Goblin Racing was again down to one car for the weekend at Brands Hatch with Martyn taking to the wheel of the Vento.
The team were apprehensive as the engine had only finished being rebuilt on the Wednesday and the car setup on the Thursday.
During the engine rebuild some detonation was identified in cylinder 1 & 3 of the VR6 engine and this was identified as a fault
within the ECU. A new ECU was ordered but this would not arrive in time so the team choose to play safe and detune the engine to
preserve the engine. This meant Martyn would be down 20/30bhp.
Martyn chose to qualify on old slick tyres saving the new slicks for race 1. Martyn was first out on track but had to be careful
initially as a car in previous session had dropped fluid causing lots of cars to go off and until the fluid dried it compromised the
racing line. Being first on track Martyn had space to put in some good laps giving him 5th in race 1 and 4th in race 2. Consistency
is the name in qualifying with the quickest time setting the grid for race 1 and the 2nd time setting the grid for race 2.
Starting 5th on the grid Martyn made a good start but on the 2nd lap it almost went horribly wrong as the back of the car got loose round
Paddock Hill Bend pointing him towards the inside of the track rather than the direction he needed to go. Martyn kept his nerve and kept it
together without losing a place. There was no catching the cars in front as they have a lot more pace due to engine and tyres. Martyn then
made a mistake trying to catch the leaders as not being able to catch them doesn't mean you don’t try. This caused Martyn to go off at Clearways
but he kept it together to maintain his place in the race.
It did mean for the remainder of the race Martyn had to defend his place as going off allowed the other cars to catch him.
He managed this achieving a good result.
Starting 4th Martyn hoped for a better result. He made a good start however Lloyd Allard in the TDI mk4 Golf made a very optimistic lunge
which if Martyn had closed the door would have resulted in contact and potentially ended his race. He decided to let Lloyd past but as Lloyd
had been too quick he slid sideways causing Martyn to have to ease letting through another 2 cars. For the remainder of the race Martyn battled
Lloyd swapping places every lap once the 2 cars got past Lloyd. It was a very good race with Martyn winning out taking 6th on the final lap in front of Lloyd.
Preparations are under way to repair the Beetle from last year and focus is on the Vento to see if we can get some Dunlop tyres as this is thought
to be worth 1 second a lap which should help Martyn get close to the front. In addition the Vento will be fitted with a new ECU giving the Vento the
power it needs to challenge at the front of the race.
