Duo Hatch plan to seal second Euro Series win
MOTORSPORT
CHAMPIONSHIP-CHALLENGING GT4 European Series rookies Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha scorched to their second victory of the 2018 season at Brands Hatch on a weekend which looked to have delivered a winning double.
Following a stunning performance in qualifying at the Kent venue - where the HHC Motorsport duo secured pole position for both one-hour contests - a potential victory in the first race was undone following an exasperating time penalty.
Officials deemed their mid-race pit-stop to have been a mere tenth of a second too fast so, instead of celebrating their second victory in three races, the BRDC Rising Stars had to settle for 10th in the Silver Cup in the amended classification in the opening contest.
Undeterred, and maintaining full focus, the 18-year-old Ginetta Driver Development Programme aces bounced back from the disappointment in style in the second encounter to win by a healthy eight seconds.
Ashington-based Middleton said: “We were not sure how the Balance of Performance would affect us going into this weekend.
“They upped it as much as they could after the first round in Zolder and we thought it would be really bad.
“The car was different to drive but we still ended up pretty quick in qualifying, so they gave us another 35kg and we had to add 10mm more to the ride height – that was quite a significant difference.
“We were straight into the first race not knowing what the car would do, it was the heaviest we had driven and highest on ride height too.
“The team did a great job, we were just unlucky in the first race. If we had been a bit more conservative to wait a bit longer we would have lost out to two cars leaving the pits, it was so close.
“It was great to win race two, though, two wins from two weekends is great.”
He added: “When I hopped into the car for the first race I did not know how badly affected the performance would be as I had never driven the car that heavy on ballast and that high on ride height before.
“Straight away at the start of the race I could feel the car was much more of a handful and the handling characteristics had changed - but it did not bother me as I managed to adapt quickly and drive to the potential of the tyres and the car.
“Thankfully, my performance was good enough to hold the lead of the race throughout my stint, conserve the tyres and put us in a good position for the driver-change pit stop.
“The team did everything as they should and Will got in the car and held the lead for the time the race ran.
“It was just really unlucky being one tenth of a second too fast in the pit stop.”
Middleton went on: “In the second race I was determined to make up for our unfortunate penalty from the first race.
“Will did a good job keeping us up at the front end of the grid and when it was time for me to jump in the car the team managed to get me out in good position and I was not too far from the race leader.
“The tyres felt like they had enough life left in them so I made every bit of pace left count and hunted down the lead Mercedes.
“I then made a move and secured the lead and, from then, I managed the tyres and the gap to P2 and drove the car home for the win.
“It was another really run weekend and I am really enjoying the challenge of the GT4 European Series.
“I cannot thank the team and Will enough for doing an amazing job with everything as always.”
Misano in Italy is the in-form pair’s next destination on the 2018 GT4 European Series calendar, the third event of the season taking place on June 23 and 24.