had a problem this weekend that we’ve not been able to solve and just haven’t been able to replicate the kind of pace we showed in the opening two rounds,” explains Kaye. “From practice through to the three races, we struggled for grip and we were chasing our tails a bit trying to find the best solution.
“We made some big changes but didn’t make the progress we hoped for, so we need to have a look and see what the cause of our problems was. This is just one of those weekends that we need to put behind us and make sure we come out fighting at Oulton Park,” he concludes.
Hollamby echoes the sentiments expressed by Kaye: “We made various changes to the car but just didn’t have the speed that we expected, and we have to investigate the reasons why. We need to get back to base, regroup and make sure that we come back stronger at Oulton Park.”