Despite a difficult opening weekend on his return to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, BTC Norlin Racing driver James Nash has taken the positives away from Brands Hatch.
A disappointing qualifying session saw the Milton Keynes based driver line-up near the back of the grid in twenty sixth, this was due to a lack of confidence in pushing his Honda Civic Type R because of a handling imbalance.
Race one saw a lowly seventeenth place finish. However it was race two where he proved how quick he is when the car is set up correctly.
Despite dropping back when conditions changed in the wet-dry race two, James had battled his way up into the top ten until those who had started on the slick tyres charged through to the front. Despite the strong start, a fourteenth placed finish was the result on the road therefore leading to his first points of the year.
Race three was hoped to be a stronger showing for James, however a collision with the Power Maxed TAG Racing Vauxhall Astra of race two winner Senna Proctor ended his race prematurely.
Reflecting on his weekend, James Nash was pleased with how the car evolved over the weekend, “The race results have been disappointing of course but, the most important thing is that we’ve sorted the handling problem that had handicapped us through qualifying and the opening race.
“I’m confident now that we’ll be alright at Donington Park.”
Finally he spoke about his incident with Proctor in race three, “I think we’d have done alright in race 3 but we couldn’t prove it because after Ash Sutton in the Subaru pushed me wide at the final turn it allowed Senna Proctor a run on me into turn 1.
“Unfortunately, Proctor overdid it a bit and the resultant collision ended my race. I don’t blame him for the crash though – these things happen.”
