I had no pressure on me or nothing to lose coming into the final round at Brands, just to do the best I can. So I was looking forward to a strong race, wanting to be up there and to forget about the rest of the season. We got there on Wednesday and got set up quicker than usual, so we just relaxed waiting to get in the car. Talk around the paddock though, of course was about beating ‘The Stig’!

Round Brands Indy circuit the racing’s always so close so everyone’s fighting for a few tenths where they can find them, it can really move you up the grid. In FP1, I finished in seventh but there was nothing in it – three hundredths of a second faster would have put me up to third – so the hope was to keep going like that into qualifying. I couldn’t fault the car, the set up was great, but we just needed to find a bit more straight-line speed. As fifth gear wasn’t revving all the way out, the team lowered the gear ratio hoping that at the end of the straight the car would be pulling higher rpm’s and be faster.

She did go quicker in FP2 but only by a tenth! We’d put new tyres on the front as well, but it was just not how we wanted it at all, the feeling of the car was all wrong. Because the data suggested that we’d have more pace with this set up, we made the changes, but I just wasn’t getting the benefit of what the computer said we should get. So it was back to the set-up from the first session to see what we could do from there in qualifying!

Our saying this season has been “tomorrow’s another day” and after qualifying we had to say it again! I ended the session in twelfth! It was just tiny areas we needed to improve on, but we just couldn’t make any progress. The rubber that the G50’s put down didn’t help and although everyone’s times appeared to be down, our car seemed to suffer more than others. Still lap times were tight and we were within half a second of pole, so there were positives to be had!

At Brands you start downhill and you’ve got to use your brake-lock and let it go as soon as the lights change and in race one I had one of the worst starts I’ve had in a long time! But I maintained position and went on the charge battling with Jordan and Kane for tenth. I had a bit of a hairy moment though on lap five when Jordan went slightly wide on the run in to Paddock Hill bend and I tried to squeeze through the gap and bounced hard off the curb!
With Onslow-Cole and Jackson going off I moved up in to tenth, but Kane was attacking me on every lap and he punted me several times at Druids. I had to defend and go off the racing line every time and because of that I was slowing and losing touch with the group in front. I did get more of a breather towards the end and so I wished we could have more laps, but we were pleased to be in the top-ten.

I wasn’t happy after race two though! The plan was to give it all, and I had a great start moving up to eighth behind Nash. But he was holding me up and I had Jackson and Kane right behind. Jackson then shunted me wide at Druids and both he and Kane went past putting me back in tenth.

The car was damaged so I was fighting to control it which allowed Collins to catch up. Then about 4 laps to go, he’s got a run out of Druids going down Graham Hill and he’s gone full-pelt into the back of me pushing me straight on to the grass causing more damage and dropping me down to thirteenth. I was not impressed! Yeah, it’s supposed to be close racing but not stock cars!

Race three and more BMW-inflicted damage! I got another cracking start, moving past Nash off the line and right into the mix. The car was spot on! Then in front of me, still on the first lap, Andy Neate went wide and lost his back end. I managed to get on the inside but he closed the door and we just touched wheels and that was it, game over. But that’s where lack of a strong chassis shows in the SEAT. It has a good fast chassis but the suspension line is weak compared to most of the other cars on the grid. It broke a very small part, but it was tying the whole angle of the back wheel in position, so with effectively only three wheels I wasn’t going to get much further and I was lucky to get back to the pits. It was a really disappointing way to end the race and the season!

The whole season’s been up and down really. We went through a difficult patch in the middle part of the season, but since then, Donington and here, over the course of both weekends we’ve shown really good front-running pace in free practice, qualifying and the race, so from that point of view it’s been good. Results just haven’t gone our way.

The team have been amazing though. We’ve got a great atmosphere and everyone gelled and really pulled together through everything thrown at them. So I want to say a big thank you to them and to the sponsors for sticking with us.

We’ve also had some great coverage and built up loads of support this season from the blogs. So huge thanks to BTCCCrazy for offering us the chance to give you a behind-the-scenes look at Special Tuning UK. And many thanks to everyone who’s cheered us on each round. Your support has been fantastic!
So that’s it – 2010 done! I keep being asked where I’m going to be next year – all I can say is that I’d love to be in this car with a proper competitive engine, with the same horsepower as everyone else, and where I can feel we can qualify on the front-row in each race. With this team behind us I’m confident though that we’ll be in the BTCC next year and that we can run two cars competitively next year.

Tom #22

Photo Credit: Andy Champness

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.