The third round of the season is complete! From rain to sunshine, the weekend saw it all and was another positive weekend for the team.
9:00 on Friday saw the first free practice session of the weekend for Sam and Finley in bright and dry conditions. Throughout this session Sam completed 14 laps and Finley completed 17. Sam’s fastest lap of FP1 was a 1:11.673 which he put in on his 9th lap of the session, putting him 0.951 off of P1 and seeing him finish the session in P9. Finley’s fastest lap of FP2 came on lap 8 of the session and was 1:12.353. This time saw Finley finish the session P14, with the gap between him and P1 at 1.631. The sunny skies stuck around for Joe’s FP1 session, which got underway at 10:50. During FP1, Joe put in 16 laps, with his fastest lap being put in on his 12th lap of the session. His fastest lap was a 1:08.965, which saw him finish the session P17 and 1.190 off of P1.
For the afternoon sessions the sky clouded over, with showers intermittently throughout the afternoon, thankfully missing both of the sessions for us. FP2 for Sam and Finley got underway at 13:50 where Sam completed 9 laps and Finley completed 11 laps. During this session, Sam reduced the gap between him and P1 to 0.372, with his fastest lap of the session being a 1:10.444. This lap was a second quicker than his fastest time in FP1 and saw him finish FP2 P5. Finley’s fastest lap was also around a 1 second improvement from his FP1 time, being a 1:11.391. With this time, he finished the session P12 and also managed to reduce the gap to P1 to 1.319. The final session on Friday for us, was Joe’s FP2 session which got started at 15:40. During the second session of the day for Joe, he put in a total of 19 laps with his fastest lap coming on lap 6 as a 1:08.374. Just like Sam and Finley, Joe improved on his FP1 time in the FP2 session and also closed the gap to P1. With his fastest lap, Joe finished FP2 P20.
For Round 3, Saturday held three sessions for us, with qualifying for all three of the guys and also Joe’s first, of two, races of the weekend. All of the sessions on Saturday took place under cloudy skies. Joe was out first for qualifying, with his session starting at 10:40. Over the course of the 16 laps that Joe completed during his qualifying, he, again, shaved time off of his previous fastest lap time from FP2, with his fastest lap of qualifying being a 1:08.147. This was put in on lap 12 of the session and saw Joe qualify P21 for the first race. The second qualifying session of the weekend got underway at 12:30 for Sam and Finley. Sam put in 16 laps during this session and Finley completed 17 laps. This session was positive for both Finley and Sam, with both of them shaving another second off of their FP2 fastest laps. With the time of 1:09.796, Sam secured his best ever qualifying result to start on the front row of the grid in P3, 0.334 seconds off of pole position. Finley also qualified well with a time of 1:10.722 which saw him qualify in P12 for the race.
Race 1 of the weekend for Joe originally got underway at 15:40, but 10 laps into the race a red flag came out and paused the session due to an incident and fluid on the track. The race saw a quick restart procedure and got underway again at 16:11 over a reduced distance of 8 laps. This race proved positive for Joe, with him running in P9 prior to the red flag. However, after the restart, there was a mishap which pushed him back to P17. His fastest lap of the restarted race was a 1:08.165 which he clocked on lap 4 of the shortened race distance of 8 laps.
On Sunday, morning warm ups started with Sam and Finley’s session at 09:15. Within this session both Sam and Finley completed a total of 7 laps. Sam’s fastest lap was a 1:10.630 which saw him finish warm up P2 and 0.878 off of P1. Finley’s fastest lap of warm up was a 1:11.174 which put him in P13 at the end of the warm up session. Next up was Joe’s warm up at 10:03. During the session Joe completed a total of 6 laps, with his fastest lap being put in on lap 2 and was a 1:09.232 which saw him finish the session P22. After the first race for Joe on Saturday, he lines up P11 for his second race of the weekend.
The first race for us on Sunday was the Junior Superstock race at 11:55 for Sam and Finley. The lights went out at 11:55 but 2 laps in the race it was red flagged. When the race restarted Sam was fighting well, along with Finley, before the race was, unfortunately, red flagged a second time, seeing the race come to an early finish due to having run two thirds race distance. Sam finished the race P5 and was fighting for a podium throughout the race. His fastest lap of the race was a 1:09.846 which he put in on lap 9 of the restarted race. Finley also had a good race and was fighting within the top 10 to eventually take the chequered flag in P9. His fastest lap of the race was put in on lap 3 and was a 1:10.622 which was also his fastest lap of the entire weekend!
The final race of the weekend was Joe’s second race which saw the lights go out at 14:49. A few laps into the race the safety car came out for a few laps whilst a crash was being cleared. Joe, yet again was battling further up the field and finished his second race of the weekend P12. His fastest lap of the race was a 1:07.836 which he put in on lap 6 of the 20 lap race. This lap time was also his quickest lap of the entire weekend!
All in all it was a very positive weekend for us! Sam currently sits 7th in the Junior Superstock championship, with Finley in 13th and Joe in 19th in the National Superstock championship. We look to Knockhill in a few weeks to further this progress!
Sam Laffins: ‘Donington was a good weekend. I am happy with the result and to be battling at the front, also happy to finish in a good points scoring position. There are a lot of positives to take away from the weekend and I can’t wait for Knockhill in a couple of weeks time. Big thanks to Joe and the team for all the hard work!’
Finley Arscott: ‘Overall, Donington was a really positive round. We made steps forward with the setup of the bike and my confidence. I worked up to a decent qualifying and secured another top 10 in the race, which I’m very pleased about. We take the positives onto Knockhill and keep the momentum going.’
Joe Talbot: ‘Donington Park was a good weekend. It didn’t start off how I wanted it to, but we worked on moving forward every session. I had two solid races, both battling around the top 10. An unfortunate mishap on Saturday pushed me back to P17 and on Sunday I finished P12. It was good to be battling more up the field and this gives me confidence for the next coming rounds!’
