Aiden Moffat believes that the Mercedes A-Class will handle success ballast well in race two at Donington Park after picking up a maiden Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship win in the opening race of the day.
The Laser Tools Racing driver made his way from fourth on the grid to the front within the opening five laps of the day’s first 16-lapper, passing Tom Ingram‘s Toyota Avensis exiting Redgate.
Moffat was unchallenged from then on his way to a first BTCC victory on his 97th start, the 20-year-old beating Matt Neal by 1.5s at the flag.
“Getting a win this year was always the main aim”, Moffat told The Checkered Flag afterwards. “We thought we had the pace to get on the podium, but to make our way to the front and get away was certainly unexpected.
“Obviously [Ingram] had a lot of weight on the car and the harder choice of tyres, so I knew that he would defend a lot. I got past him and sure enough he defended quite hard so I could get a bit of a gap.
“It was about managing the car and the tyres until the end to try and hang on. Thankfully it played out perfectly which makes a change because usually something always manages to go wrong!”
Turning his attention to race two of the day, the Scot added that he is confident in the pace of the Mercedes A-Class with the burden of an additional 75kg success ballast on board.
“We’ve tested with ballast”, he added. “Not quite the full amount, but we’ve tested enough and the car does feel quite good with it.
“It’ll be interesting to see it in practice in a race though. It’s certainly not going to be easy, but I’m sure we’ll have enough so I just need to focus on defending.”
Photo: BTCC Media
