Survive challenging Donning weekend

The WIX Racing team survived challenging conditions on track to secure a brace of points finishes from the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.

Having shown his speed at Donington Park last season, where he broke the race lap record, Adam headed into the weekend in a confident mood and looked set to put himself at the sharp end of the grid for Sunday’s three races with a starring performance in Saturday’s all-important qualifying session.

Lapping below the previous qualifying lap record, Adam was set to line up fifth on the grid before his car failed a mid-session ride-height test, which resulted in all of his times up to that point being removed. Although able to rectify the issue before the session ended, Adam on cold tyres and with only 4 minutes remaining, managed to put his car half way up the field in 17th with his only available ‘flying lap’.

Rain on race morning provided Adam with an added challenge on track with it marking his first opportunity to race the new Mercedes in the wet. A solid start saw him quickly move forwards into the points despite the tracking being knocked askew on his car, although his hopes of bringing home a top 15 finish would end when he was forced off across the gravel at the final chicane mid-way through the race; dropping down to 19th before fighting his way back to 16th at the finish.

A tough start to race two saw Adam lose places off the line before he was lucky to avoid collecting the spinning VW of Alain Menu on the exit of the Old Hairpin and being one of three drivers forced to jump on the brakes when the Swiss racer suddenly appeared in front of him on track.

In a race that saw two Safety Car periods, Adam battled his way up to 14th place at the finish. Morgan was struggling to get the best out of the A-Class in the tricky conditions.

Race three finally provided the chance for some dry race action, with the entire field lining up on the soft compound Dunlop rubber. A storming opening lap saw Adam jump up to eighth spot and he would climb as high as sixth with a series of impressively quick laps.

However, unfortunate contact while battling for position with the BMW of Nick Foster would damage the exhaust on the Mercedes and saw him lose pace in the closing stages, although he was still able to bring the car to the finish in tenth spot to give the WIX Racing team its fourth top ten result in six races this season.

Following Donington Park, Adam sits eleventh in the championship standings, with WIX Racing seventh and best placed of the single-car teams in the HiQ Teams’ Championship.

Adam Morgan – Driver:

“It’s not been the greatest weekend for us when you look at the results, but we haven’t done much running in the kind of conditions we faced in the first two races and struggled to get the right set-up on the car. However, the data we collected from those two races has now given us something we can work with moving forwards.

“The final race gave us more of a chance to show our pace and it was unfortunate that the exhaust damage cost us the opportunity to finish higher than we did in the closing stages. However, the speed we had shown in the dry until that point is the real positive for us to take away from the weekend and it’s good that we were able to finish the weekend with a top ten finish.”

Paul Ridgway – Chief Engineer:

“We showed strong pace in the dry conditions and the result we picked up in race three was good considering the damage that Adam picked up to the exhaust which affected the performance of the car towards the end”.

“What we have seen this weekend is that we need to work on getting the car hooked up in the wet. With a new car, our focus has been on making sure it works in dry conditions and we just need more time to get a good wet set-up that will allow us to unlock the potential in the Mercedes when the conditions aren’t as favourable on track.”

Norman Burgess- Commercial and Marketing Manager:

“Another brilliant weekend for the WIX Racing Team, both on and off the track. Adam is driving flawlessly and we couldn’t ask anymore of him. The engineering team are doing a fantastic job with the new car. To be hanging around the top 10 after 6 races is an outstanding achievement. We are really proud of our entire team, everything is coming together and our day will come”.

“The WIX Racing Teams sponsors are more than happy with the progress and development of the car, the hospitality suite is running like a well-oiled machine and we are all looking forward to Thruxton in two weeks”.