In his latest column for Crash.net, Martyn Bell looks back over the sixth round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, and a third points scoring finish of the year for the Geoff Steel Racing team.
We’ve had a good weekend again and the car is working well. We had a good qualifying session to be just over two seconds off pole position and we are no longer as far away from the others as we were earlier in the year.
In the first race I had a really good battle with Adam in the Lexus and towards the end of the race we were both closing in on Jason in the MG. My tyres were working really well and then on the last lap I managed to catch up to Jason and get past him to secure a 14th place finish, which I was pleased with given there were no retirements in the race.
In the second race I got caught up behind Mark Smith in the Alfa Romeo after I spoiled a really good start with a spin, but I just couldn’t get past him. I beat myself up about that a bit after the race because I felt that if I’d been able to pass Mark, I could have closed up on the Lexus again and probably got past him too – which would have meant we got a top ten.
I also had two flat-spotted tyres that meant the car was shaking my teeth out, as the front and rear nearside tyres had flat-spotted in my spin. It was hard work and I feel that, for what we had, we could have pulled in but in this game you have to keep going.
