It proved to be a day of ups and downs at Silverstone for the RAW by Tachosys trio of Alex Macleod, John Macleod and Paul Rivett in round two of the Fun Cup Endurance Championship.
There had been little chance of trying set up changes or finding any pace in the heavy rain during Friday’s pre-race testing. So it was straight into qualifying on Saturday morning, when fortunately the rain had stopped.
Alex was first out in the session, followed by Paul and John, but all three came back in noticing a distinct lack of power. “It was down on power right from the start, very frustrating and disappointing for the whole team,” said Rivett after they were 23rd out of the 25 car grid.
But in Fun Cup qualifying does not form the grid, but having drawn lots they came out 22nd to line up on the 11th row of the grid.
There was frantic activity however during the lunch break though, as after discussions with the Championship technicians it was decided to have an engine change.
As the grid formed up the car was ready and Alex was strapped in for the first stint, with no time to run the car before the race was underway.
“I felt I had a fairly strong start but dropped off the back of the field. I then started to get used to it more, got quicker as I am still learning and started enjoying myself. It was nice to bring it in for a routine stop to hand over though, rather than because I had too,” he explained.
Rivett jumped in for the second stint and after the first hour they were 19th, but still on the same lap as all but the leading trio.
“The engine felt much better, but it had left us behind on set up. It was especially difficult in the corners, right handers,” he said.
They had gained another place over the second hour to reach half distance in 17th, with John having had his first stint too.
Progress had been gradual and for Alex it had been a race that he was able to walk away saying, “I enjoyed that.” 16th place at the flag having survived the four hours, was due reward for both the hard working RAW Motorsports crew and the driving trio.
Although the next Fun Cup rounds are due at Anglesey on July 10th, the RAW trio are giving that one a miss and will be back in action again at Oulton Park on 14th August.