Kentish Express Ashford & District
Swaffer inches his way clear
Motorsport
Matt Swaffer heads to Thruxton on Saturday week for the Toyo Tires BMW Production Class season finale with a two-point advantage over title rival Will Davison.
The two drivers had gone into the penultimate round at Silverstone on Sunday level on points but while the Newingreen driver finished first and second, Davison had a third and first, meaning there is still all to play for, ahead of Swaffer’s first ever drive at the Andover circuit.
The venue could give Davison an advantage as he lives just around the corner. However, Swaffer plans to learn quickly, booking himself a drive with an instructor next Friday, followed by a 30-minute test session before qualifying the following day.
The drivers were locked on 482 points at the start of the weekend ahead of this extra race, which the Swaffers planned to miss, before finding out it counted towards the championship.
Drivers are able to drop their three poorest results, allowing Davison the chance to move level in the standings.
It also meant that Davison was now the man to beat, rather than Harry Goodman, who the Swaffers had previously targeted as their main rival.
Dad and race engineer Roger said: “We went to Silverstone with a totally different attitude and talked about it all the way up there.
“We tested all day on Friday which went well and it couldn’t have been better, making small tweaks to the car, with Matt claiming his first ever pole position by 0.4 of a second over Will.”
Swaffer Snr hailed Matt’s second drive as his best performance in six years competing in the championship.
Roger added: “Matt made a good start and refused to give Will any chances, before they swopped places for 20 minutes.
“Goodman and David Graves also got involved and it was door-die stuff, which was exciting and the track commentator loved it.”
Swaffer had got another good start in the opening race, with Davison dropping to eighth at one stage.
“That meant Matt’s task was to just control the race, which proved a piece of cake and he had no problems,” said Roger.