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South Wales Adventure - Debut win for Miguel Absolute Racing made the long trip down to deepest darkest Wales to take part in rounds 8 & 9 of the British Formula Four Championship at a surprising warm and sunny Pembrey. As most of the country was submerged in copious amounts of water, Pembrey seemed to have been in a bubble throughout the weekend with near perfect conditions. It was an important weekend for both drivers as Steve needed to cement his position as championship leader and Miguel needed some points on the board to move up the championship table. Steve was unable to test due to
work commitments so Absolute brought in the services of 2006 Castle Combe Formula Ford Champion Matt Rivett to check the set up of the car. Matt complained of massive under steer throughout the test that was difficult to dial out. It transpired that the Gulf 77 car had a damper go down that was making handling difficult. Without a spare damper it was going to be damage limitation for Steve. Qualifying proved to be just as difficult with Steve struggling for pace down in 5th, over 1.5 seconds off pole. This made a change for Steve who had started on pole for 5 of the 7 rounds so far! Steve must have had all the teams' bad luck for the weekend as Miguel drove superbly throughout and would start race 1 from the front row and race 2 from 3rd place. Absolute's 3rd driver, Andrew Kluge did a steady job in his first race for a few months and qualified 12th and 13th. Race 1 Steve had a great start from the 3rd row on the grid and moved up to 3rd at the first hairpin right behind Chris Timms and Miguel who had jumped into the lead after pole sitter Chris Kite had damaged his gearbox and had to retire. Steve lost 3rd as they exited the hairpin to Malcolm Scott and immediately began to lose ground on the top 3 as Miguel posted a series of fastest laps to pull ahead by nearly 4 seconds by lap 6. Malcolm Scott soon passed Chris Timms for 3rd and began his chase after Miguel. Miguel held his nerve to score his first career win and Absolutes 5th of the season and also recorded the fastest lap of the race for an extra vital point. Steve finished a lonely 4th and Andrew finished in the top ten for the first time this season. Race 2 Chris Kite had solved his gearbox gremlins from the first race and lead the pack into the hairpin for the first time. Miguel slotted in to 2nd having powered past Malcolm Scott off the line. Steve had a steady start to finish the first lap in 5th place with Andrew 13 seconds behind in 12th place. The driver on the move was Chris Timms who had overtaken Miguel with a calculated move around the outside of the hairpin on lap 7. A mistake out at the back on the circuit wasted all Chris' hard work as he spun down to 5th on lap 9. Steve was still struggling with an ill handling car and again started to drop back in 4th place. With Miguel settled back in 2nd place it was going to take a monster drive from Chris Timms to stop Miguel from getting a 2nd podium of the weekend. He was trying hard to get back on terms with the top 3 exiting Honda corner for the last time and used too much throttle, that spun the car round and into the pit wall hard. This incident promoted Steve back to 4th place at the finish and completed his damage limitation weekend! Miguel powered on to finish 2nd and gain 48 points out of a possible 52 available. Andrew was under strict instructions from team boss Chris Hodgen to get his lap times into the 1m 08 second region. He set about his task very well and ended the race with a fastest lap of 1m 7.04 so well under the target and another chuck of time gained. Andrew is now unfortunately stepping aside for now due to business commitments, and his place in Absolute Racing is being taken by ex European Lamborghini Trophy Champion, Lee Cunningham. Hopefully we will have Andrew out for Oulton Park in September. Next Race - Snetterton double-header in July