Encouraging weekend for driver Kerry
IPSWICH driver Rick Kerry finished his first year in the British Touring Car Champion-ship with an encouraging weekend at Thruxton. Kerry took his AFM Racing- prepared BMW 120D to the ultra-fast Hampshire circuit after making several changes to the cars set up in pre-race testing and was hoping for a solid performance.
IPSWICH driver Rick Kerry finished his first year in the British Touring Car Champion-ship with an encouraging weekend at Thruxton.
Kerry took his AFM Racing- prepared BMW 120D to the ultra-fast Hampshire circuit after making several changes to the cars set up in pre-race testing and was hoping for a solid performance.
The Thruxton circuit is the fastest in the country and after the first practice session the team were pleased with the progress.
However, transmission problems in the second session meant the car was unable to get any track time in and failed to post a qualifying time as the team worked to solve the problem overnight.
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Starting from the back of the grid for Sunday's race one, Kerry made a good start and soon found himself among the action as several of the cars ahead made contact.
On lap three the car slowed with an electrical fault and Kerry pulled into the pits. The first race was won by Vauxhall's Frabrizio Giovan-ardi who went on to win the championship from Seat's Jason Plato.
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The AFM crew again pulled things around and the car was ready for race two. Starting again from the back of the grid, Kerry made another strong start and made up places through the complex of right and left corners on the airfield circuit.
With the crew watching with everything crossed, Kerry brought the car home in a creditable 15th place ahead of some big names with bigger budgets.
Race three saw Kerry starting from the eighth row and an early battle with the MG of Fiona Leggate and the BMW of Martin Bell gave the fans something to cheer about, but the Thruxton circuit is hard on tyres and Kerry had to drop off the pace as the car was moving about on the worn rubber. He eventually finished 19th but was pleased the technical issues were overcome.
Team AFM racing was only formed in February of this year and for a small team of part-timers the results this year have been encouraging. Further details about them are at www.teamafmracing .com
