Firstly, I have to thank everybody who came on Sunday to support us in the Nationwide Motorbase Porsche, the support was absolutely fantastic and meeting everybody was brilliant. Unfortunately we had one of those weekends where it just did not go the way we wanted, I was keen to go out on a high, so it was a real shame to retire from both races.
In qualifying a small issue with the brakes forces us to be out of sync with everybody on the track, and even though I got held up into beckets on the first flying lap I set, this was my fastest! The track in the second run simply did not offer the same performance it had in the first run, the best I could do was be within a tenth of my fastest, which really showed how much higher up we could have qualified. To be 11th and 12th for the races was a real disappointment.
However, this aside I was absolutely ready to take the fight to the guys in front, I held my position off the start in race one, but I really struggled to hold on to Rory Butcher. I was struggling to turn into the corners, and reflecting on the cause of the retirement, I believe the water hose that eventually broke off was leaking on the front tyres. It eventually burst big style going into turn two beckets, forcing me to run very wide as it put coolant on my own tyres, I rejoined in dramatic fashion, only to see warning messages of high temperature on the dash, so I pulled off to avoid any further damage.
After a great job by Gary my mechanic and everyone else at Motorbase to get the car repaired in time for race two, I got a good start and from the word go felt very confident in the car which felt great, I moved from 12th up to 8th position fighting with championship contender Stephen Jelley and Richard Plant, for 6th and 7th position. It was a great battle, however a small mistake from Jelley at Luffield put an end to our challenge as I tagged the back of his car puncturing the radiator. A great shame as the fight with Jelley ended up being for the podium, something I truly believe we could have achieved in that race.
Although Silverstone ended up as a bit of a disaster weekend, I have to reflect on what a great season we have enjoyed in the Porsche Carrera Cup series. From where we started at Oulton Park, to finishing in the top 5 fighting the championship contenders regularly is beyond what I expected to achieve having began the season missing all the pre season tests, and 4 race meetings. We made big chunk improvements every meeting, from Snetterton being so close on pace even round the longest circuit, then Knockhill coming from 11th to 7th in race one.
Highlights of the season for me are the storming drive in race one at Knockhill, it was great to finally get a real feel for moving through the pack in a Carrera Cup car, something I found very difficult at Snetterton.
Qualifying 5th at Rockingham, only 0.2 of pole position, this was especially difficult as I had no data to compare like we did in the final round when Nick Tandy was onboard, to be so close to the pole time was a huge achievement for me. We then followed up with the best result at that point with a very tough 6th position with no front splitter!
Then the race results at Brands Hatch, my favourite circuit in the UK and without doubt the best weekend we enjoyed this year. Moving from 8th to 5th and 6th in both races fighting our way through the field, and avoiding a puncture which was a key factor to the weekend, again I am very proud of these results, especially challenging the champion of 2011 James Sutton throughout the whole of race two.
And although it was a retirement, I had a fantastic race in race two at Silverstone up until we had to pull in with a broken radiator, I really felt great in the car, and making 4 positions up until that point felt great.
Once again, a huge thank you to everybody at Nationwide, Tim Harvey and Motorbase for giving me this huge opportunity, It is a rare opportunity and I absolutely loved every minute of it, and I gave my very best every time I go out on the circuit. I feel that we have enjoyed a great second half of the season, and I feel I have exceeded my expectations. I sincerely hope to be back next year so we can be a winning team of 2012, and put the Nationwide Porsche where it belongs on the top step of the podium.
Kieran Vernon
