Page 16 - tdynamics

ROUND 2: DONNINGTON PARK
ROUND 2: DONNINGTON PARK

Team Dynamics comes home

o we arrive in the East Midlands for be difficult to fight back from that. Still, it was
our first close-to-home meeting. Just a much more positive outcome than at
Sa stone throw from Birmingham and Brands Hatch and we remain light going next
East Midlands airport, we visit yet another to Thruxton, which has traditionally been a
iconic track which is also the home circuit of happy hunting ground for us and will be an
Honda and sponsors, Yuasa. important weekend as both Honda and
Yuasa’s home circuit.”
A good starting point for the FK8 to open up
a little. Fast sweeping corners and a hi- Dan Cammish on Donnington Park
action theatre means that this could
potentially be a silverware hotspot. Why do I “It’s been a good weekend – almost a very
think this? Because Dan scored his first good weekend. We showed our speed in
podium here last year. Not only that he also free practice and qualified well in what were
scored another 2nd row qualifying position. very difficult, greasy conditions. It was
obviously fantastic for both the team and
If I remember rightly, this circuit was another myself to achieve our first podium of the
set-up nightmare as we still had less than season in race one, although I would say as
perfect track conditions but nevertheless, the a performance, race two was arguably even
car still showed huge potential. better, with 66kg of ballast on-board and the
harder tyres. I tried to get away as fast as I
Matt’s qualifying session was a little hindered could, but it was inevitable that the guys
which lead to a annoying 17th. But Matt behind would catch up eventually and we
being Matt got that hot knife out again and were over-the-moon to lead for so long and
brought the FK8 home in 6th for race one. A still finish as high as fourth – the car balance
struggle in race 2 on the hard tyres kept him felt really good and the Civic Type R handled
just outside of the points in 16th but in race extremely well. What happened in race three
3, the hot knife came out again to finish a was just very unfortunate; it was only the
very respectable 7th. lightest of touches, but it caused my wheel
rim to shatter and that in-turn punctured the
Dan, on the other hand, had a dream of a tyre. We were on for at least another top five
race in the opener to finish second and result, but we can nonetheless go away
snatch his first podium. With a front row feeling happy. People were asking pre-
start in the second, he managed to continue season if I would get properly stuck in and
his points tally with a brilliant 4th. get my elbows out in the BTCC, and I think
Unfortunately, a puncture, following contact I’ve proven here that I can do that as well as
stopped a trio of points finishes but yet anybody else.”
again, people around the BTCC world were
asking “Who is this kid?” Donnington Park for 2019
Matt Neal on Donnington Park On paper this should be a good circuit for
Team Dynamics. As we said, it is home to
“Unfortunately, my weekend began on the Honda and Yuasa, not to mention being just
wrong foot in lining up 17th on the grid, up the road from Team HQ in Droitwich but
which left me with a lot of work to do in the in reality, we are on an even playing field.
races. We are still learning with the new Civic
Type R and it’s not totally dialled-in yet in Going by last years performance, I feel this
those conditions, which meant qualifying could be a good one for the FK8.
was almost akin to a test session for us. It Remember it was less than favourable
was tricky out there, and it didn’t play out in conditions and the car was only on it’s
my favour. We were quick in races one and second outing and, as Matt said, the car still
three and the car felt really good. There was wasn’t set up to it’s fullest potential. This
plenty of chaos kicking off, but we managed year will be different even if there is rain.
to avoid it all to come through the field for a
couple of solid points-scoring results. In race We have two superb drivers and probably
two, I made a good start but got a bit hung the best team on the grid. With a good wind
out to dry around the opening laps as I tried and with a little luck from the Gods we could
to steer clear of the carnage, and on the see a fair collection of silverware here.
hard-compound tyres, it was always going to

| 16 www.teamdynamicsmotorsport.co.uk