ISLAND resident John George is looking forward to racing at Rockingham in this weekend’s rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. ‘It’s such a different circuit to any other out there,’ said George.
‘I’ve raced there only twice before. The first time I ended up embedded in a wall after brake failure. The second time I won an Audi TT.’
Although he hasn’t raced there since 2003, his last visit to Rockingham was for last month’s BTCC pre-season media event, in which he clocked up a respectable ninth-fastest test lap.
‘I know that it was a test day, some teams weren’t there and some teams may not have been performing at 100%.
‘We were one of them. We were running with the wrong gear ratio, so I know I didn’t show all that my car was capable of.’
So with the correct gear ratio and a return to fitness, how does he rate his chances?
‘I don’t think a top-10 finish is out of the question this weekend and if I can get one under my belt I’ll be a very happy man.’
Prior to the most recent round at Brands Hatch, he had been ill since the previous Wednesday and turned up on the Saturday morning for testing and qualifying having not eaten for three days.
A poor practice saw him start 20th out of the 26-car field.
An early night saw him much better in spirit the following morning, if still not 100%. He got off to a good start in race one, pushing his Jag Motorsport Honda Integra steadily through the field before being knocked around at Druids hairpin.
Unable to regain his stride, he came home in 19th place, never showing the times the Jag Motorsport team all knew were achievable.
In race two, things started better but again contact saw him spinning backwards twice after moving close to the top 10 in the early stages.
As before, his pre-season pace was still escaping him, with a finish in 16th place.
As always, the third and final race was a crash fest and a gentle tap sent the Integra off into the grass. George refused to give up and eventually brought the car back to life, regaining the track in earnest.
A lap down on the pack, he showed his pre-season form, recording a lap only 0.3sec. slower than winner Matt Neal as he unlapped himself to finish 20th.
‘It was not a great start to the season,’ said George.
‘I wasn’t feeling my best to start with and added to that I took more hits than Frank Bruno.
‘It was a great end to the day though. It showed we really do have the pace to compete at the front end.’
Article posted on 20th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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