Árón Taylor-Smith left the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park ‘really happy’ having made it into the top ten in qualifying and scored a trio of points finishes.
In qualifying, the Irishman was second quickest in his group in the first part of the session on a wet and changeable track, but narrowly missed out on getting beyond Q2, by just 0.003 seconds.
Starting the delayed opening race from seventh, Taylor-Smith brought his Vauxhall home where he started in a wet opening race at the Leicestershire venue.
With less hybrid deployment available to him in race two, Taylor-Smith ultimately slipped back to 11th, but was still the leading Independent driver to notch up his second class win of the day.
Starting from the sixth row for race three, Taylor-Smith struggled to make progress and ultimately slipped back to 14th by the chequered flag, just one place behind team-mate Mikey Doble who clinched the Independent class win.
Despite going backwards by the second highest number of places across all three of the weekend’s races (after Ronan Pearson), Taylor-Smith remained positive about the potential pace in the car.
“To kick off the season with a clean sweep of Independent wins is something we as a team can be extremely proud of,” said Taylor-Smith. “It’s a testament to all of the work that has been put in during the winter.
“I’m personally really happy to come away with P7 in qualifying as it outlines our pace over one lap.
“On race day we fought as hard as we could and importantly uncovered a few little areas that I know we can improve on heading to Brands Hatch in a few weeks’ time.
“This season has kicked off what I think is going to be a really successful 2024 and it’s nice to know that we have a package underneath us that is more than capable of challenging towards the front of the grid.”
Team Manager Martin Broadhurst pointed to the team’s desire for outright top results as a reason he was left wanting at the weekend.
“It’s been a bit of an up and down weekend I think because while it was great to take a clean sweep of Independent wins, establishing ourselves as regular top six runners is what we’re striving for,” added Broadhurst.
“The weekend’s results leave us looking deep within ourselves and the engine as the hard work we carried out over the winter, and then pre-season, should have positioned us slightly higher up the order.
“I can’t knock the team as they’ve all worked tirelessly. I also can’t thank all of our fantastic partners for their support because the whole operation – from the garage to the car to team kit look slick.
“We’ve got work to do but I’m optimistic we can take a step forward at Brands.”
Team Principal Adam Weaver was more forthright with his assessment of the weekend.
“If I’m honest I’ve got mixed feelings because while I’m extremely happy with the team, I’m somewhat disappointed with our results on-track,” said Weaver.
“Of course, winning in the Independents’ Championship is always nice but we should be fighting for outright podiums and wins.
“Both us as a team and M-Sport, the TOCA engine providers, have a lot of work to do if we are going to mount a challenge to the guys at the front.
“Even with the new hybrid format Ingram and Sutton managed to run off in Races 1 and 2 – which wasn’t supposed to happen really.
“It’s nice to come away with a good haul of silverware but I’m very much keeping my feet on the ground and remaining realistic at the moment.
“We’ve got a fantastic team and I’m confident that we can take that next step forward.”