To be fighting with Matt for the lead in that final race was great, although I got caught out a bit with the pace car when it came out the first time and then went in again. The team manager was disappointed as he felt it was down to him to let me know what was happening over the radio - but the car didn’t come round so he didn’t know the lights had gone out. If you are at the front, it is down to the driver to take note, but then again you think it will be out for at least one lap! To come out and go in again, it was fair play to Matt for being on the ball and ready to go. However, I didn’t make the same mistake twice and stuck with him for as long as I could after it came out again.
I was fighting for grip towards the end of race three and dropped half a wheel off the track at Clearways, which meant I lost all my momentum onto the start finish straight. It is such an important part of the circuit and the mistake let two cars past which was disappointing. I had to just chase them down and try and get as high as possible, so it was disappointing at the time but not bad in the end as I picked up more solid points.
Given how things looked a few months ago I might not even have made it to the grid this season so this is for the people who made sure I was there - Dave Clews at Air Cool, Wheel Mania and the various small sponsors who helped get this programme together. This is my way of paying them back with the exposure of running at the front. They can enjoy the moment and if I can do it every weekend then I will. But a big thanks to everyone involved and it was a good team effort.
It is a very proud moment for me to lead the Independents’ championship and if someone had told me I would be doing that, then I’d have told them where to go! As a single car against a lot of two car teams, it will be hard to stay up at the front of the teams’ title, but to lead the drivers’ championship is pretty shocking and again it shows what a driver, team and car can do as a package. We just need to see if we can stay as close to the front as possible.
