James Kaye is hoping that he can continue his charge for the Jack Sears Trophy at Thruxton, despite not having raced at the high speed circuit for 8 years.
The Isle of Wight racer has secured two victories in the Jack Sears Trophy to date, in the opening race at Brands Hatch and Donington Park and he hopes to add to his tally at the fastest circuit in the UK.
“While it was a shame that we couldn’t add to the race one win at Donington last time out, we showed strong pace all weekend,” Kaye explains. “However, Thruxton is going to be a huge challenge as it is different to every other circuit that we visit on the calendar and I haven’t driven there for something like eight years.
“We’ve not had the chance to test at Thruxton and because of the high speeds, it’s a circuit that you have to treat with the utmost respect; it’s a place where high speed and high drama is the order of the day,” he continues.
“It’s not a circuit where it is easy to get back up to speed when you’ve not been there for a while because it is so different. There are times when the line you think would be the best one to take isn’t actually the best because of the bumps there are on the track surface, so it’ll all be about re-learning the circuit as quickly as I can when practice gets underway.”
With the AmDTuning.com Volkswagen Golf being the fastest of the S2000 cars on the grid over the opening six races, the amount of boost that the team run will be adjusted for the weekend.
“Thruxton is very much a power circuit and with some boost changes that have been made to the S2000 cars since Donington, the odds would seem to be stacked against us. However, that won’t stop us pushing hard to come away from the weekend with three strong results,” Kaye concludes.
Shaun Hollamby echoes the views of Kaye ahead of the trip to Thruxton but is hopeful that Kaye will once again be towards the head of the S2000 field.
“The car has been fully repaired after the accident at Donington Park and the electrical problem we had has also been resolved, so we’re ready and raring to go at Thruxton,” he said. “We’ve got some new suspension mods to try out this weekend, but the boost calculations following the first two rounds have given us a relative reduction in boost compared to our rivals, so we need to see how we get on.
“At a power circuit like Thruxton, that isn’t ideal, but we’re looking to make improvements in other areas that will ensure we are at the front of the pack again.
“James hasn’t driven at Thruxton for a while so he will need a few laps to get his eye in again, but I’m confident that we’ll go well this weekend. If you look at our pace in the first two rounds, we could well have had six Jack Sears Trophy wins to our name already and we’ve only got two, so we’re going to Thruxton aiming to add to that tally and establish ourselves in the championship lead.”