Race Report - Thruxton
5th & 6th July 2025
Practice
As I had never been to Thruxton before it was a good idea to get some real life track time! This went well and my pace quickened throughout the session going from 1:39:201 to 1:35:325 avg 88.69MPH.
Qualifying
Going into Qualifying I knew I had some work to do in order to get my time down and closer to my R53 competitors. Having reviewed the onboard footage, I knew where to find the time. I put on a fresh pair of pants and headed out onto the fastest circuit in the UK.
Did my out lap, getting the heat into the tires and brakes and started to push on from there, with each lap getting quicker going from 1:36:545 to 1:35:513 to 1:34:668 to then completing my quickest lap time of 1:33:865 avg 90.35MPH. This was followed by a cooldown lap to get ready for another push lap, but subsequently coming into the chicane an engine light came on with a small loss of power (turning out to be the start to the weekend issue). Despite this I managed to get my 3 lap times on the board, albeit with a disappointed face captured by Sophie (@sophiemayesphotography), later finding out that I would Qualify in 10th place on the road and 4th in class.
Race 1
Following the engine light, we checked all systems and cleared the codes resulting in all power being resumed. The car was working well (or so we thought, as you will read in race 2), and we lined up on the start in order. The 5 second board came out and the lights came on, after what felt like a life time staring at them. Then lights out and I am away, unfortunately still not a great launch off the line with be immediately being passed by Freya (@freyabelkracing), but there was no wheel spinning off the line which was an improvement from Silverstone’s race starts. Slow first lap but by the end of lap 2 I had closed back up to the pack. Then only to lose the time I made up with a slopy gear change coming out the chicane, and the gap stayed steady at about 2 seconds, until lap 6 when Paul had a wide moment coming out of Goodwood sending him onto the grass. This caused me to lose half a second to the car in front, but I tagged onto the back of Paul for a lap to get closer to the cars in front of us, to then James and Freya having a moment into the chicane at the end of lap 8. Unfortunately not being able to capitalize on this moment unlike Paul (note to self, keep your foot down!!). The next two laps saw me holding onto the back of the car in front which was a big improvement from Silverstone and quite an achievement with me being on the UK’s quickest circuit. Following post-race checks our battery was found to not be holding 12v, so we put the battery on charge and did our post-race checks.
Race 1 finished with a fastest lap of 1:33:045 avg Race speed 89.33 MPH, 11th on the road and 5th in class
Now on to Race 2…
Race 2
Sunday Morning rolled around, with the races running a little later to allow church service to go ahead without cars whizzing by. This gave us a nice chilled morning to get things sorted and head to assembly on time (anyone that knows me knows I’m never on time)! So in typical Chris Fashion I decided to change the rear ride height with not enough time, so rolled up a little later than planned but no big issue as things on track were running a little behind. Sat in the assembly area with our engine running getting ready to go, unbeknown to us draining our battery to the point 10 seconds before setting off the car dies!! Tried to restart but no power, need to decide whether to leave the car or get a bump start from the guys in the pits. We go for the bump start and car fires up and get out of the assembly area although without power steering and dash working, get out of pitlane and above 3000 RPM systems all come alive (big clue for later) came through the complex and pass the safety car to catch the back of the pack up and form on the grid. Trying to keep the revs up so the car doesn’t stall again I pull up to the starting box and get ready for the red lights to go out, while I am thinking about making sure I don’t stall the car (looking back at the in car footage) I forget to put the car in 1st gear… Doh! Lights out and wonder why I’m not moving, split second later I put the car into gear and the wheels spin, go for second gear and a big shudder and the car goes into limp mode, Panic mode kicks in as to what do I do (from the footage I look cool, calm and collected)! I keep the car rolling past pit exit waiting to make sure nothing was coming out and rolled over the grass on to pit exit and then onto the grass next to the barriers, waited for the field to come by and got out. This caused the Safety Car to come out and my race over! The Orange army (Marshals) pushed me back up the pit lane and return me to Parc-ferme.
Race 2 finished with a fastest lap of 0:00:000 avg 0 MPH, DNF!
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Race 3
So in between race 2 and 3 we go to work to try and find the issue which turned out to be the alternator. The connector had broken, not giving the car connectivity on all pins. Following some testing we found that on idle the car wasn’t charging the battery hence the issue before race 2 when sitting in assembly for a little bit longer then race 1. So off came the alternator and with a big helping hand from the guys at A.C. Motorsport soldering on new wires for me to connect to, we got the car charging the battery again at idle. Issue 1 done and onto issue 2, the fault that reared it’s head in Qualifying came back. This was looking to be a MAP Sensor issue so changed the sensor and changed the BPV as this may be the issue that was causing the idling issues.
Luckly for us the on track action had some delays in the programme so this gave us enough time to get things sorted. I rolled up to assembly in plenty of time knowing that the car was charging the battery. Rolling out onto the circuit and forming up on the grid, still not totally happy with the car but she was running and no lights on the dash. 5 second board come out, lights on, it was starting to rain hard on one side of the circuit so was going to be a mix weather condition which would be fun! Out went the lights and away we go…. to immediately notice I have loss of power than the race before as I’m getting attacked from behind by the Coopers. Go into Goodwood for the first time (where it was raining the heaviest) I am a little tentative to only then see Dan come by, which then gave me a little more confidence that there was some grip out there. Still being attacked from the two Coopers behind coming out of the chicane on lap 1, I pull to the right to allow the Coopers by. So with the lack of power I’m thinking what to do, do I call it and pull into the pits and have a second DNF or press on. Of course I press on and get to grips that I would be racing in the Cooper pack. On lap 3 Ben’s car pulls to the left onto the grass automatically handing me a place back in the class classifications so I just need to cross the
finish line! Lap 4 rolls round where I get pass Chris under braking going into the complex and having David to my outside allowing him space as we go through the complex. Getting a tow and finding some power I pass him on the outside coming up to Noble. End of next lap and get my first love tap through the chicane (and yes I did get him to sign it!). The rest of the race I ticked on by pulling away from David and Chris and trying to catch the Cooper leader Dan. Race 3 finished with a fastest lap of 1:38:864 avg Race speed 81.86 MPH, 11th on the road and 4th in class
See you at Brands Hatch for Mini Festival 2nd & 3rd Aug for Round 3 of Mini Challenge Clubsport Series
