Adam Morgan hailed a fantastic start as a key moment in clinching his third ever Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race victory last weekend at Brands Hatch.
The Ciceley Motorsport driver enjoyed a weekend of consistency inside the top 10, rounding off the day in emphatic style with a hard-fought reverse-grid race triumph.
A rapid start by the Mercedes A-Class from the front row of the grid kept him on the tail of West Surrey Racing‘s Sam Tordoff, before Morgan made the decisive lunge at Paddock Hill Bend on lap two to grab a lead he failed to surrender, despite late pressure from Tordoff and Jack Goff.
The getaway was one that Morgan later dubbed the most crucial of the weekend, telling The Checkered Flag: “I think it was best start I’ve had all weekend.
“I was hoping I’d end up third going into turn one, but I managed to just get ahead of Jack and attack Sam.
“We knew it was going to be a bit of a mix up with new cars, new drivers and new engines. We knew we had a fairly strong package. That last race, especially on soft tyres, we knew the BMW’s would come on strong at the end, but we set the car up quite conservatively and looked after the tyres pretty well.”
Another key moment of the race was a break of 1.5s made by Morgan on the restart, allowing for breathing space over his rear-wheel drive rivals before their attack came in the final six laps of the race.
“Just getting that little break from the safety car start just gave me enough laps to hang on at the end without Sam [Tordoff] really, really hassling me”, added Morgan. “Absolutely chuffed to bits.
“The second-to-last lap I kind of backed up Sam quite a bit to give Jack [Goff] a chance to get Sam, which gave me that vital bit of breathing space. I still needed to defend pretty heavily into the last corner though.”
Coupled with results of ninth and eighth earlier in the day, Morgan ended the opening meeting third in the championship and just six points adrift of series leader, Matt Neal.
“It’s amazing”, he concluded. “A win in the first round of the year is unbelievable.”
