Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan has praised the “phenomenal” work by the team to repair his heavily damaged Mercedes A-Class in time to secure two strong points finishes at Donington Park.
The seven-time BTCC race winner lined up 14th for the opening contest but was involved in a heavy accident on the opening lap as he was unsighted at the Old Hairpin, t-boning the side of Andrew Jordan’s sideways BMW and causing severe damage to both cars.
Jordan was subsequently hospitalised and ruled out of the remaining races, while Morgan’s Mercedes required a full front end change as a result of the accident.
Morgan acknowledged that qualifying has been a weak point so far in 2019, but felt he was a victim of the ever-changing conditions on Saturday at the Leicestershire circuit.
With lap times improving in the final third, Morgan stayed out on used tyres instead of opting for fresh rubber, and paid the price, missing the “slot” for optimum times.
“It wasn’t to be, it was just one of those things, you can’t predict it,” explained Morgan. “It just dried up at that point, and we missed the best slot to get a time in.
“So it left us down in 14th and when you’re in that midfield, the chances of getting caught up in a crash like we did in race one are higher, so that’s what happened.
“But there’s nothing you can do, it’s just one of those things. We’ve got to take the points that we’ve got and move on to Thruxton.”
Heading to the Hampshire circuit, Morgan feels buoyed by the promise shown at the test day prior to the Donington round, in which he posted the eighth-quickest time of the day.
“We went well there in testing, we came away with P8. We were carrying weight as well, so that’s encouraging,” he said.
“The weight we were carrying, we’ll be carrying much less when we go there in a couple of weeks, so that’s even more encouraging.
“Let’s look forward, let’s hold our heads up and move forward to that. Hopefully we’ll have three good races and some good points.”