David Pinkney will start in a disappointing 14th place for tomorrow’s opening BTCC race, after the sudden downpour before qualifying left him little time to prepare an adequate wet weather strategy.
“We'd got a good set-up for the dry and went out at the start of the session on slicks, but it was too wet and we had to come in and switch to wets,” he said. “We made changes to the car, but didn't get the setting right and the car was difficult to drive with the rain coming down. It also didn't help that my windscreen wiper failed, so it was tricky to see where I was going as the rain got heavier.”
Despite his low starting position, Pinkney is still convinced his race pace will be enough to deliver a good result tomorrow.
“I think we'll be okay on race day as the car is good. We know where we went wrong with the set-up when it rained and we know we have a good set-up for tomorrow whether it's dry or wet; it'll just be a case of battling past people.”
Team manager Andrew Dean echoed his driver’s thoughts, and even with today’s setbacks thinks Pinkney can do well on race day.
“It's a bit disappointing to be honest,” he said. “We got caught out by the conditions, although I don't think we were the only ones. We went for a banker on slicks at the start but it was too wet and then didn't get a full wet setting on the car. P14 is about all we could expect in the circumstances, which is a shame after the way we went in free practice.
“We've worked on the car during the summer break and gone more towards our own settings and they worked in practice; we just weren't able to capitalise in qualifying. But we have a good car to take into race day whether it is wet or dry.”