SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well Lydia, here we are at uh Croft, the Porsche Sprint Challenge qualifying over and done with. The sun is shining, I'm pleased to say, a little bit windy. Uh and P eight in class.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Yeah, it was a long pause, wasn't it? Yeah. Um obviously I want to be doing better than that, to be honest. It's um it's a tough track round here. Obviously it's a long, long lap, so if you get traffic midway through the lap when you're up green on your delta, that is extremely frustrating and just seem to be a continuous theme throughout the session, to be honest. So yeah, I think there was definitely a lot more time in it. Um but yeah, qualifying not gone to plan again, which seems to be a theme throughout the season. But yeah, it's a big learning curve, so I can't really ask for much more than that, I don't think. But it's it's uh yeah, it's just the way it is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Take me through uh a lap of Croft because there are uh a lot of high speed parts to this circuit, but then there's some heavy braking, and and you know you need to really balance the car through the back end of the circuit, don't you? Just talk me through that.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah, it's not it's definitely not an easy track at all. I mean, obviously nothing is easy in this car, I don't think, but it's uh I mean it's a very capable car, but a lot of the parts on the track are quite narrow, not a lot of runoff, um, and quite high speed as well. So I didn't actually realise, but our top speed run here is about 145 miles an hour, which is ridiculous, really, when you think about it. Um, and yeah, huge high speed areas out the back, which are pretty much flat out again at 100 and whatever mile an hour. So, yeah, you do need a planted car and something that I'm I'm still trying to get to grips with, really, because these these cars do tend to be quite happy on the rear end, and that that's something that I'm trying to get kind of come to terms with, particularly on a track which is quite high speed. Um, but then we've got a really slow hairpin at the end of the track, haven't we? So it's um yeah, you've got a bit of everything around Croft. I do love Croft, but it's just such a bumpy track as well. Um, so yeah, it's very uncharacteristic to anything else really that we go to uh across the course of the season, but it's a great track to overtake on, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to racing.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Are there much more involved conversations about the setup and the brake balance uh around here?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Um probably, yeah. I think to be honest, we've got a um well, we've got a really good team. Matt is obviously doing really, really well, so he's kind of paving the way on the setup that we're kind of following because he he's very uh very experienced, very quick. So yeah, it's um yeah, it's been great. The clean racing have been fantastic, obviously, and they know what to do with the car. It's just kind of the squishy bit in the seat that needs to get to get to grips with it a little bit more. But with more seat time throughout the year, I'm becoming more and more confident. But it's just we sort of get to where we want to be at the end of a race weekend and then we go somewhere completely new. Obviously, not kill was our last round, and that's a completely different track to where we've come to with Croft this weekend. So um, yeah, it's almost like starting from scratch again at the start of the weekend, but we'll just about get there by race three, I reckon, and then we'll go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

You you said you were a little disappointed uh in your performance, but looking at the times, I mean you cut seven almost seven-tenths off between the beginning of the session and the end of the session, and across the grid, there isn't a lot of margin.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

No, there isn't. Um obviously it's a very talented grid, and there are two at the front that seem to be a lot quicker than everyone else. They're extremely talented drivers. So we kind of look from P3 downwards, I think, for me. It's more a little bit more realistic for me, I think, in this first season. But um, yeah, it's a really talented grid, it is quite close. I think the bunch that I'm in really uh realistically kind of P6 to P12, uh it's not a lot in it, really, especially when we get to racing. So um, yeah, anything can happen, and uh yeah, I just got to keep looking forward and hopefully make up some positions in the race.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

It can be difficult to break out of that sort of chasing pack, can't it? Because you're watching your mirrors all the time as well as trying to attack the car in front.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, that's the problem. When everyone's so close, if you try and make a move on someone in front, you tend to lose about three positions at the same time. So uh yeah, you have to be quite tactical, and I tend to try and leave everyone else to it and pick up the pieces almost. So, um yeah, that's usually my tactic, whether it works or not is always uh TBC. But um yeah, it's it's a great championship, and the cars are obviously identical, so that means that it's almost down to a little bit of setup and mostly driver, so that's what we like.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Plenty of racing to do this weekend. I think the weather forecast is that it's going to be kind to us. Um fingers crossed. I mean, there's plenty of opportunity for you for you to improve over the weekend.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

There is. We've uh got a very busy Saturday, so we've got two races remaining after qualifying, so yeah, it's a very busy Saturday, and then just one race on the Sunday. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping that just with more time in the car, obviously, around this track, in fairness, we didn't get much testing done yesterday. It was just red flag city at Croft uh for the Porsches yesterday. So, um yeah, more laps and more confidence, and hopefully uh it will come together.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Have a good weekend.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Thank you very much.