After a very up and down weekend in Austria whilst still  in the championship, Tom and his Racing One team looked for a better weekend in Zandvoort for the 3round of the ADAC GT4 Series.

The weekend was set to be that of mixed conditions with FP1 having a sprinkling of rain 5mins into the session. Tom showed great pace and went to the top of the time sheets in the tricky conditions. As the track dried out the team put slick tyres on and Tom’s co-driver Euan put in a great time putting the pair P4 in the dry.

FP2 was a mixed session with the track being slippery to start with but again drying out. The pair had troubles with the brakes so the session was short lived to ensure the team could sort the problem for the following day.

Qualifying for both Tom and Euan proved tricky. Euan’s session was dry but with sand from the nearby beach on the circuit for the first couple of laps, he found it hard to put a time on the board with the pair ending P10 for Race 1.

Tom’s qualifying was the following morning just when the rain was due. He bravely went out on dry tyres and tried to build the temperature in the cold conditions. Tom set about going for a lap at the end of the session. In the first sector he went purple and set the fastest sector time of anybody. As he went up the hill to the super quick Turn 6, spots of rain started falling and as he turned in the track was like ice and he skated off into the gravel. Not setting a competitive time, Tom ended up P15; he comments “I had to keep pushing and take the risk that it was going to be slippery. If I didn’t then it would’ve sealed our fait and we would be at the back”.

Race 1 once again was set to be full of challenges. Euan made a great start and held his position through the first couple of corners. Into Turn 3 he got boxed in and dropped behind the Allied Racing Porsche and the Dorr Aston Martin. With Zandvoort being one of the hardest circuits to overtake on, Euan found it difficult to make any progress and stayed in P12 until the changeover. At the pitstops the rain really fell and as Tom went out he fought to find the grip on his slick tyres. The rain was so heavy that the organisers decided to Red flag the race, meaning the teams could change tyres without any unfair gain. Unfortunately the team found out that Tom’s minimum pitstop time was just 0.2 seconds too fast meaning he `was to serve a long lap penalty, dropping him to the back of the field. In the wet conditions Tom battled hard and picked up a few positions before the finish placing the pair in a disappointing P21.

Race 2 on Sunday was set to be dry and still, making life a lot easier for the teams to set the cars up for conditions. Tom was to start and he did so with great race craft and patience. Through his stint he picked up 5 positions, battling the straight-line strong Porsches in the process. Still saving the tyres and setting storming laps, Tom stayed out and overcut 2 more cars putting the Number 6 car up to P8 overall. At the changeover, the pitstop was perfect and Euan re-joined the race in P8. He battled the number 85 Mercedes right to the end and managed to bravely keep position at the flag.

Tom’s comments “not the weekend we wanted but we are still fighting. Thank you so much to the team for all their hard work they have put In over the last 3 days, it means so much. I’m very much looking forward to my teams home race next timeout at the infamous Nürburgring GP circuit.”

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