Derek Palmer Jr believes having a “clean qualifying” will be crucial to achieving his first TCR UK podium, after reliability issues once again plagued his weekend at Castle Combe.
The DPE Motorsport racer was sent to the back of the grid for race one following an engine change after troubles last time out at Brands Hatch.
He was battling for fifth with Carl Swift in race one when his Alfa Romeo Giulietta slowed out on track with an engine sensor issue.
This meant he failed parc fermé and would not take the start of race two from his third position grid slot, instead starting at the rear once again.
He was initially classified as finishing fourth but after Swift’s five-second time penalty was rescinded post-race, he fell back to fifth position.
He told TouringCars.Net he struggled to overtake at the 1.85-mile Castle Combe circuit, as he felt his Alfa Romeo was slower on the straights compared to his opposition.
“We were quick in all the wrong bits of the track,” said Palmer. “I think we could have actually probably been on the podium if it had worked out a bit better.
“Happy with that, it was reliable, we got to the end and we were fairly quick so.
“We seem to be down on the speed trap quite considerably, so that’s something we’ve got to look at. I don’t know why. So that would be my major question.
“I feel like we were very quick through the last corner but we couldn’t do anything with it. The main thing in mind was to get to the end, and we’ve ended up with a good result but it would have ben nice to get onto the podium I think.”
Despite being pleased to finish race two, Palmer couldn’t help but feel it was a case of what could have been if he had started from third for the reverse-grid contest.
“The damage was done before and it sort of compounded itself when the sensor failed,” he said.
“If we’d started there – because we got a great launch off the line – if I’d had that launch and I was third on the grid we would have been perfect.
“It’s frustrating but there’s positives to take from it as well and I think that’s what you’ve got to do. So we’ll go home and do some homework and get ready for Oulton Park.”
Palmer feels the next step in his TCR UK campaign is scoring a maiden podium, and believes the key to securing that will be achieving a solid qualifying result with no mechanical issues or grid penalties.
“It has to be the next step – we just need a clean qualifying – that’s where it’s done,” said Palmer.
“Your weekend is very dependent on qualifying and doing a good job there and that’s what we really need to focus on doing.
“We need not not carry any kind of grid penalty and being able to extract the maximum from the tyre and the car so that we put ourselves in a good position for the rest of the weekend.”