Tech-Speed Chevrolet racer Paul O’Neill has not ruled out taking a win this season – despite having a difficult start ot the season so far. After the long six-week break the team are treating the second half of the season as a ‘fresh start’ and are eyeing podiums and points finishes from now on.
“After a tough start to the season, Snetterton marks a fresh start for us,” said O’Neill. “Our season really starts now and it isn’t about points and the championship standings; it’s all about going out on track and doing the best we can to challenge for podium finishes and a race win.
“I’m sure that we get ourselves onto the podium again this season and if circumstances go our way, then we can certainly win a race. The tweaks we made to the car at Croft worked well although we didn’t reap the benefits of it and I’m sure we’ll show what we can do this weekend at Snetterton.
“The circuit has changed a lot ahead of this season and I’m not sure what impact the changes will have until we get on track for practice. However, the Chevrolet is a good chassis and we should be strong through the corners to make up for any straight-line deficit to the turbo cars. We should be right in the battle towards the front and I’m really up for the fight.”
John George is hoping to be in the right place at the right time to capitalise on the potential mistakes of others and secure his first points finish of the season – with his strongest result to-date being an 11th-placed finish at Donington Park.
“I like Snetterton as a circuit but we need to wait and see what impact the latest turbo revisions have as the stop-start nature of the new layout is likely to play to help the turbo cars,” Said Guernseyman George. “Tech-Speed continue to work hard to give us a good car and I have to aim to close the gap to the turbo cars this weekend. If I can get the gap to the overall pace down to between 1-1.5 seconds then I think that would be good progress.
“The changes to the circuit have created more chances for incidents to happen and if they do, I have to try and make sure that I take advantage. I’ve not had time to check the weather forecast yet, but if it happens to rain then I think things could get very interesting!”
Tech-Speed team boss Marvin Humphries bemoaned the team’s lack of luck so far this year – and he highlighted how important it is to be inside the top ten to benefit from a reverse grid for the final race of the day.
“I’d like to think we’ll have more luck this weekend at Snetterton than we’ve had so far this season,” he added. “The new look circuit is one that should be okay for us and the weather forecast is suggesting that there could be some rain which will also equalise things a little bit between the normally aspirated and turbo cars.
“We’ve had the chance to regroup over the summer break and plan to come out fighting for the second half of the season. There is no reason why we can’t push towards the top six in the races and what we need to do is avoid any incidents in race one and race two as that opens up the possibility of benefitting from the reverse grid in race three.
“That happened quite a bit last season but so far this year the luck hasn’t been on our side. However, what is done is done, and we have to now focus on performing strongly through the second half of the year.”