GoMobileUK.com with Tech-Speed Motorsport are hoping for improved fortune at Croft this weekend. Both Paul O’Neill and John George are confident ahead of the three races on Sunday as a result of the team continuing to improve the car, which is new to both team and drivers for 2011.
A difficult weekend last time out saw O’Neill finish in the points just once before crashing heavily in the final race of the day at Oulton Park. This time around O’Neill believes he can score strongly, citing the improved pace shown in the dry on Saturday at Oulton.
“We should be encouraged by the pace we showed in practice and qualifying at Oulton Park and on paper, we should be on for good weekend at Croft as the car is now working really well,” said O’Neill. “The guys at Tech-Speed worked really hard on making improvements to the car before Oulton Park and have worked really hard since then to repair the damage from the final race, but things are starting to fall into place.”
O’Neill is confident of being able to mix it competitively with the turbo cars this weekend, despite fellow Chevrolet racer Jason Plato still believing they have an unfair advantage. There have been further changes to the turbo cars ahead of this weekend, which sees them face another 0.05 bar reduction in turbo pressure, whilst the suspended 0.05 bar reduction announced before Oulton Park also remains in place to be implemented at any time, should the championship organisers see fit.
Added O’Neill: “There is one turbo team in particular that we know will be really quick, but at Oulton Park we were able to mix it with the others, and our aim for Croft has to be to do that again and come away from the weekend with a solid haul of points. I’d like to think that we can be amongst the top scoring teams.”
John George, who failed to finish any of the races last time out at Oulton Park, will be hoping for some stronger results this weekend. At Oulton Park he set a qualifying lap time some 7 tenths quicker than last year – showing that he is getting to grips with the new Chevrolet Cruze and still improving.
“Croft is a circuit I love, but it’s also a bit of power circuit so we need to see how we do against the turbo cars,” said George, 50. “It’s difficult to tell before we get on track on Saturday. However I’m going to Croft in confident mood given the way my own performances have gone.
“Even though I had a problem in qualifying at Oulton Park last time out, I managed to post a much quicker than I did last season. Hopefully I can do similar at Croft and continue to improve my times.”