In his first column of the 2007 season, Martyn Bell looks back over a fine opening weekend of racing at Brands Hatch and arguably his strongest races since joining the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Well, what a difference a year makes! It just goes to show that with the car working better, we can put some good lap times in around a circuit that has never suited me. I’m not a big fan of Brands Hatch as a driver, so we come away from there with big grins on our faces thinking that we can run with the pack. If we can make the car work at Brands, then I think we can get it to work anywhere…
Going into the weekend, we weren’t bang on the money to start with – but free practice is free practice. People were saying they thought I was off the pace and they thought I’d have been higher, but I was using practice to get the best set-up for the car and get what we wanted from it. In qualifying, there is one lap that counts really and we knew we could run at a decent race pace, so we were trying to get the car ready for a good lap. Qualifying was pretty busy and I was really pleased with the time, although not with the position. However, knowing that we can get the
BMW off the line now, two places off the line is quite attainable so I was still confident of making up places.
I was pleased with the opening race, as I’ve said before, it’s all down to getting confidence while sat in the seat. In the past, the car has wanted to spit me off but now it is solid and it was getting better towards the end of the race. My fitness is better and while my weight is heavier, I’m stronger and we didn’t fade at all. I did lose concentration for a split second and made a mistake but these things will come.
