Lewis Kent is confident that his previous experience at the fast Castle Combe circuit will mean he is at the sharp end throughout the TCR UK weekend.
The Essex & Kent Motorsport racer was ninth in warm-up this morning [14 July], over two seconds off Dan Lloyd who set the benchmark.
Kent told TouringCars.Net that he had treated the half-hour session as a “shakedown” after a wheel bolt sheared off in pre-event testing yesterday.
“We only went out to shake the car down and make sure it was all alright,” said Kent. “We didn’t fuel it up fully, because we knew we were only going to do a few laps so we went out until the fuel ran out, came back in.
“So all we were doing this morning was shaking the car down because we had a problem with the front-left bolts for the wheel. They sheared off yesterday so we just made sure it was all alright.
“In the next one we are going to do the same, hopefully it all holds out. Then we’ll see what we can do in qualifying and start pushing.”
As one of only two drivers on the TCR UK grid who has previous track-time at the 1.85-mile circuit, Kent is hoping to use that to his advantage once the wheel bolt issue is fully sorted.
“There’s only two of us on the grid that have ever driven Castle Combe before, so it’s looking promising,” he said. “We’ve got the right car and the right team behind us.
“I drove here two years ago and the year before that in the Fiesta juniors. It’s a lot different but it’s still track knowledge. Hopefully we can work our magic and get up to the front.
“It’s a big difference, obviously with a Fiesta you have a normal H-pattern box, you’re on the right-hand side, it’s not grippy, there’s no aero, there’s no power, so it’s a big difference.
“Two years ago it wasn’t resurfaced as well so it was really bumpy and not grippy but with the new car and the new track surface it’s really good.”
With TCR UK’s meeting this weekend heralding the return of touring cars to the Wiltshire track, Kent is enjoying driving his Hyundai i30 N at the circuit.
“I think it’s one of the best circuits on the calendar this year, I quite like it.
“We put in a good time yesterday for third in practice so if we can go a little bit quicker than that and get into the low 1:07s then we should be fine.
“We know we’ve got time. We’ve got new tyres still to put on, and I know there’s places that I can pull out a bit of time. Hopefully it goes well and we can push on a bit.”