Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan is determined not to give up after what he described as a “dismal” start to his 2019 British Touring Car Championship campaign, with yet more accident damage after another heavy shunt.
The seven-time BTCC race winner has endured a trying start to the season, with a podium in race two at the Brands Hatch season-opener the only highlight so far.
Since then, Morgan was forced to recover from a huge shunt in race one at Donington Park, as he was unsighted at the Old Hairpin and collected the side of Andrew Jordan’s spinning BMW.
In similar fashion, Morgan was out on the opening lap of the final race at Thruxton after again being unsighted and caught up in a first-lap incident, this time with Rob Collard’s stationary Vauxhall as the pack headed through the Complex.
The Lancastrian told TouringCars.Net a mix of setup woes and on-track incidents have meant it has “all gone wrong” in a “dreadful” start to his 2019 campaign.
“As the start of seasons go, it’s been pretty dreadful so far,” said Morgan.
“The last three or four years I think we’ve come away from Thruxton leading the championship or third or fourth or something like that.
“This year it’s just all gone wrong. A bit of bad luck at Donington and now bad luck here.
“We’ve missed the setup I think in races one and two. That’s what it’s down to a bit, but to start with it’s been pretty dismal.”
Qualifying has been at weak point of Morgan’s season so far, but at the Hampshire circuit he was one of many drivers to have their fastest efforts disallowed due to track limits, after provisionally lining up in sixth.
“If we had qualified P6, it would have been a very different weekend,” he said.
“It’s just one of those things, they disallowed two of our laps.
“That dropped us to 18th, and when you’re there it’s very difficult to make your way through and try to progress. Then things can just go wrong.”
With the series now moving to Croft, which traditionally favours rear-wheel drive machinery, Morgan is hoping he will fare well at a circuit he is used to carrying success ballast at.
“The only positive thing for us is going to Croft for the first time ever with no weight on, because we’ve always gone there carrying either maximum ballast or a lot of ballast,” Morgan said.
“So hopefully we’ll be quick there with no weight on, it is a rear-wheel drive circuit so I expect them to be pretty quick again.
“But we won’t give up, we’ll just keep our head down, keep getting stuck in and having a go.”