JACK HAWKSWORTH BLOG #5: I’m Over-The-Moon With My First Victory
Well, as I’m sure you’ll know if you’ve been following my season, I managed to get my first win in the Formula Renault UK Championship in the latest meeting at Croft!
First of all, I should start by telling you that I changed teams between Oulton Park and Croft – moving from Mark Burdett Motorsport to Atech Reid GP. I don’t want to go into too much detail about why, but I’d just like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone at Mark Burdett Motorsport for all of their support and the superb job they did for me during the 2010 Winter Series and the first half of this season.
It was obviously a bit hectic in the build-up to the race weekend with sorting everything out and meeting all of my new team, but I was impressed with the way the guys worked and was looking forward to getting on with it!
Friday went as to be expected as we ironed out the little issues you’re always going to have when you run a car for the first time in a while. We worked well, though, and I was looking forward to Saturday – when we woke up to a very wet Croft.
With the rain persisting, it meant qualifying one would be run on wet tyres, but I had a fantastic car underneath me and was able to put it to good use and take my first pole position of the season by three tenths of a second on my Atech Reid GP debut – a great feeling! Qualifying two was dry with some light rain, but a few issues scuppered another strong result and I only managed sixth.
Unusually, we had the first race of the weekend on the Saturday afternoon rather than the Sunday morning. This time the track was bone dry. I made a good start to hold my advantage, the car was working well and I was able to open up a small gap initially, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.
Towards the end, I began to pick up some understeer and this allowed my team-mate Tio Ellinas to put some pressure on me. He kept me honest right the way to the chequered flag, but I hung on to pick up my maiden Formula Renault UK win in my rookie car racing season. A brilliant debut and a great day for me and the Atech Reid GP team, who did an awesome job!
Race two on Sunday wasn’t to be, though, as after fighting my way up from sixth to third in tricky conditions, I made a small mistake at the chicane and damaged my car. Unfortunately, that was game over on the spot.
Despite losing a lot of points in race two, I was still over-the-moon to have achieved my first win since leaving karting, and I am now more focussed than ever to try to go on and win at least another five or six before the end of the season. I have a few tracks coming up that I love, and I’m confident I can carry my form from Oulton Park and Croft over to them, too.
A big ‘thank you’ to the whole Atech Reid GP team for all of their support and the great car they put at my disposal. Can’t wait for Snetterton!
Jack Hawksworth
To keep up-to-date with Jack’s latest career news and results, please visit: www.jackhawksworth.co.uk
Photo: Jakob Ebrey
Mike Trusler
